Measuring the Full Picture w/ Brian Ralph | Ep. 216

In this episode of Biz/Dev, we talk with Brian Ralph, leadership advisor, executive coach, and founder of Brian Ralph Leadership, about what it actually takes to lead organizations through change and complexity.

Brian brings a background that spans higher education, corporate leadership, and deep involvement in the Raleigh business and nonprofit community. His work focuses on helping leaders get clear on where they’re going, how they make decisions, and how teams actually move forward together.

We get into why strategy often breaks down inside organizations, how leaders can better navigate competing priorities, and what it takes to create alignment that actually drives results.

Along the way, we also talk about executive coaching, building stronger teams, and why the best leaders stay close to the real challenges inside their organizations while still pushing toward long-term growth.

Brian on LinkedIn

Brian Ralph LLC on LinkedIn

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David Baxter has been designing, building, and advising startups and businesses for over ten years. His passion, knowledge, and brutal honesty have helped dozens of companies get their start.

In Biz/Dev, David and award-winning Creative Director Gary Voigt talk about current events and how they affect the world of startups, entrepreneurship, software development, and culture.

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Transcript

[00:00:03] David: Hi everyone, welcome to the Biz Dev Podcast, the podcast about developing your business. I'm David Baxter, your host, joined Per Usual by Mr. Gary Voight. How's it going,

[00:00:11] Gary: Hello? Hello. It is going pretty good. How you doing?

[00:00:13] David: I can't complain. Today we are joined by Brian Ralph, who is the founder and CEO of Brian Ralph. So that's fun. We'll get

[00:00:23] Gary: Where did you come up with that name? 

[00:00:25] David: So creative. 

[00:00:28] Gary: I'm just joking. When I was freelancing, the name of my business was Gary Vo, LLC, 

[00:00:33] David: Yep. And he had a little cutesy logo with a G and a V all mixed. You guys are two peas in the pods. It's been so beautiful. So welcome Brian. Thank you for joining us.

[00:00:44] Brian: to be here. Appreciate the opportunity.

[00:00:46] David: So we'd like to start out with some quick fire questions, ways to get to know you a little bit more.

[00:00:52] Brian: Okay.

[00:00:52] David: So background music or total silence when you work.

[00:00:58] Brian: Total silence,

[00:00:59] David: Okay.

Can't, don't like the distractions of the the stuff.

[00:01:04] Brian: I guess, and I like music a lot, so I think if I have music, I end up focusing more on the music and not thinking 

[00:01:10] David: Totally

[00:01:11] Brian: might be a

one potential alternative to

[00:01:13] Gary: I was gonna say pro tip is find either on YouTube or Apple Music or whatever, a playlist that's just like a conglomerate of Han Zimmer musical scores, or they interstellar with no lyrics. Or even there's one for like music from severance with no lyrics and as long as you're not focused on the lyrics or whatever it's pretty 

[00:01:32] Brian: Yeah. 

[00:01:32] Gary: music.

[00:01:33] David: Another pro tip is to listen to music. No one cares about like nineties rap.

[00:01:37] Gary: That's funny you say no one cares about, and it's literally the most popular genre of music on the 

[00:01:42] David: I was just a rile. Gary up did it. He just fell right into that. Come on. That was a gift. Alright. Streaming platform of choice.

[00:01:51] Brian: Probably Netflix.

[00:01:52] David: Netflix. Do you have a favorite show that you go to?

[00:01:55] Brian: Gosh, it could be prime. We are my wife and I love to binge on British procedural crime shows. But

[00:02:02] David: So you're saying Bridger, that's that what I'm hearing. I'm 

[00:02:04] Brian: No. Little

darker. Yeah, a little darker than that. But yeah probably

Netflix though is our go-to.

[00:02:10] David: That's fair. Currently I'm watching billions which is on paramount.

That show is, that's it. Intense. That's an

[00:02:18] Gary: Brian, are you a fan of Peaky Blinders.

[00:02:21] Brian: I'm not,

[00:02:22] David: Oh, isn't that? done that? That's a British crime 

[00:02:25] Brian: it?

is. Yeah. I've

not 

[00:02:26] Gary: British slash Irish mafia crime conglomerate. Yeah.

[00:02:30] Brian: All right. Yep. I've heard good things about it. Just haven't watched it.

[00:02:33] David: Favorite new piece of tech gear.

[00:02:36] Gary: I.

Whether you have it 

[00:02:38] Brian: lame. It's a really lame thing,

[00:02:40] David: I love it. Lame means niche. I'm ready.

[00:02:42] Brian: yeah. I'm using an app on my phone to track my fitness goals and it's just this, but I only have a functional cable machine at the house, and it's one of the few of 'em that have at least 30 or 40 just cable machine workouts. It's called Strong.

It's like free.

It's super cheap, but it's great. Just track my progress, so 

[00:02:59] David: Nice.

So tell me about your illustratively named Brian Ralph.

[00:03:06] Brian: Yes. And what Gary mentioned, I found that as I started this 16 months ago I really felt like I could go one or two directions. I could pick a fund name that I had been thinking about for a while, but when I was thinking about how to build the business quickly my name was probably gonna be the best way to build on the network that I had been established over the last 30 years.

And so that was that was the, really riveting science behind it. And yeah, and so it really built out kind of a three legged stool for my practice focusing on strategy consulting, executive coaching, and then some fractional interim leadership. And the consulting work I do I spent 31 years in higher ed but I also have done a lot of board work and work with some nonprofits.

And so while about three quarters of my work is in the educational space, I also have a lot of or a handful of corporate and nonprofit clients as well.

[00:03:51] David: So I actually really, I'm gonna give you kudos here. I was giving you grief about your name. 'cause most people and there might be some of this, but most people choose it purely out of ego. Because, and I say that they do it because they're not well known, right? I'm just starting my law firm, for instance, so I'm gonna name it Joe Smith, l law. And it's because they think they're going to build a name. I love the fact that yours came because you already had one. That's very cool. And it's the only correct way to name it after yourself, in my opinion. So kudos. That's very cool. So

I believe I've met you. 

[00:04:30] Brian: Yep. 

[00:04:30] David: I met you right before you at the chamber meeting, right before you left your last university job.

Because I believe, and the reason why I think it, it's sticking out to me is I think you got a, call out from the stage of whatever the event was because you were just about to retire from that after doing it for 10 years. And so that's why I was like, when I saw your name and I saw your LinkedIn profile, I was like, I'm pretty sure I met him right before he left that school. I'd be remiss if I didn't ask you about your higher ed education. 'cause I don't think I have ever met another person. No, I've met one other. Who was led a university I met the head of Shaw University at an event one time, and she was amazing. That's a really rarefied error and that should not be glossed over. What is it like to run a university?

[00:05:18] Brian: First and foremost, it's privilege. To have the opportunity to lead an organization forward that whose sole mission is just to impact lives and help, students grow and help faculty and staff to have a enriching and, flourishing life in the world of academia. It's a real privilege to be able to do it.

And at the same time, obviously it's also a really hard job. You've probably seen some of the. Headline from New York Times over the years that they've called the, college or university presidency, the hardest job in the United States. I'm not sure I agree with that, but it's not easy. It's it's a lot of fun.

It's very life-giving, especially just the chance to be around students and watching 'em grow and develop right in front of you and being able to develop quality relationships and pour into them. It's also really cool to be leading an organization that also can impact the community in which it operates, and so for when I was at Wayne Peace University for. Over nine years, we really had the opportunity to make a difference in Raleigh and beyond, whether it was through a lot of our new academic programs or obviously producing some terrific graduates internship programs and things like that.

We're all ways that we're able to, enhance the community and through that role. And I also had the privilege of being able, involved in the lot community leadership, whether it was through the Chamber of Commerce or also through. Downtown Raleigh Alliance and the YMCA boards, et cetera. So it's it's a real great privilege and it's it's also a very challenging time to be a leader in higher education.

As there's a lot of changes happening at the federal level that are making higher ed a lot more complicated to lead. And the reality is that the world in which we operate is just students and faculty and staff are all dealing with very challenging environment. I had the privilege and the challenge of leading our university through the pandemic from, from 20 to 24 when I finished up. You get to learn pretty quickly, what kind of folks your community is made of at a college, university, and I could not be more proud of how our students, our faculty and staff really came together. And that's probably one of the kind of neat highlights of leading a university, is that it is a community.

It's a place that you can really make a difference. And it was an honor to be able to do that.

[00:07:10] David: So practically speaking, 'cause I, I am in business, right? I put quotes around that because, it's a tiny business, but I understand that world a little bit. I don't understand, aside from going to college 20 something years ago, I don't know much about academia. Is it is being the president of a university like being a CEO or is it just a totally different beast?

[00:07:36] Brian: Not having been a CEO of another organization, I'd be hesitant to, put a fine point on that. I certainly think there's a lot of similarities. I think that you, in some ways universities are incredibly complex. You're, but then other things are very similar to corporate.

You gotta worry about safety and security. You gotta worry about it. You gotta worry about your infrastructure. Your hr and those kinds of things. I think one of the unique things about the university is that your customer, if you'll allow me to use that word, is on your campus every day. It's in, they're inside your buildings. They're on your campus. You're bumping into them at, at every waking hour. And so that's a little bit different. I've heard somebody say that, running a university, depending on scale and soap is often like, running a city and there's some truth to that.

You've got infrastructure, you've got plumbing, you've got, safety and security. You've got all sorts of things. You've got retail, you've got food service. So there's a lot of different parts of it. I think that the stressors are probably similar, just different in scale depending on the size of an organization.

A-A-C-E-O is running. I, happen to, connect with a couple CEOs through my work and some of them work at smaller organizations than I did some work at bigger organizations. And I certainly think that some of the challenges are similar, but then there's also, a lot of differences.

Higher ed definitely moves slower than most of, corporate America. And the speed that you can move sometimes is can be a bit challenging for sure.

[00:08:47] David: Is it more I imagine, let me say it this way, I is, I imagine it to be a very heavily political. Kind of role rather than necessarily administrative. Like in I'm running my little company, I don't have to think about anything except my little company and our clients. But I imagine, again, correct me where I'm wrong, that you've gotta deal with legislatures, you've gotta deal with either even federal things, other presidents, like in, in its own way. Is that a big part of that, like being able to work with people and be political? I'm saying that in the small p maybe the political way, is that a big part of that job?

[00:09:27] Brian: No question. You always are gonna have competing priorities of your various stakeholders. You've already outlined a couple great groups that you have to always be paying attention to, whether it's what's happening at the legislative level, at the state level, or at the federal level. You've got your donors, you've got your alumni, you've got your students, you've got your parents and families of those students.

Then of course you've got the employees themselves and your team members. So there's always gonna be, and then of course, a board to which I report and any president reports. And so there's always gonna be competing priorities and having to navigate those relationships. It's one of the reasons why I think it's so important from a leadership standpoint to really have a very clear sense of who you are and where you're trying to take your organization so that you can make decisions that are based on, both strategy and the core values of the organization.

And it must, if possible, keep the noise at bay.

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[00:11:12] David: So transitioning to your current role, do you work in that education space when you're doing your consulting and then that, has that been a through line or have you moved away from that?

[00:11:23] Brian: Yeah, it's definitely been a through line. Probably two thirds of my work right now is in educational space. I've got some K 12, but mostly higher education clients. And then I'm also doing some work with some nonprofits and then I have a couple companies that I'm doing some work with. And there's definitely a through line there.

And one of the great things about being able to make this transition now is that for 31 years I was able to really experience a lot of things and now the chance to really take some of that knowledge and expertise and interact with other leaders to help them, be the best versions of themselves as leaders and help their organization to move them forward. It's been very rewarding so far.

[00:11:56] David: So what, take me through a day in the life of your new entity. What are you doing for your clients primarily?

[00:12:04] Brian: Sure. So on the strategy side, I spend a lot of my time doing one of two things. There's more that I do, but a lot of my work right now is working with executives and helping them. With either strategy, advising, or even helping them really put together some strategic work altogether whether it's a plan or initiatives and things along those lines.

And then another big area on the strategy and consulting front is working with boards whether it's a university board or a nonprofit board in helping them really be able to maximize their alignment which is really critically important, especially for a board and a president or board and a CEO. And then on the executive coaching front, so about two, I guess two and a half years ago, I got a executive coaching certificate when I was still a president. It was just really to help me be a better leader. Helped me to deploy more coaching skills in my leadership with my leadership team, but also on campus. And so that certificate has served me really well. 'cause now I'm getting to use those skills in working with executives to help them be the best leaders they can be.

[00:12:59] David: So 

[00:13:01] Gary: Still teaching.

[00:13:02] Brian: Yeah, a little bit. For sure. For sure.

[00:13:05] David: How I'm just imagining because I, so you're a professional services 

I run a professional services company, but I can't imagine, like I show, Hey, here's my portfolio, here's what I built, here's what we're capable of. What do you show? 

Do you 

[00:13:24] Gary: Aside from like the years and years of success running a university.

[00:13:29] David: You can show them your resume, but that's not one-to-one saying I'm an awesome coach. That and you don't have a really pretty website like we would do that says, look how cool we are. Like what do you show to prove your stuff? Is it just all about how well you carry yourself in those first conversations?

[00:13:44] Brian: I think some that, I'm very fortunate that, my, my work up to starting this business did open a lot of doors for me to go out and say, these are people that have worked with me in different capacities, and so were willing to give me a shot in, these new roles or make introductions. I, in fact, I mean I think I've gotten one lead off my website. I think every other lead I have is either through LinkedIn or through referrals. As far as telling my story. So I've had a two prong strategy with that certainly grow. Launching I didn't have any clients, right? And I'm very fortunate to have a number of folks that I've worked with over the last, decade plus who are willing to put some testimonials about the quality of my work that I had done and that kind of thing. And then as I've had clients they have been willing to do testimonials, and so I've started swapping some of those out and putting client testimonials on my website. I'm in the middle working with my website designer right now because the very point you bring up David, is I now wanna have some proof points of the work I've been doing and so we're gonna start doing some case study type work where I'll be able to feature the kind of projects that I've worked on and what the outcomes were so that people can see from start to finish what an engagement with me would look like.

[00:14:47] David: Nice.

[00:14:49] Gary: So you mentioned LinkedIn and referrals or whatever. Yeah, I think the referrals in the networking is true for most businesses unless you're selling small little products or whatever as probably the primary source of getting new business. But speaking of LinkedIn. You recently wrote something about toxic high performers.

Can you give us a little insight to what that is?

[00:15:12] Brian: I can. It was actually a it's a, it is a good case study of a client with whom I'm working new into a leadership, organizational leadership role at the top level and inherited a team that had been very productive from a performance standpoint and metrically on revenue wise. But, an individual who, while they were a high performer, really were, was making it very challenging in the workplace from a cultural standpoint. And had some, some tough toxic behaviors and attitudes that were permeating the organization. So this new leader tried to, help that individual see what, the damage they're causing and try to turn the ship. And after several months of some hard work made the really hard and courageous decision that they needed to move that person on. Not an easy thing to do especially for a new leader who is exiting a performer that by many standards was doing a lot of good work in helping the insti, the other organization now reach its revenue goals. The flip side of that is that, I talked a little bit about that in that article is that organizations often are not measuring the complete picture when you're looking at an impactful leader. And, the argument I make is that culture should be as much a measurement of performance and con contribution to culture. As any revenue metrics or anything else that come out of that. And this leader identified that which I was really incredibly impressed that they did. And after working with them for a while, they, they made that decision and have not looked back. It's been a great a great move for.

them 

[00:16:38] David: So I imagine as a coach, strategic advisor, whichever hat you're wearing, you have read a bazillion books. Do you find that you have modeled your practice after any of the business greats that have written these books? Do you say, Hey, I'm gonna use a cheesy example. This is not a good thing, but like I'm, I like finance based off Dave Ramsey.

Right? That's my thing. 

That's not who your thing is but do you find, Hey, I really like this guy, or, I really like traction or any of these kinds of things that you say, I'm not necessarily implementing this, but I'm influenced by.

[00:17:14] Brian: Yeah. I would say two very quickly. One, it's an old one, but good to great. And the main reason I like good to great especially now is because I don't think the hedge cloud concept has been more relevant than it is right now with the amount of chaos and noise and change and speed of change that's taking place. The ability to really be focused and do something you're passionate about, that you can be the best in the world at. Bring that all together, I think is really important. Funny enough, I just read it super recently, didn't even know it existed. I'm a big Patrick Lencioni fan and somebody recommended that I read his book Getting Naked, which is all about the consulting industry, and I'd not read it. And thoroughly enjoyed the book. But what was really cool about it was, for me, it was incredibly affirming because that the exact approach I use when I'm working with my clients. I'm not a big sales pitch person. I go in and have a conversation with them and see how I can help them solve their problems and we get to work.

And if they end up hiring me, great. But if they don't, then I know that it's, that I'm, that I move on to the next person. But really that book in particular really resonated with me just because it's my style.

[00:18:15] David: Nice. We, a year or two ago, might have been longer than that. We did Patrick Lencioni's ideal team player, 

and I made my whole 

[00:18:24] Gary: hungry, and smart. Yeah.

[00:18:26] David: And it became one of our core values that one did be, from our leadership team and we encouraged, didn't require everyone in the team to read it, to let them understand where that was coming from.

So if you haven't read those books that, that you should. So what is it that you think your education background brings that's unique compared to some other coach?

[00:18:49] Brian: Certainly there are a fair number of coaches who do not have a certificate, but that there, there are plenty of coaches who are unbelievably talented who do not have a certificate. So while a certificate is, I think, valuable and helpful and there are way, there are numerous levels of certificates that I do, I only have, I don't even have the first kind of recognized one by the International Coaching Federation. I would say that a couple things. One is candidly coaching is as much about a style and approach as it is about content expertise. One of the fun things that I've enjoyed about coaching is that I coach people in a lot of different industries, and certainly in some cases it makes a ton of difference if you are being coached by somebody who has deep expertise in certain fields or industries.

And I totally get that. But oftentimes it's as valuable or more valuable to have somebody who may even be a little bit ignorant about your industry because you're focused on the leader. You're helping that leader find the solutions to help them be the best version of the leadership they can be. And the context in the industry in many cases doesn't really matter. Now, if you get into advising and strategic advising, of course that makes a big difference there. So I think part of that is just, it's just my background in that area. And I think the other part of it is that if I I really love to ask thoughtful questions, and one of the heartbeats of good coaching is really being able to ask the right questions.

And there's a, gentleman started a firm here called Spiro coaching, and he's got a great book. And one of the things he talks about in there is this idea of having a po, a posture of curiosity. And great coaches have to be curious and being able to help their clients be successful.

If a cl, if a coach is telling that's really not coaching, it's advising and it's really not helping the leader. Arrive at the best solutions because in many cases, the leader, in my opinion, is always closer to the challenges, but the leader's also closest to the opportunities and a coach's job is to help them navigate that so that they can find those.

[00:20:33] David: Nice. So what do you feel after coaching lots of people, and even before this leading a bunch of people, what do you find that is the most common blind spot that you run into?

[00:20:48] Brian: Question. I think it's gonna sound a little harsh. A sense of urgent, a sense of urgency.

[00:20:54] David: Yeah.

[00:20:56] Brian: I think there's a very high correlation between successful leaders and organizations and the leader sense of urgency. In my opinion, the risks of going too fast are way smaller than going too slow. Now they are there, you can sometimes, miss things, especially if your organizational communication is weak.

Going too fast can really cause challenges for an organization. But I would say that, one of the big blind spots is just leaders not having the greatest sense of urgency that they need, especially with the speed of the way things are moving today.

[00:21:26] David: So if you're saying, the old adage is measure twice, cut once. Are you saying measure one and a half times? Like where is, what is the right? I understand cautious.

Where is that line of two cautious versus reckless?

[00:21:43] Brian: Yeah. I, I, I don't work with anybody. I don't mean this in a judgment sense. Any of my clients right now do not have a reckless vent. I could see where recklessness could really easily be stumbled into in the startup world just because of a combination of, speed to market.

And let's face it, a lot of startup folks have a sensibility around them that they can take on the world. That's part of what makes them great. So recklessness can certainly emerge from that. That's why you gotta have really good people around you that can help, speak truth and whether that's a team or in my case, I've, as I've started this business, I've had a great mentor that has made a huge amount of difference in how I've gotten started to make sure I'm not reckless. But I think that in general if you're good at risk assessment. Urgency can allow you to move a lot faster than without it. And we have the tools today that we should be able to assess most risk, at least at some level to know what your potential costs of op your opportunity costs are, but also your potential costs to moving too fast. Now granted, I, I started my own thing on my own dime. I don't have, investors behind me on some of that. And so I get that there's a different dynamic there that that startups and other entrepreneurs are gonna have to think about. But I would rather, I'd rather see people make a mistake 'cause they move too fast strategically and missed on something than missed opportunities.

[00:23:01] David: So measure twice, just not 4, 5, 6, 7 times. Is 

[00:23:04] Brian: Yes, exactly. 

[00:23:06] David: That's fair.

[00:23:07] Gary: Now, Brian, 

[00:23:09] Brian: on occasion. Don't even measure. Just go.

[00:23:12] Gary: We call that the David Way, press go and then figure it out. So Brian, with your experience as a strategist and as coach, what would you say are your top three pieces of advice to give to a new entrepreneur or a startup?

[00:23:27] Brian: I hit on one just a second ago. Find a great mentor. And if you can get two that's even better. I think one of the great things, especially about the Raleigh ecosystem is there's so many people that just wanna be helpful and want to, help you succeed and and, take you under their wing.

And so I would encourage somebody to do that as soon as possible. When finding a quality mentor, I think you want to think about, people, obviously that can offer advice, people that can help you learn from their mistakes, but you also have to have, somebody can ask you hard questions. And so I think that's really, one of the big powers of a great mentor. Second one is, goes back to the sense of urgency, I think being courageous I'd rather overcome a strategic mistake than a regret. And one of the things that I have found very challenging but rewarding is doing things that I'm not comfortable with. I spent 31 plus years in higher ed and my comfort level of my first non-high ed client was not very high. But what I found was that it was incredibly rewarding and we had a very impactful partnership and still do to this day, which is really great. And then I think the third one, and I don't know about how other startups or entrepreneurs or solopreneurs have struggled with us or not keep growing and learning the tyranny of the urgent and always having to work on the business and try, find those new clients and obviously deliver great results to your clients. I have found that I've had to work really hard to make sure that I'm also committed to my own continued growth and development, whether it's, sorry, reading or listening or getting out and meeting with other leaders. So that's been a really important thing. I think that that I've benefited from, I'm a big believer that experience alone doesn't make you better, but learning and then applying what you learned is what can really elevate your work.

And so I think they gotta keep growing and learning.

[00:25:00] David: Very good. 

[00:25:02] Gary: Now, if anybody wants to learn more about you and what you offer, where's the best place to find you?

[00:25:07] Brian: Sure. Online it's Brian Roth leadership.com and then online by LinkedIn I'm at just Brian Roth PhD.

[00:25:14] Gary: All right. We'll make sure those links get into the show notes as well.

[00:25:17] Brian: Great, thanks. 

[00:25:20] David: Thank you so much, Brian for joining us. It has been a lot of fun.

[00:25:22] Brian: Yeah, great to see you again. Thanks for the opportunity.

[00:25:24] David: Absolutely. On that note, we are out. We'll be back next week. Have a good one, everybody.