BrandsTalk

How to find clarity to develop and evolve our way from sucKcess to success w/ Enrique Acosta Gonzalez

December 13, 2022 Brigitte Bojkowszky Season 9 Episode 93
BrandsTalk
How to find clarity to develop and evolve our way from sucKcess to success w/ Enrique Acosta Gonzalez
Show Notes Transcript

Are you a leader who struggles with finding clarity to develop and evolve to, ultimately, turn sucKsess into success?

Tune into my conversation with Enrique Acosta Gonzalez, a leadership, management, and career developer, who talks about how to get from sucKcess to success. 
He helps those people who are considering leadership, those in leadership that are struggling, and executives that are in over their heads to get developed before they hurt someone or themselves. 
Enrique wants to see the day when workers do not have to go home and consume their dinner and talk about the underdeveloped and unprepared leaders they work for.

Enrique provides answers to the following and more:

  • SucKcess vs. success: There is a difference and you can't fool everyone.
  • What is sucKcess? 
  • How can you mistake sucKcess for success? 
  • How can someone get out of sucKcess? 
  • How can you help a person that can identify with being sucKcessful? 

Enrique is the CEO of Triad Leadership Solutions LLC and has served as an Executive, Veteran & Advocate, Board Member, Non-Profit Administrator, Speaker, Mentor, Coach, and Avid Volunteer. Over the past 20 years, Enrique has held numerous executive advisor and senior positions while serving in the United States Navy and civilian sector. Through education and training, he helped strengthen organizations, providing sound decision support and creating open communication at all levels. Enrique also helped formulate and implement policies concerning morale, welfare, job satisfaction, discipline, and training of personnel. Enrique was named on the power list of the Top 200 (#76) thought leaders to follow in 2021 by Peoplehum, and the nominee of the top 30 Global Gurus list for 2021 by Global Gurus, for his work in the leadership development arena. He is a sought-after John Maxwell certified coach, trainer, and speaker and is an avid mentor in three national and international organizations. He is an award-winning podcaster, with four shows focusing on leadership development and career success. He was named the 2021 Active Duty, Veteran & Military Spouse Entrepreneur Awards, and Media Professional of the Year by The Rosie Network. His down-to-earth approach to leadership has gained him notoriety as one of the most sought-out leadership trainers.

Get in touch with Enrique A. Gonzalez

Get in touch with Brigitte Bojkowszky:

Get in touch with Brigitte Bojkowszky:

👉 Download Your Entrepreneurial Branding Starter Checklist: https://courses.bridgetbrands.com/f/entrepreneurial-branding-starter-checklist

My guest today is Enka Acosta Gonzalez. Enrique is the CEO of Triad Leadership Solutions LLC and has served as an executive veteran and. Board member, nonprofit administrator, speaker, mentor, coach, and AVID volunteer. Over the past 20 years, Enrique has held NAOs executive advisor and senior positions while serving in the United States Navy and civilian sector. Through education and training, he helped strengthen organizations providing sound decision support, and creating open communication at a level. Enrique also helped formulate and implement policies concerning moral welfare, job satisfaction, discipline, and training of personnel. Enrique was named on the powerless of the top 200 thought leaders to follow in 2021 by Peoplehum and nominee of the top 30 global Gurus list for 2021 by global Gurus. For his work in the leadership development arena. He's a thought after John Maxwell's certified coach, trainer, and speaker, and is an avid mentor in three national and international organizations. I'm not done yet. He is an award winning podcaster with four shows focusing on leadership development and career success. He also was named the 2021 Active to the Veteran and Military Spouse Entrepreneur Awards Media Professional after year by the Rosie Network, he's down to earth. Approach to leadership has gained him notoriety as one of the most sought out leadership trainers. Now I'm done. I warmly welcome Enrique Costa Gonzalez. Welcome to BrandsTalk,. Thank you, Bridget. I'm tired already from that be just getting started. So what's going on? Yeah. Thank you for having me, Bridget. It's, it's nice to share this platform this time with you. I really appreciate your work and the branding sector. And ready to get into this. Okay, me too. So Enrique, your track record is astonishing. You're on the powerlist of the top 20 thought leaders in 2021. You are an award-winning podcaster. You are an author, and most of all, you are a leadership coach with a mission to help leaders who struggle finding clarity to develop, evolve, and find a way from sucks ess to success So first of all, why do you do that? What is your big why? Why are you doing what you are doing? Well, Bridget, I, our plainly stated as writing a. When I was younger going through the Navy, I was fortunate, and I'll say that enough to have poor leaders, right? Leaders that were in positions that maybe because of tenure and their way of doing and executing their jobs, they were considered for the next higher position. And so I saw that a lot. But in the mean, They were devouring their people, right? And we, we see that a lot. It happens a lot. So in a short way of saying I'm trying to write a wrong, which means that I am trying to ingest into the leadership pool of people, appropriate folks that can execute leadership the way you would want it to be. Now will you always have onesies and twosies? They're slipped through the crack. Of course you're gonna have that. But what I want to do is tip the scale from having a habitual route for folks that just can do their job. Good to be into the leadership position for people who actually can do the job of leadership, can do the work of leadership, which are the hard work. Yeah. And you also say, I was surrounded by leaders in this wrong positions. And people in position of authority that had no business being there. So even though they had this tenure, and I think when you have this tenure to think, Oh, let's take it easy. Maybe they're more careless than more. He can care and, and caring for their people. And that happens very often. I also experience that in, in my life of having different kinds of job and I was wondering why are they sitting there, where they are sitting? Something is wrong here with the system or what's going on here? So how can we bring more awareness? To that, how, how do we approach such a situation like this? How do you help whom do you talk to? So who is your, who is your client? Is it businesses? And who is actually the people that you are working with? How do you approach these people? I'm sure it's the leaders, but, in what kind of setting? How do you go about that? Yeah. This process of getting. Awareness. So bringing awareness to the fact that leaders may need some assistance, sometimes it's more than assistance , but the fact that that, that, that they need it is, it's a touchy subject, right? Because you have to have number one self-awareness to be able to say, I might need some help if I continue this way. Not only will I continue to hurt my people, the folks that I have charged over, but I'll eventually work my way out of a job. In a bad way, right? There's working your way out of, of a job, which is a succession type of of, of effect. You want to build somebody else in, you wanna get out of there. You don't wanna die in the chair, right? No. But you want someone to come in. That's appropriately trained and able to execute the leadership demands that they will have. That's succession training, right? That's something that you bring in and, and you develop. So it's it's, and I say it's touchy because it requires a lot of selfless acts, meaning you are about to say, I can't cut it. and that's tough for people. Mm-hmm. number one, it's tough for them to even realize that it's even tougher for them to accept it. And I, I add a third layer of having to actually vocalize this. It's, it's something that you often don't see, but what is the signs of true and honest leadership, humility. Humility is one of the things that you want to see in a leader, but you often don't see because there's a lot of pride, right? They, they equate humility with being weak or humility with being able someone to come. And chastise you. So they don't want to fall into that, those two categories. But we, I, I always say you want leadership until you actually have to do leadership Then you're like, Oh, I didn't sign up for this. So I say it's touchy because it really does take someone to, to break down and say, You know what? I really need help more than I need the accolades. I really need to, to get perfected rather than faking it till I make it. I think a lot of people are not showing this kind of humility because humility is for them another word for being vulnerable. And vulnerable is equal to being weak. So how can we overcome that general idea that a lot of people still carry around? I, I came there was a time in my life where I was not humble, although I thought I was . I thought I was probably the most humbled person, but I wasn't because I was always wanting to be the. and if you're always wanting to be the first, you don't leave no space for anybody., you leave people behind. As a matter of fact, you are encouraged like EL race, if you wanna be first, you want to have people behind you. Mm-hmm.. So this, this is a philosophy that has erroneously worked its way into leadership. You don't, as a matter of fact, as a leader, you're never first. Mm-hmm., everybody is. and, and like Simon Sinek leaders eat last, . Yeah. Yeah. That, that's it, it doesn't say, leaders don't eat, they just eat last because they're always concentrated on making sure that people have what they need first because they are the workers. Mm-hmm., you don't have leaders run then doing the work. Workers do the work. So make sure that your people are taking, taken care of. How do you, how do you get to humility? How do you get to that point? You have to be unafraid. Mm-hmm., a person that is egotistical and always working on what's in it for them is afraid. I would dare even say a coward. And that's a strong word. Mm-hmm.. But when you hide behind things to shield yourself and basically you stunt your growth in terms of fear, a leader is fear. They're not fearful. And so when you do not step out into the light that is telling me that you are afraid of some things coming out. Mm-hmm.. And if you are afraid, And, and there's a healthy fear, right? There's a healthy fear. I don't know what's in the dark, but you know what? I'm the leader here. I'm going in there and I'm gonna, I'm gonna bring some light. Yeah. Another thing is, whoa, if that light comes on me, this thing may be over. So there's different types of fear, but if you start to lose the fear of what it is that you need to overcome, Then you'll start seeing that humility becomes your partner. Humility is not there to bring you down, is actually there to bring you up. Oh, I love that. Thank you so much for that explanation and stepping into the light is really something that you see. I own it. Yeah. So you live up your own values, you live your truth, and you, you just do it. And As you say, fear is, is you are pushing past it. Yeah. And and then you're becoming more confident because you walk it and evolve with every step you go. You are becoming more confident and fearless actually. Yeah. And it's becoming then your partner. Pushing through it. It's a sparring partner in a sense, right? Yeah. You are growing. And that leads me to the next question. From your perspective, what are some actions that we can take or set to become these better leaders. So leaders who are reflected, whose workers are proud of their leaders and proud of working for them. So what can they do? What can we do? How can we start setting the right steps? That I, I'm reminded as you were asking your question of a, of a biblical story that I read. It was the son of King David. His name was Aam, and it and, and, short story here. Mm-hmm., he stood at the gate. He never went to the, to the palace, and he stood at the gate where the people were, and he started asking, How can I help you? Mm-hmm.. And, and, and long story short, it ends with he won over the hearts of the people and then he actually became king for a while, right? Although inappropriately, but he actually became king. So as a leader, what do you do to become better? What do you do to hone your skill? Hone the fact that you are the leader and have your people be proud of. Go down. Mm-hmm., get out of your chair., get out of your office and go where the people are. Spend some time in the group. Now, I'll caution you, it may feel uncomfortable for them for a little bit , right? Initially. Initially, right? Because this divide has been placed on both sides. The leader doesn't come down and they don't want them there, So there's a divide that's created from both sides, but as a leader, it is your responsibility to go to your people and ask them, What can I do for you? What obstacle is in your way that I can move that I have the authority? Because if I don't, then don't ask me. I don't. But if I. What can I move to make sure that the flow of your work is uninhibited? What can I do to make sure that you are successful today? Mm-hmm.. And if you can do that, if they now, if you ask, you better be ready to do it, . But if you ask and you're ready to do it, and you do it, you will win over the hearts of your people. All they want is to be able to come to work. Do their job without any friction and be able to finally, at the end of the day, say we did a great job today. Mm-hmm. and all of that can come by you going down and being with your people and finding out what they need. Yeah. Beautiful. So you are also going down to your people, to your clients and you are also asking them a lot of questions. Mm-hmm., you are helping them going from this so-called suckcess to success. So first of all, we would like to know how suckcess differs from success. What do you mean by that? Yeah. I, I love that when, when I came across what I wanted to focus on, it was the mirage of a leader that thought they were, but the people knew they weren't. And that's just always, we all have seen leaders that are in positions and like I say, have no business being there, but they got. And I'm of the belief, as, as I believe in, in eternal God, that some people are there, even if you don't want them to, for a specific reason. Whether that is because they're actually great at their job. A lot of organizations tend, tend to push those great leaders to, or those great performers into leadership roles. Probably not the best thing to do but it happened. So I wanted to focus on the fact that there were leaders. That thought they were, but were not, because they did not win the hearts of the people. They were not the leaders. And I've often gone into an office and I, I will be sitting in a, in a, in a meeting and I'm talking to the leadership. And I notice where most eyes go to when there's questioned. And if they go to the person that is not designated, let's say coo c. I have already identified who the true leader in the room iss. So I wanted to bring, highlight to the fact that although you may be succeeding as a whole, you may be failing as a leader. And that sucks that success, the, the regular su success, it's not success, it's actually success. This K that I have interjected into the word is what I, what I call K factors. K factors are things that come up in the execution of your position that actually speak to your flaws. They speak to your inabilities. They speak to the fact that you are not prepared for that position. And although you are still in that position, you are slowly but surely chipping away at the. True success by ingesting this case. And now it could be time management, it could be your personal vices, which a lot of leadership fall to their personal vices, right? So those things that are done in the dark that nobody knows about, but soon will come up to light, right? That we were talking about stepping into the. These things will come up and we see it all the time, right? We see it all the time, come out on the news and magazines periodicals, anything that we'll talk to. Oh, how the mighty have fallen, right? That's how the Mighty fall. It could be things that were in your upbringing that you never even. Realize, but are now coming up as, as a, as an adult, it could be financial issues. So anything that will chip away at true success is what I call success, or those K factors that interject into your career, your profession, your, your life, your day to day. And I highlight those in, in, in a chapter of a book of, of the book that I co-wrote. But it is things that. Not supposed to be in the execution of your leadership, but you allow them to and use success . So once you have identified those K factors, how do you get out of them? Do you need a, a coach or is it you that you help them with? So how does that work? Well, this is the interesting part. Most people that are successful have gone that way so long that they feel they don't need anybody. Mm-hmm. the, the thing. The thing is that people get hurt all throughout the tenure of your execution of that position. People are hurting. Number one, self-awareness. Self-awareness. And if a leader doesn't have self-awareness, they've already gone down the wrong road. Mm-hmm., right? That's, that's, that's probably the one of the worst things that a leader could be without is self-awareness. So once you have self-awareness, you can identify these things. Now you need bravery, right? You need to be saying, You know what, I, I, I need help. And so what I ask people is, Hey, if you've gotten this far being wrong don't you think you need help? But what they come back to me is, I'm still. That's a tough thing to answer, right? If somebody had been going the wrong road and still getting to, to achieve things, why would they need you? Yeah. Then you need to focus on the people. Mm-hmm., and that's where I, when I come into organizations, I focus on the people. I actually don't focus first on the leaders. I focus on the people. The people will tell me exactly what I need to go work on cause the leader won't. And then I take that conversation and then I morph it into a tailored approach to that particular leader. But they need self-awareness in order for you to get into a position where you'll even accept any suggestion as to what you can do better. Okay, so when you are working in an organization, you're working with all the different levels. You're working with team, you're working with the leader, you are working with the C level. Actually creating the awareness already on the C level because they live their values and they are the leaders. And it's a ripple effect, right? Mm-hmm., so it affects also the leaders, how they behave, and where are the boundaries? In how far are they taking accountability for what they're doing? And that has another ripple effect to the team. I suppose you are taking a holistic approach to Exactly. Getting down to the source and then help the organization actually to go forward in a healthy way. Because to approach a leader about their inadequacies or inability to perform at a certain level mm-hmm. and not in, and not include the C-suite or executives and the workforce is a, it's damaging to the leader because they will be made aware of things that they are not doing. Maybe given some suggestions, but if you leave it at that, they have no support mechanism. And so what the C-suite and the workforce does is they become the support mechanism for this leader. Maybe they don't lose their job and they stay in that position, but they're gonna have to have support from the workforce and the executives to be able if, if they really want to see this person. All right. That's so interesting. But I would like to move on to my next question, which has something to do with that, of course. Because you already mentioned your book. You became a best selling author this year in April with your book A Lion's

Pride:

The scars that silenced the kings. So you co-authored it with Alan S. Gervais. Why did you write this book? What is it exactly about? We can guess from the name and who should read it. Yeah Alliance Pride was a, a one of those things that we just discussed coming out into the light. So that as a leader you have nothing to fear and when, when this book is actually a, Hey, tell all this. This is what this young man this person has gone through in their life. Good, bad, ugly, terrible, however you wanna call it, right? All mixed together so that you understand that as a leader, you don't have to have all the answers, you don't have to know it all. Mm-hmm.. And you can become a leader even with life misstep. And, and, and we all have them, but we all hide them. Right? And, and what I did in this book, along with other authors, is that we just put it out. We put it out good, bad, and ugly. And to, to help folks understand that it is not your past. That actually is is the focus. It's what you do with the past. And how you track forward from that pass that actually counts. Yeah. It's actually the missteps or what happened to us, our journey that helps you guide other people towards the future. It's where our purpose is. It's what made us. What we are today. And it's also that these are the stories that we need to tell and that makes us vulnerable and that makes us connect with people on this emotional level. And this is what counts. People wanna hear that stories because they see in you someone who has walked it before. Yeah. And you did not only write this book, you have been a LinkedIn live host since 2020. Your show is called Aloha Friday Life. A casual leadership discussion show where you invite guests as well. So why did you start that and what is it about exactly? Yeah. 2020 actually, caused a lot of shifts for everyone. This was one of. I wanted to educate my community since I saw that growing, growing, growing, I said, let me take this moment to create a, a show around. Leisure talk about leadership. Now every, everything about leadership doesn't have to be serious, right? You could actually talk leadership and, and it be casual talk. And so I wanted to invite guests that had a specific. View on leadership from their perspective. I didn't wanna drive the conversation or anything like that. I just wanted to find out what the, what my community thought about leadership and how they used these principles in their day to day. And so I named it Alo Friday Live because I spent a lot of time in Hawaii 13 years of my life. Were on Oahu. I kin myself to the island and the Hawaiian people because it's just one of my heart desires to go back and, and permanently be there. But it's, it is just an aloha, chill, hang loose type of an approach on leadership and a lot of great conversations I had during it. Yeah. I think that's important to also see fun in what you're doing and whatever is it, you are a leader in your job. Whatever role you are playing, you should have fun and without fun. It's, what is it about in this life? Yeah, it's, it's part of it, an integral part, and I was in Hawaii two months ago, and I love Hawaii, so I'm sure I'm going back there. That was the last time 30 years ago, so it was time to go back. Right, Right. All right. So Enrique, you are definitely in your sweet spot. You are living your truth, and that's what I feel you are in your very best version. And you're evolving and evolving, and evolving and, and through so all the things that you are doing yeah, you walking your path and that makes you a thought leader and a strong personal brand. So what is the singular thing? That only you can provide. There is a lot of leadership coaches out there, but what's your uniqueness? What makes you stand out and shine? Well, I, I get this question a lot and it's hard to try to pinpoint how you differ from somebody else, especially in the leadership arena, right? Because there are principles and, and, and things that, and processes. We all share because we've learned. But one thing that no one else on this world can do is take my life experience and apply it to resolutions that you may need. Every single person on this earth has such a unique position and a, a unique stance in life that if that no one could ever replicate it. Mm, we couldn't even if we went back in history and were able to snap our fingers and go back, we will be trying to change things. And , so what we would do is replicate that life. So what my life has taught me, although it may be similar in subject, it is unique to me., and that is the perspective that I bring and the flavor that I bring to all the resolutions and all the conversations and everything that I'm involved with. So what makes me unique? Me? I'm unique. You're unique and unique. To be able to, to accept that. And own that and bring that out in a way where now that perspective is something that is new, newly heard, newly applied, and, and if you could give that to somebody and they could do something with it, perfect match. Yeah. It's really the unique blend of your experience, of your past, of your know how, your learning, your skills, your character, your human being. So I think that is so unique to everyone. And yeah, we know that there are millions of leadership coaches out there, but no one is like you with that specific blend. And if you know about it, and I think that's why we reflective, that's why we really need to go on a deep soul searching mission to really figure that out and make and crystallize it out to become a diamond and I think that is what makes brands, personal brands, organizational brands, whatever brands it is, shine. Yeah. Okay. So I have one more question. Is there any major learning experience, like a setback, something that happened to you and in hindsight it was a really huge opportunity for your learning going forward, Something that was really significant and shaped your life. Would you like to talk about that? Yeah. It's actually the whole reason why I went into the profession that I am in now. Not every leader that you're gonna come across will be a blessing to you. Mm. Not every leader some will seem to be a curse in your life, right? But what I, what I would like for the audience to, to realize is that it's not, it's not for them when they're in your life, it's for you. Mm-hmm.. And so what are you going to do? With the situation at hand, so this particular leader would in front of people often berate me for my accent. At the time, I did not speak as I do now. I came from, the Bronx. There was a heavy accent. English was my second language, although I thought I was proficient and I was proficient in English, but not at the capacity as you hear today. And so they took opportunities for whatever whatever reason, I will never know, but they did. And that could have easily broke. I was very young, 19 years old, eight 19 years old at the time, 19 20, 21. And I could have buckled to that be, Beratement. What I chose to do was to improve myself. Although the reasons were a little combative, right? I would say, because what I did was say, Well, no one's ever gonna do that to me. Very prideful, but , it's what worked for me at the time. But I took the dictionary and I read that thing in and out. I became proficient in how to not only speak the words, but understand the meaning behind them and use them. And that made me a powerhouse. Mm-hmm., that simple dictionary, it's red. It used to be straight red. That red book and, and the mindset behind how can I make myself better so that this doesn't happen to me and how can I make myself better so that I am an asset versus a liability? Because I thought that I was viewed as a liability. And that one, Period in my life, set the course for the rest of my life. Now, I won't tell you that I did not decide some things because of that, that were not as as good for everybody, right? Because from that experience, I also took a selfish route and, and that wasn't good, but that one decision to say, How can I make myself better so that no one else does this to me ever again, was probably the most pivotal. Thank you so much. I love that because it's such an an authentic answer. It's helping a lot of people out there, I'm sure. Thank you so much for sharing that experience with us. All right. You're almost at the end of our show, Enrique . I would like to do some rapid fire terms with you, so I'm throwing out a term and you will be answering top of mind. Is that okay for you? Sure. Let's go. All right. Purpose. Life's reward success. Only you can get it. mindset. Pivotal. Mm-hmm. Women Empowerment. Let's do it.. , Good. And brands. What are brands for you? Brands. We, we all have brands. Learn how to market yourself, learn how to establish it, brands so important. Okay, good. Enrique, where can listeners find you to get in touch with you? Yeah. Is there anything that you are offering right now? Tell us. Yeah, so it's, I'm on LinkedIn, . If you can't find me on LinkedIn, you can't find me anywhere. But LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, you could find me personally, Enrique Acosta Gonzalez. Or if you look for Triad Leadership Solutions on all the, all those mediums, you'll find our page, triad leadership solutions.com is our website and you can find out all about our company offerings and things like that, and even book time to speak with me through that medium. The podcast is called Developing the Leader Within podcast. You could look that's on every platform. To include Amazon Spotify, all those. And, and yeah, the, all my contact info is on LinkedIn. You can get me through that through those mediums. Perfect. Okay. Enrique thank you so much for being my guest on BrandsTalk, having you hear was a true pleasure to learn how to find clarity to develop, evolve, and find our way from Suckcess. Success. Thank you Enrique . Thank you so much for having me.