Reboot Podcast Episode #31 – Why Being Real Matters – with Evgeny Shadchnev

The Reboot podcast showcases the heart and soul, the wins and losses, the ups and downs of startup leadership. On the show, Entrepreneurs, CEO’s, and Startup Leaders discuss with Jerry Colonna the emotional and psychological challenges they face daily as leaders.

Episode 31 // January 22, 2016

Authenticity is the alignment of head, mouth, heart, and feet – thinking, saying, feeling, and doing the same thing – consistently. This builds trust, and followers love leaders they can trust.

Episode Description

So many entrepreneurs seek to model their leadership after the high-profile, successful giants. Should I be a leader more like Steve Jobs? How can I be more like Jeff Bezos? How can I be more like Travis from Uber? These are not only questions without answers, they are the wrong questions.  The real question is, “Who the fuck are you?” You’re not Steve Jobs. You’re not Jeff Bezos. You’re you. What does the leader within you look like?

In today’s conversation, Jerry is joined by Evgeny, Co-founder and CEO of Makers Academy.  Ev wrestles with the question of whether it’s possible to scale an organization built on trust, or does success require a leader who governs by fear? Together they discover a more beautiful, more fundamental question –“Who is Evgeny?” In that answer, they may find a path to personal alignment and more effective leadership.

Evgeny Shadchnev on Twitter

 

Show Highlights

[bctt tweet=”“As companies grow, they somehow become more fearful.” @shadchnev” via=”no”]

[bctt tweet=”“There is a correlation of being able to be trusted by others, and therefore trusting others.” @jerrycolonna” via=”no”]

[bctt tweet=”“What am I not saying that needs to be said?” @jerrycolonna” via=”no”]

[bctt tweet=”“What am I saying that’s not being heard?” @jerrycolonna” via=”no”]

[bctt tweet=”“What’s being said that I’m not hearing?” @jerrcolonna” via=”no”]

[bctt tweet=”“Trust is closely related to stress.” @shadchnev” via=”no”]

[bctt tweet=”“Many people are just as afraid of success as they are of failure.” @jerrycolonna” via=”no”]

“Many companies operate on the assumption that their own employees can’t be fully trusted.” Evgeny Shadchnev 

“For the last year, my team and I have been exploring if it is possible to build a company in a different way.” Evgeny Shadchnev

“As companies grow, they somehow become more fearful.” Evgeny Shadchnev

“Some of my greatest successes over the last couple years can be attributed to trusting people more.” Evgeny Shadchnev 

“There is a correlation of being able to be trusted by others, and therefore trusting others.”Jerry Colonna

“The first thing you need to do is be honest, direct, and fierce with yourself.” Jerry Colonna

“The bravery is in naming the situation, and putting words to it.” Jerry Colonna

“Most people won’t acknowledge their own complicit-ness in creating difficult relationships.”Jerry Colonna

“Trust is not something that we actively create. Trust is a byproduct of being radically honest, through radical self-inquiry, and then being brave.” Jerry Colonna 

“What am I not saying that needs to be said?” Jerry Colonna 

“What am I saying that’s not being heard?”Jerry Colonna

“What’s being said that I’m not hearing?”Jerry Colonna

“Trust is closely related to stress.” Evgeny Shadchnev

“Optimizing for trust and being more vulnerable leads to a less stressful life because it enables hard conversations, transparency, and lets you be yourself.” Evgeny Shadchnev

“When you have the audacity to be yourself and create conditions in which you are allowed to be yourself, you inadvertently create the conditions for other people to be themselves.” Jerry Colonna

“Authentic, trusting, trustworthy leadership creates the conditions for a more effective manifestation of the operational goals.” Jerry Colonna

“The counterintuitive fear is what if you actually are successful?” Jerry Colonna

“Many people are just as afraid of success as they are of failure.”Jerry Colonna 

“It seems that the larger a company becomes, the harder it is to trust every specific person to use their best judgment to do what’s right.” Evgeny Shadchnev

“The real challenge is for you as a leader to hold on to the ability to continue being real and authentic, which is modeling for the rest of the team that style of leadership, even as the company succeeds.” Jerry Colonna

“I know if I promise something and then fail to deliver, I will be in a pretty dark place emotionally.”Evgeny Shadchnev

“I would like to think of myself as a reliable person who delivers on what he promises.” Evgeny Shadchnev 

“The result of when the interior and exterior of the company are in alignment is trust.” Jerry Colonna

“If you really want to maintain the trusting environment you’ve built, you need to stay connected with the inner core of yourself.” Jerry Colonna

“Stay vigilant not about keeping the trust, but about being authentic.” Jerry Colonna

“Whenever I feel there is a lack of trust, it is always accompanied by fear.” Evgeny Shadchnev 

“If you can trust your gut instinct, it is an expression of being authentic and true.” Jerry Colonna 

“When I trust people I get more trust back than what I expected.” – Evgeny Shadchnev