The Remarkable Leadership Podcast

00:00:08:02 - 00:00:39:09
Kevin Eikenberry
Habits can both hinder us and help us on life's journey. And habits can make or break us as a leader too. That's why we're talking about habits today, specifically those that can make us mentally stronger and better able to lead with remarkable results. Welcome to another episode of the Remarkable Leadership Podcast, where we are helping leaders grow personally and professionally to lead more effectively, to make a bigger, positive difference for their teams, organizations and the world.

00:00:39:09 - 00:01:01:09
Kevin Eikenberry
If you are listening to this podcast in the future, you can join us live because all of them start out as live streams on a variety of social media platforms. You can learn more about when they're happening and how to get connected for them. By joining our Facebook or LinkedIn groups, just go to remarkable podcast.com/facebook or remarkable podcast.com/linkedin to do that.

00:01:01:12 - 00:01:24:12
Kevin Eikenberry
Today's episode is brought to you by my upcoming book, Flexible Leadership Navigating Uncertainty and Leading with Confidence. This book will give you a new perspective and a skill set to lead in the challenging times, in a more effective and flexible and confident way. Pre-ordering your copy now guarantees you the best possible price. And to be an early adopter of the groundbreaking ideas I will share.

00:01:24:14 - 00:01:53:18
Kevin Eikenberry
Learn more and preorder your copy now at remarkable podcast.com/flexible. I hope you'll do that as I bring in my guest Scott Mouse, and I lost what I was going to do. Let me get it back up here. There, Scott. Let me introduce him for you and then we'll get started. Scott is the CEO and founder of Profound Performance, a keynote workshop and training organization empowering business leaders to become better or inspired versions of themselves.

00:01:53:19 - 00:02:22:07
Kevin Eikenberry
Scott is an award winning bestselling author, a popular LinkedIn learning course instructor, and a faculty member at Indiana University School of Business for Executive Education. As a free grad, I will not hold that against him. His most recent book is The Mentally Strong Leader Build the Habits to Protect, to productively regulate your emotions, thoughts, and behaviors. His unique combination of corporate experience, research, storytelling techniques, comedy, and delivery engages us all.

00:02:22:08 - 00:02:29:09
Kevin Eikenberry
Today, he's our guest. Scott. We haven't had the chance to chat in quite a long time. I'm glad you're here. thanks for joining me.

00:02:29:11 - 00:02:43:21
Scott Mautz
It's been a minute. I'm glad to be alive on live with Kevin. The live wire that he is. And that you are. Kevin, it's. It's great to be here. I'm looking forward to the new book and flexibility to you. You want to talk about something important for leadership. Fantastic.

00:02:43:21 - 00:03:02:01
Kevin Eikenberry
So there you go. Well, it's going to be a while, but people need to get their copy now anyway. So, we're going to talk about this new book mentally. The mentally Strong leader. But before we do that, sort of, a little bit about your journey, like when you were five, you didn't think you were going to be writing business books.

00:03:02:03 - 00:03:12:02
Kevin Eikenberry
and so I'm curious sort of what lead you? I mean, I don't want the whole life story, but give us, like, how do you end up writing and especially this book.

00:03:12:04 - 00:03:45:02
Scott Mautz
Right. When I was five, I thought I was going to be an archeologist, by the way. So you see the connection here, right? Mining for dinosaur bones. Mining for insight. How about that? For a for a collection for you. But you know, the journey that got me to where I am today. Really? Kevin, the shorthand of it is, is, you know, probably about 30 years ago when I began the corporate journey, I really spent a lot of time studying and trying to figure out, well, what makes what's discerns great leaders from leaders, you know, for people who just happen to be in leadership positions.

00:03:45:04 - 00:04:03:18
Scott Mautz
And I really started being the student a long time ago of trying to discern and codify if I want to put people in a great leadership camp versus people who just happen to be leaders. You know, what is that? And probably a lot like you, Kevin, I'm a I'm not just a professor or of leadership. I'm not just someone who shares insights of leadership.

00:04:03:22 - 00:04:23:07
Scott Mautz
I'm also a student of it. So I'm always learning. I'm always reading. I'm always trying to grow more in that space. And share what I've learned with everybody. And it's a journey that continues today. But it's that kind of continuous growth mindset that has kind of brought me to where I am today. I think to you know, being able to talk to you and your audience today.

00:04:23:09 - 00:04:31:03
Kevin Eikenberry
So the book is titled The Mentally Strong Leader, so we should probably start there. What do you mean? What does it mean to be a mentally strong leader?

00:04:31:05 - 00:04:54:06
Scott Mautz
Yeah. Let's start even more basic than that. Let's start with mental strength, which is the ability to regulate your emotions, your thoughts, and your behaviors productively, even in adversity. And you can argue, especially in adversity, as I like to shorthand it, it's how we manage internally so that we can lead better externally at both work and in life.

00:04:54:08 - 00:05:22:09
Scott Mautz
And here's the thing, Kevin, I think you probably intuitively know this. I think your listeners and viewers intuitively know this, that of course, if I want to succeed at work in life, yes, I have to be able to self-regulate. Of course, we know that. But here's this this just in exclusive to your listeners. It's really hard. It's really hard to regulate your emotions, your thoughts and behaviors, especially in the face of setbacks.

00:05:22:09 - 00:05:37:02
Scott Mautz
And that's why I set out so long ago to, you know, really understand mental strength and write the book. The mentally strong leader does care, but I believe mental strength is the leadership superpower of our day. And I'm really excited to be here to talk to you about it today.

00:05:37:03 - 00:05:40:18
Kevin Eikenberry
How did you know that I was going to put that up here? It's one of the lines in the early part of the book.

00:05:40:18 - 00:05:42:10
Scott Mautz
You say, oh, I did not know that.

00:05:42:11 - 00:05:44:21
Kevin Eikenberry
It is the superpower you say in the book.

00:05:44:21 - 00:05:46:13
Scott Mautz
So I do not know that.

00:05:46:15 - 00:06:05:02
Kevin Eikenberry
that of course you didn't know because you haven't seen what I have over here in the fancy, fancy side side view mirror here. listen, I do think this is, I mean, Bob, you're here because I saw you announced the book on on LinkedIn. I said, hey, we should probably chat about it. Give me a copy.

00:06:05:02 - 00:06:23:12
Kevin Eikenberry
Let me take a look. And so, because it was you, I knew it would be good, but, until I could read it or at least look at it before I read it. you know, that's what led to you being here. I do think it's super, super important, thing for us to talk about. And, of course, the other big idea in the book is habits, right?

00:06:23:12 - 00:06:42:22
Kevin Eikenberry
So, like, doing this building this mental strength. And you're not just saying you really ought to want to. You're saying here are the habits that can help you get there. And so the book is really built around these habits. And let's see to for like six of them, right. 6 or 7 of them. and I want to talk about them.

00:06:42:22 - 00:07:00:05
Kevin Eikenberry
I've got several things I'd sort of love to dive into. We could spend probably a show on each habit, which, of course, we're not going to do. but let's just start. I'll throw one up here and, and let's and just talk about it, what you mean by it a little bit. And we'll sort of talk about each of them a little bit.

00:07:00:05 - 00:07:04:04
Kevin Eikenberry
First one is the fortitude habit.

00:07:04:06 - 00:07:09:19
Scott Mautz
yes. Yeah. And by the way, there's six, you know what I call mental muscles in the, in it in.

00:07:09:19 - 00:07:11:08
Kevin Eikenberry
Six in the.

00:07:11:08 - 00:07:28:07
Scott Mautz
Bottom six. Yeah. Yeah. And what you're referring to is the fact that because building mental strength is so hard, you need habits to lean on. You need repetitions and systems and frameworks to help you do that, which the mentally strong leaders pack with it. It's a one of the core habits. One of the core mental muscles to build is is fortitude.

00:07:28:07 - 00:07:46:04
Scott Mautz
And of course, fortitude is the ability to push, as we all know, through challenges on our way to achievement. And you know, Kevin, if I had to say one thing that people they asked me two questions. Well, what mental muscle out of the six, you know, which is there's, you know, fortitude and but we'll let you get to the rest in a minute.

00:07:46:06 - 00:08:12:10
Scott Mautz
Which one is the most, you know, commonly occurring that we need to work on and then which one most often do people associate with mental strength? I would say fortitude is the one that people most instantly say, oh, if you're talking about mental strength, you must be talking about fortitude, because it's resilience. It's the epitome. It's the backbone of mental strength, that mental toughness and what it takes to push through the equation of hard, you know, setbacks and adversity in the face of us.

00:08:12:13 - 00:08:18:23
Scott Mautz
That's probably not surprising you to hear that, Kevin. Right. That first and foremost, we associate mental strength with fortitude. Right?

00:08:19:01 - 00:08:48:01
Kevin Eikenberry
Yeah. So I'm curious, because, over the past several years, there have been a ton of books, that use that R-word resilience. Yes. there's been a lot of discussion about grit. Is there a specific reason why you picked the word fortitude? Because we could in some ways call those words, synonyms. Why specific fortitude? Because I think there's something in there that we need to we need to make sure we're clear on.

00:08:48:01 - 00:08:49:06
Kevin Eikenberry
So go ahead with that.

00:08:49:08 - 00:09:16:16
Scott Mautz
Yeah, I, I think to me, fortitude also requires an inner clarity and an, a willingness to accept things about yourself that you might not be accepting. Resilience is the raw pushing through. Kevin. Fortitude requires not just pushing through, but but a willingness to really look at things about yourself that you might not want to admit. Perfect example. I'll I'll talk about a tool, the mentally strong leader that I call the static trap.

00:09:16:16 - 00:09:34:11
Scott Mautz
That has to do with fortitude that you might not necessarily think of. It's not the first thing that would come to mind, you know? Meaning if you want to be good at solving problems, right, which is a big part of fortitude, you got to have the fortitude to plow through them. It's so many of us aren't what gets in the way, what gets in the way of being a good problem solver?

00:09:34:11 - 00:09:51:14
Scott Mautz
Well, to solve a problem, you have to at first admit that you have what it takes to 4 to 2 for you to look in the mirror and say, we're not where we need to be, team. I'm not where I need to be. I we have a problem, I have a problem. And what happens is the reason we don't do that as much as we should and it wears down.

00:09:51:14 - 00:10:14:11
Scott Mautz
Our fortitude is what I call the static trap, which is simply this. We can first be static in denying that problem exists. We do nothing about it until guess what covered the problem can no longer be ignored. Then guess what? We create static or distortion around the problem. We make excuses about why the problem exists, we downplay its impact, or we redirect attention by finger pointing.

00:10:14:13 - 00:10:31:22
Scott Mautz
And then finally we can remain static even though we've now admitted the problem exists. We don't do anything about it. We just sit in its in its kind of funk and don't do anything about it until, you know, frankly, it becomes we can no longer not do anything about it.

00:10:32:00 - 00:10:33:20
Kevin Eikenberry
Yeah. We can no longer ignore it. Right?

00:10:33:22 - 00:10:46:06
Scott Mautz
Yeah. Yeah, that's exactly right. So that's why I think fortitude was the right term, because it requires things like that, it ability to look at yourself and say, am I denying some fundamental truth here?

00:10:46:08 - 00:11:03:22
Kevin Eikenberry
the second of the mental muscles and therefore the habits that we talked about that you're going to talk about today is the confidence habit. This might be my favorite, of them, simply because I spend a lot of time thinking about this. Maybe also because the word confident is in the title, the subtitle of my next book.

00:11:04:01 - 00:11:33:07
Kevin Eikenberry
But but, I think this is a super important piece. because if we don't have confidence, it stops us short. We can't even get to fortitude if we don't have confidence. So, talk about give us an insight here, specifically about what's something we can do to work to build our confidence. Because everyone that's listening or watching is at a different point in their own sort of confidence continuum.

00:11:33:11 - 00:11:40:19
Kevin Eikenberry
Right? So, like, what's something that people could do from wherever they are to get a little more self-confidence?

00:11:40:21 - 00:11:58:09
Scott Mautz
I think, you know, I'll share one of the tools in the middle is strong leader in the confidence, you know, section. It's called the doubt continuum. And it's based on an important insight, Kevin. And I am certain, given the book that you're working on, you know this to be a universal truth. Confidence is not the absence of doubt.

00:11:58:11 - 00:12:21:16
Scott Mautz
It's how we manage our relationship with doubt. Because I have interviewed so many people for this book, the mentally strong leader. And I could tell you, Kevin, even the ones that radiate confidence will tell you it's not because there's no that doubt is nowhere in sight. It's that they've learned how to manage that relationship with doubt. And one of the tools in the middle is strong leader helps you do that.

00:12:21:18 - 00:12:44:16
Scott Mautz
It's called the doubt continuum. And I want your listeners to to imagine a simple continuum on both sides. There's four items on that continuum on both sides. The left and the far right side of that continuum are danger zones. One is where you're actually overconfident. Self doubt is is completely absence to the point that you're, you know, you're blowing through red light signals.

00:12:44:16 - 00:12:59:19
Scott Mautz
You think you only need to, you know, to operate in an echo chamber and you know it's not well place confidence on the other side of the spectrum is where you're actually paralyzed by fear. That doubt has gone beyond healthy, you know, love.

00:12:59:19 - 00:13:00:20
Kevin Eikenberry
And now you're immobilized.

00:13:00:20 - 00:13:29:08
Scott Mautz
Right now you're immobilized. And I talk about strategies to overcome that. But for the tool itself, just understanding your relationship with doubt means you want to be in the middle of that continuum. You either want to be perfectly confident. Well, you have the right balance of data and intuition, internal gut and outside perspective. And or you're really in embracing healthy doubt, which means, you know, doubt exists.

00:13:29:10 - 00:13:53:22
Scott Mautz
It's parked in the backdrop, you're okay with it existing, but it's not causing you to say that, you know, for example, I doubt I can lead this team. You know, that doubts there. It allows you to focus on how will I lead the team. It allows you to say I am okay with not knowing everything I need to know to be a success right now, because I believe in my ability to figure things out as I go.

00:13:54:00 - 00:14:02:09
Scott Mautz
So understanding this relationship that it's really about managing your relationship with doubt is a powerful way to take a first step for being a more confident self.

00:14:02:10 - 00:14:33:01
Kevin Eikenberry
One of the things that you talk about in this chapter is an acronym which I'd never heard. and and I think it's, it's interesting that it's in this point in the book because, because I want to ask you about it for a different reason. there are lots of leaders, you've worked with some of them, and, and trained some of them where they're like, the only feedback I need to give is corrective feedback, because I don't need to give people positive feedback.

00:14:33:02 - 00:14:56:11
Kevin Eikenberry
Like, I never got any. Look, I turned out okay. your your, your acronym is Wayne. we all need encouragement. Can you just talk about that? Because first of all, I agree with you 100%. but can you just talk to that leader who might be out there, who's kind of a little hardened around this, thinks that all of that is a little bit kind of like spin, a little too soft.

00:14:56:11 - 00:14:59:10
Kevin Eikenberry
Can you just talk about. We all need encouragement.

00:14:59:12 - 00:15:28:17
Scott Mautz
Yeah. You know, and I, I picked the word Wayne because, you know, it's it's other meaning is, you know, obviously we can you know, wander away from a close connection with a human being if we don't understand the fact that we all need encouragement. And, you know, Kevin, I have encountered a lot of leaders that you can't code necessarily as mentally strong, even though they're they're fully confident they convert that into everyone else should be confident.

00:15:28:20 - 00:15:45:07
Scott Mautz
And you don't need my approval to be confident. You have all the energy you need within yourself, and they make that assumption and it's just not true. It comes back to this universal truth that we all have some level of doubt deep within saiedah, said. If you can remember that you don't want to wane from a close relationship with employees, you.

00:15:45:07 - 00:16:06:23
Scott Mautz
If you can remember, we all need encouragement. It's a human truth. It takes you down a notch to say, I have to invest the time. I have to make it a strategy to let my people know and not assume they have everything they need to get through, what they need to get through. I need to be an active part and actively encourage them in that process.

00:16:07:01 - 00:16:19:15
Scott Mautz
along the way, I even I even suggest Kevin giving in the book the most strongly giving informed encouragement, which is not the general, you know, rah rah, you can do it. And there's nothing wrong with telling someone they could do it, but it's a lot better if they know why you.

00:16:19:15 - 00:16:45:21
Kevin Eikenberry
Think you can do something specific. Yes, 100%. So, the third muscle, third set of habits is around boldness. and I specifically want to get at this idea of boldness. as with all of them, you give us plenty of tools to help us. But I want you to talk about, the your Dobson law because I think it is an important thing.

00:16:45:21 - 00:16:54:07
Kevin Eikenberry
Important, important law. And important that I'm not sure everyone's familiar with. So, talk a little bit about boldness, but specifically, I want you to talk about this.

00:16:54:09 - 00:17:15:11
Scott Mautz
Yeah. You know, and I think in boldness, I really encourage people in the strong leader to to think big, but to think big with, in a continuum. I don't want people being unrealistic because sometimes we say, oh, all I have to do is be incredibly bold, take wild risks, and all of a sudden, you know, I'll be mentally strong and I'll be better off for it.

00:17:15:11 - 00:17:34:21
Scott Mautz
But there's a, there's a, there's a limit to that. And I encourage people to think about a simple continuum. It starts with right. You want to push your thinking beyond the day to day. You want to push beyond daring. You want to push beyond some discomfort you might feel. But then halfway in between discussing effort and delusion, lies the your Dodson law.

00:17:35:01 - 00:17:58:16
Scott Mautz
And it's it's a seminal kind of psychology finding that says peak performance actually occurs in a specific circumstance when you're in an optimal state of anxiety and discomfort where you are, you feel a little bit this discomfort and you know it has to elevate your skill set. It has to elevate your focus and your attention, but not so much so that it's paralyzing you and you're afraid.

00:17:58:16 - 00:18:19:06
Scott Mautz
Like if fear or failure is now eminent because I've gone that far and the York's Dodson Law lives in between, can you push your thinking in your activity beyond a level of discomfort, but not so far that it's delusional and say, you know what, Kevin? I can wish and dream big all I want about being a professional baseball player.

00:18:19:08 - 00:18:34:03
Scott Mautz
But guess what? I am a horrible athlete. And if I just push myself beyond the discomfort of here, I am spending all this time trying to become a professional athlete. I'm going to. I'm not embracing the fact that it's actually delusional. So you have to find that sweet point of between, which is called the the York's Dodson law.

00:18:34:03 - 00:18:36:21
Scott Mautz
That optimal point of performance.

00:18:36:23 - 00:18:44:05
Kevin Eikenberry
oh that I want and oh, by the way, not just athletic ability. Let's just be honest. You're also a little old Fort Scott, not just I think.

00:18:44:09 - 00:18:46:05
Scott Mautz
I think the hair color gave it away. Yeah, I.

00:18:46:05 - 00:19:10:00
Kevin Eikenberry
Think you're right. I have to tell everybody this. And this is a little bit of inside author baseball, I suppose. But page 191, Scott practices what he preaches, because he says, that, hey, I'm going to be bold here and tell you if you've gotten this far, one of the awesome things you could do for me is to, leave a review for the book on your favorite, online platform, Amazon or whatever.

00:19:10:02 - 00:19:34:09
Kevin Eikenberry
like, I have never read this in a book, and yet every author wants everyone to give them a review. there's all sorts of good reasons why that is helpful to authors. So I'm telling all of you, as, viewers and listeners of this podcast, not just for this one, but for any of them. If you love the show and you love the author and their book ideas in their book, giving them a review is a really, really, really great way to give back to them.

00:19:34:09 - 00:19:48:19
Kevin Eikenberry
And I just love that you put that in the book. I, I got to that page and I just started smiling. I even laughed a little bit, not in a negative way, but in a, in a really positive way. So, there are three more habits and I'm watching our time. I want us to spend a little time on each, though.

00:19:48:21 - 00:20:00:04
Kevin Eikenberry
the next one, I think is a really, really useful one, that people don't think about it in the context of habit, I don't think. And that is the messaging habit. Yeah.

00:20:00:06 - 00:20:24:09
Scott Mautz
And the messaging habit is simply staying positive minded, Kevin, even in the face of negativity as a leader and staying, kind of at all times really engaged in a conversation. It's about the message you send to the troops. And so think in your own life, Kevin, I am sure you haven't experienced a leader or frankly, even a human being, that you're talking to them.

00:20:24:09 - 00:20:28:12
Scott Mautz
You're looking them right in the eyes and you know they are not listening.

00:20:28:14 - 00:20:29:14
Kevin Eikenberry
They are somewhere else.

00:20:29:14 - 00:20:48:15
Scott Mautz
Yeah, they are somewhere we can pick that up as human beings. That is sending the wrong message. It is the opposite of being mentally strong. And, you know, and I share a lot of habits in there about how to stay in the moment, how to really listen well, how to really, stay engaged in a conversation, how to resist multitasking.

00:20:48:15 - 00:20:59:00
Scott Mautz
Because as leaders, we all live in a fishbowl. Everybody's watching our every move. Kevin, the rabbit on the glass, wondering where we're going to swim to next. And you want to send the right message out. You just requires intentional ality.

00:20:59:04 - 00:21:22:08
Kevin Eikenberry
And messaging isn't just communicating, right? I mean, it is everything you just described as communicating. But but it's not just verbalizing or typing or that. So it's not just words. there is there's something, in that area that you also talk about that, I thought you had, a useful way to think about. And that's transparency.

00:21:22:10 - 00:21:31:04
Kevin Eikenberry
You have a couple of tips for people real quick about how what does transparency look like, and how can we be better at it?

00:21:31:06 - 00:21:39:20
Scott Mautz
Well, let me ask you a question first. Is there anything more transparent, in your opinion, Kevin, that someone who's not being transparent?

00:21:39:22 - 00:21:44:18
Kevin Eikenberry
That's fair. Right. Like easiest thing to tell is that there. Yeah.

00:21:44:20 - 00:22:10:21
Scott Mautz
Is there that in the Strangler I talk about tool called the window of transparency which helps. It's easy to say, hey look leaders, if you want to be mentally strong you need to be transparent, okay. But in what ways. And I talk about, you know, hey, you could be transparent by putting the effort in to share information, by being transparent with people about where they stand in their career, by being transparent about why you made a decision, transparent about what your shortfalls are.

00:22:10:23 - 00:22:24:05
Scott Mautz
So there's very specific ways where it really makes sense. If you put a little bit of effort and intention into it, that transparency will be remembered by the troops disproportionately and help you come across as a mentally strong leader.

00:22:24:07 - 00:22:29:05
Kevin Eikenberry
Yeah, I love that because so often people think about transparency just about themselves.

00:22:29:06 - 00:22:29:13
Scott Mautz
Yes.

00:22:29:18 - 00:22:51:21
Kevin Eikenberry
And I had a guest once and I cannot remember who it was. I wish I could, that said, there's a difference between being, being transparent about things that are personal versus things that are private, and that you don't need to share everything and be like Saran Wrap, transparent. and yet and yet. So I really like this personal versus private thing.

00:22:51:21 - 00:23:13:08
Kevin Eikenberry
But what I like about what you're saying is there are certainly other areas we can be transparent about, right, that aren't just about ourselves, but about how we view other people on the team in terms of where they stand, where they stand with us, what we see as their career path. All of those there's like more things here for us to consider than I think a lot of people take the time to consider.

00:23:13:08 - 00:23:23:10
Scott Mautz
And in the same and through most of those, Kevin, in the tool, in the really strong leaders that they have a benefit in, they are of service to other people in you being transparent.

00:23:23:12 - 00:23:52:18
Kevin Eikenberry
We've got two habits. Two minutes ago, real quick, but we are talking with Scott Montz, the author of The Mentally Strong Leader. habit, mental muscle habit number five. and these last two, I think, are, are more self-explanatory perhaps, than the others. So, I love that they they are the last ones we're going to talk about, because I think that they're probably the ones that people probably have the best incoming idea about the decision making habit being one of those two.

00:23:52:20 - 00:23:56:02
Kevin Eikenberry
Anything in specifics that you want to say about them?

00:23:56:04 - 00:24:22:12
Scott Mautz
I'll just quickly say, you know, if you think about it, you know, emotion and bias and undisciplined thinking, they're all the enemies of good decision making. They're like the mongoose to the snake. And so it takes self regulation skills, mental strength, in other words, to to it. It takes self-regulation skills to give you the courage and the conviction to be decisive and to fuel your ability to make good decisions along the way and to avoid biases.

00:24:22:12 - 00:24:31:06
Scott Mautz
It's a decision making is one of the topics that most naturally lends itself to requiring self-regulation. That's why it's such an obvious piece of mental strength.

00:24:31:08 - 00:24:36:10
Kevin Eikenberry
And then the last one is the goal focus, habit, habit.

00:24:36:12 - 00:24:38:08
Scott Mautz
Yeah. And if you noticed everybody.

00:24:38:10 - 00:24:40:18
Kevin Eikenberry
Scott is not saying the goal setting habit.

00:24:40:21 - 00:24:41:09
Scott Mautz
That's right.

00:24:41:10 - 00:24:42:20
Kevin Eikenberry
Or focus habit.

00:24:42:20 - 00:25:04:05
Scott Mautz
Go ahead staying focused on your goals. Because think of the opposite. When you have wayward thoughts and emotions and actions that distract you from the goal at hand, that lack of mental strength that can kick in at that time that keeps you from being disciplined, single focus. It's literally like the opposite of achievement. You know, I've shown in the mentally strong leader that how correlated mental strength is to achievement.

00:25:04:07 - 00:25:14:00
Scott Mautz
If there's anything that's the opposite of it, opposite of that. It's not staying focused on your goals so that you don't achieve the thing you set out to achieve. And I have quite a few tools in the book to help you do that.

00:25:14:02 - 00:25:28:18
Kevin Eikenberry
100% true. So we've talked about the six mental muscles and the and the habit set sets that go with each of them. Is there anything that we that I didn't ask you, Scott, that you wished I had?

00:25:28:19 - 00:25:51:17
Scott Mautz
Yeah. Just to say that, you know, a lot of people say, okay, it's kind of got it. So how do I figure out which muscle I need to work on and how mentally strong am I? And I think it's a really powerful thing to let you know that in the mentally strong leader, there's a mental strength self-assessment, 50 questions proven with data science that you can take that will give you an overall mental strength score and a breakdown by mental muscle.

00:25:51:17 - 00:26:05:11
Scott Mautz
Whether it's fortitude, confidence, boldness, decision making, goal focus, messaging, you get a score to determine which mental muscles are right for you so that you can build a customized, unique, tailored mental strength training program.

00:26:05:13 - 00:26:23:21
Kevin Eikenberry
Yep. That's true. and so you can learn more about that in the book. It's right in the book. You can take it right from the book. Don't be one of those people that's afraid to write in the book. Just go ahead and take the assessment right in here. I'm going to shift gears, Scott, before we finish and ask you a couple of questions that I like to ask all of my.

00:26:23:21 - 00:26:34:02
Kevin Eikenberry
Yes. In fact, whenever I meet smart people, I like to ask these questions. which is why they're here. so the first one is. Scott, what do you do for fun?

00:26:34:03 - 00:26:46:01
Scott Mautz
Oh, for me, I love to get outdoors, I love hiking, I love going to concerts and music, and I'm a video game nerd as well. And I also like movies, so I like to mix all that stuff together.

00:26:46:01 - 00:27:00:00
Kevin Eikenberry
I do not think I've had a guest. And you're you're episode number 444. Scott, I don't think I've ever had someone say video games. Doesn't mean that no one does it for fun that's been on here. I don't think anyone has said that. I think you're the first one.

00:27:00:02 - 00:27:02:12
Scott Mautz
I'm mentally strong enough to admit it.

00:27:02:14 - 00:27:10:14
Kevin Eikenberry
Yeah, no judgment here. I just don't think anyone's ever said it. Next question. What are you reading these days, Scott?

00:27:10:16 - 00:27:23:21
Scott Mautz
six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo. It's a young adult fantasy series. I'm a big fan of the whole Game of Thrones. You know, Dungeons and Dragons drama dates back to my nerdy days as a kid. So that's what I'm dreaming. Reading now.

00:27:24:03 - 00:27:25:14
Kevin Eikenberry
Six of crows.

00:27:25:14 - 00:27:26:08
Scott Mautz
Six of crows.

00:27:26:08 - 00:27:39:16
Kevin Eikenberry
We'll make sure we have that in the show notes as well as, of course, how to get to, and find the mentally strong leader. How can we, where do you want to point people? How can they learn more about you and about the book? Where do you want to.

00:27:39:18 - 00:27:59:08
Scott Mautz
Yeah, couple things. You can go to Scott maltz.com and learn about all my keynotes, the trainings, the workshops I give. Check out the book. and also I put together a gift for all your listeners today, a 60 page free PDF download that has that mental strength self-assessment that I was talking about for free, along with prompts to get the most out of the book.

00:27:59:11 - 00:28:07:17
Scott Mautz
And you can get that at Scott meltzer.com/mentally strong gift. And that's how you can get that 60 page free PDF.

00:28:07:19 - 00:28:09:02
Kevin Eikenberry
Say that one more time.

00:28:09:04 - 00:28:13:22
Scott Mautz
Scott maltz.com/mentally strong gift.

00:28:14:00 - 00:28:39:06
Kevin Eikenberry
Mentally strong gift. We'll have that in the show notes as well. so and you can see there that we have a fellow D&D nerd, who's commenting on the live stream. so so Scott, thanks for being here. And before we wrap up, though, I've got a question I want to ask everyone else who's watching and listening, whether it's now live or whether it's later.

00:28:39:06 - 00:29:06:22
Kevin Eikenberry
It's it's the question that moves us from idea to action. and we need this question before we start to implement any of the habits that we've talked about today. And that is now what what action will you take as a result of this conversation? Hopefully you've got some insight, right. Maybe you found great value in the your stops in law, maybe in the doubt continuum, maybe whatever it might be.

00:29:06:22 - 00:29:26:18
Kevin Eikenberry
The question isn't did you learn something? The question is, what are you going to do with what you learned? Because ultimately that's where where value will come, that's where results will come. That's where you will build the habits to be more mentally strong. so Scott, thanks again so much for being here. It was a pleasure to have you.

00:29:26:20 - 00:29:45:02
Kevin Eikenberry
and for those of you that are watching or listening, if this is your first time, make sure you come back. watch. Excuse me. Listen, wherever you find your podcasts, make sure that if you've been subscribed that you, like were recommended to somebody else. And if you're aren't subscribed, this is the perfect time to start, because we're here every week.

00:29:45:02 - 00:29:50:04
Kevin Eikenberry
And so next week I'll be back with another episode, another guest on the Remarkable Leadership Podcast.