Episode 956: Invest in Yourself - Interview with Roy Heintz Author of Lead Like a Coach - Part 1

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining us on episode 956 of the inspired stewardship

[00:00:06] Roy Heintz: I'm Roy Heights. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to lead like a coach is key.

[00:00:24] And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to it. The inspired stewardship podcast with my friend, Scott Mader.

[00:00:33] I realized right away that what's happening is we don't have enough quality leaders that really understand how to lead. And I felt like the way that a coach leader. Can a successful winning athletic program would correlate very easily into the business realm.

[00:00:54] Scott Maderer: Welcome, and thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast.

[00:00:59] [00:01:00] If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling in the inspired stewardship podcast. We'll learn to invest in you. Invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

[00:01:21] And today's interview with Roy Hines. I asked Roy about how he developed a reputation as a turnaround specialist. I also get Roy to share why his book lead like a coach can help you do the same. And Roy also shares with you some of his top advice and resources beyond his book to help you transform culture.

[00:01:41] One reason I like to bring you great interviews. Like the one you're going to hear today is because of the power in learning from others. Another great way to learn from others is through reading books. But if you're like most people today, you find it hard to find the time to sit down and read. And that's why [00:02:00] today's podcast is brought to you by audible.

[00:02:03] Go to inspired stewardship.com/audible to sign up and you can get a 30 day free trial. There's over 180,000 titles to choose from. And instead of reading, you can listen your way to learn from some of the greatest minds out there. That's inspired stewardship.com/audible to get your free trial and listen to great books the same way you're listening to this podcast.

[00:02:30] Roy Heintz is an Arthur professional speaker and senior business executive in Atlanta, Georgia. He has become synonymous with champion success for over three decades as a basketball coach, business leader and professional speaker for corporations, organizations, and professional and intercollegiate athletic teams across the nation and around the us.

[00:02:51] His dynamic and entertaining speaking style matched with his inspirational teaching has made him a much sought after speaker [00:03:00] lead. Like a coach is his first book, but he is currently working on two more book projects, a personal development book and an accompanying children's book for over a year. He has also had a weekly video series across the social media platforms, which is also called.

[00:03:15] Lead like a coach. Currently, Roy serves as senior executive leader and national director of service excellence for Atlanta's reliable roofing, a national roofing company, his knowledge and experience and leadership, culture development, customer experience, excellence, and organizational development and training is helping them grow rapidly and serving the multifamily housing market across the United States.

[00:03:39] He is married to Sharon and they have a daughter, Sarah and a son-in-law Ryan as well as two incredibly awesome grandchildren, Emily and Andrew. Welcome to the show.

[00:03:51] Roy Heintz: Oh, it's great to be here, Scott, thank you so much for the opportunity.

[00:03:55] Scott Maderer: Absolutely. I'm looking forward to talking to you today. So as we [00:04:00] just heard in the intro, you've got a little bit of a different background than a lot of folks and you've gotten this reputation, whether it's in sports back as a coach, whether it's in business now, As what people would call a turnaround specialists.

[00:04:15] So w what does that mean and why, how do you think you got that reputation and that talent to be somebody that can help turn around an organism?

[00:04:23] Roy Heintz: I think it starts for me really going back to how I was raised and the lessons that my parents taught me. They raised me to in all of their children to dream really big dreams, and then back it up with a strong work ethic to achieve those dreams.

[00:04:40] And so that was a formative thing, a formative lesson from my childhood. And then because of my Christian faith and what I consider my life. Colossians 3 23 says whatever you do work at it with all of your heart as working for the Lord, not for man. And [00:05:00] so my faith and my childhood upbringing really brought me to a point of really trying to be the absolute best I could be.

[00:05:10] And in doing that, really try to chase those big dreams. And I think that continues. To a big vision and then characteristically or purse. My personality really developed to where I wanted to inspire others to do the same thing and not to short chain. Themselves. And then I also found it a very early age that I had leadership qualities where I really could pull people together and move towards a common goal or purpose.

[00:05:41] And then lastly, I think I don't know if it's my Italian heritage, but there was a passion there for life and for achievement and enthusiasm and enjoyment. A willingness to persevere when there were challenges and a resistance to what I was trying to accomplish. And so I think all [00:06:00] that came together to really create this passion, to take historical losing basketball programs as a basketball coach and turn them into champions and to try to do it as quickly as possible.

[00:06:13] So I probably lacked patience. It was a good thing for the people that wanted to see a turnaround quickly. But I just love that challenge. I think I'm somebody that really loved that challenge and in the sports realm. And now I'm bringing that to the business realm as well.

[00:06:32] Scott Maderer: So you mentioned offhandedly that you found that you had some leadership qualities and the ability to move people together.

[00:06:38] And I will talk more about that as we go on, but when you say that. At first glance, a lot of times somebody who's a high driver who really knows, has a big dream and big push. You can push people away as well as bring people on. W what do you think you've done differently or learned to do differently yourself that allowed you to get [00:07:00] people on board

[00:07:01] Roy Heintz: with that vision?

[00:07:02] Leadership, I want to say right away is not a title. It's really the ability to influence impact. To inspire them. And the but then the key component is the relational component. You really have to build relationships with people. So that leads to relational trust that they know that this isn't about me.

[00:07:25] It's about all of us and what we're trying to do. And or if I, if it's just that person's life that I really cared for them and want to do see that seeing them achieve something great or see them become the best person that they could be, but it starts with a relationship. They really know your heart.

[00:07:46] And that you're in it for them.

[00:07:48] Scott Maderer: So as you mentioned, you've been successful in sports, you've done a lot of leading there and then now in the business world as well. How do you think being a coach in sport? [00:08:00] Actually prepared you for now working in, leading in business.

[00:08:04] Roy Heintz: Scott, this is really the crux of my new book.

[00:08:06] And as I came to the business world and I had spent 30 years as a professional speaker, most of that in the business world. So I think that uniquely qualified me to move from sports to business. And as I've gotten into the business world and had a desire. To have an impact in our company, what I began to realize.

[00:08:28] And then as I began to study business as a whole, I began to realize that we had a problem. In today's business workplace, and that is employee disengagement. They aren't engaged and consequently their performance productivity is waning. And that was backed up by a Gallup research poll that they surveyed business employees in 155 countries and found out that 85% of those people were [00:09:00] disengaged.

[00:09:00] 15% actively disengaged. When I looked at that problem and I saw that problem in a small microcosm in our company, I realized right away that what's happening is we don't have enough quality leaders that really understand how to lead. And I felt like the way that a coach leads. In a successful winning athletic program could correlate very easily into the business realm.

[00:09:30] And so I set out to write the book really to help answer the problem. It's not to sell a lot of books it's to try to help leaders improve and grow so that those that they lead both in the workplace, in our family. In organizations that we volunteer in that we can be effective leaders that maximize our impact.

[00:09:52] So very specifically, I think an athletic coach understands that it starts with vision as a [00:10:00] leader. What is my vision for where I want to go then as the leader of a department. A group, an organization or an entire corporation. What is the vision that you want to establish? Where do you want to go?

[00:10:15] And then here's the key. When we talk about vision, it's very critical that we also understand what's the vision for those people that we lead. What do they want to do with their lives and their careers? Because that's going to allow me to lead them and coach them more effectively. So if I have an employee who is just coming in they have a great motivation, but it's simply to provide for their families.

[00:10:43] But then I have another employee who's maybe a little younger, but they aspire to someday be the president of a company or a CEO. I'm going to coach them much differently. Then I would the first person. And so we have to understand their vision. Then the second thing a coach does [00:11:00] is they're very clear about helping their people understand their role and understand the skills that it takes to perform their role.

[00:11:11] And so in the business realm, I ask leaders all the time. When was the last time you looked at their job description? Was it when you were preparing to interview? Them to fill that position, or do you really discuss that with your employees? These are your responsibilities. Where do you feel? Ill-equipped?

[00:11:28] How can I improve you? How can I help you grow and develop that, and then empowered them to do their job. Today's workforce doesn't want to be micromanaged. They want to be empowered to do their work. And coaches say to their athletes, this is your role. They equip them to perform at a very high level in the athletic action and they empower them to do their job.

[00:11:55] And then the third thing is that we [00:12:00] allow them to take action, but now we have to measure what they're doing. So in the business realm, I really encourage leaders to sit down with their employees once they work through. This is what your job entails. This is what my expectations look like on a daily, weekly, monthly basis for you in your position.

[00:12:21] And once we empower them, then we have to say, now, how do we measure your success daily? How do we measure your success on a weekly, a monthly basis? And we in I'm encouraging leaders to literally come up with a scorecard or a scoreboard. John Maxwell says. Th that doing business without a scoreboard is like bowling without pens.

[00:12:47] And so I think it's really important because how many leaders Scott, do we know that say, I just, I don't think you're doing a very good job. Let's drill down to the specific measurable, and that I [00:13:00] encourage coaches to do a daily, but at the very minimum weekly, look at those statistical outputs on a dashboard statistical dashboard or a scoreboard scorecard and say, Hey, let's talk about strategy and tactics and adjustments.

[00:13:15] Nate, we meet, we need to be. Every coach goes into a game with a game plan, but the opponent does as well. And you've got to be able to make adjustments. You'll find that the greatest coaches come out of halftime and you see their team's performance spike after halftime. That's the mark of a great coach in business.

[00:13:37] Do we wait until the end of the year to make adjustments? No, we have to make them with regularity and we have to do that with our people. And when you do that, in my opinion, you can develop a dynasty. And that's what I define as sustained excellence over a long period of time. But the key there is the development of a culture of [00:14:00] excellence, which starts by developing a culture of hard work.

[00:14:03] Then you have a D you develop a culture of excellence and what happens. Is you raise up leaders within your company that now they begin to lead the coach or the person who has leadership by the title doesn't necessarily lead in a dynasty like a coach. Doesn't in a team. It's the players who saying no.

[00:14:25] This is our standard of excellence. This is our standard of performance, and this is how we do it here. And that's what happens within the company. So I think there's a real direct correlation that if business leaders, we begin to work this way, then. Businesses will see their employees much more engaged because they're empowered.

[00:14:47] They're excited to do their job, but they also know, again, through that relationship that we talked about and relational trust that I, as their leader have their best interest in mind and I'm training [00:15:00] them to improve personally and professionally. And they see that and feel that with regularity.

[00:15:05] Scott Maderer: So in your book lead like a coach, one of the things that I came across as I was reading it is you mentioned that great leaders will be readers, will be lifelong learners. We'll constantly be growing. So thinking about that, how have you actually approached your own learning and development throughout your career?

[00:15:25] Roy Heintz: I think it's really important for any person or any leader, not to have a fixed mindset, but to have a real growth mindset and to have a hunger to learn. Not, and I used to, as a coach at the high school and college level, I would tell my players who were student athletes. And I call them scholar athletes, because we really recruited some great students that have gone on to be doctors and attorneys.

[00:15:50] Business leaders and teachers they've had great success. But to have a passion for learning, it's not w the grades will come as a result of having a passion to [00:16:00] learn. So I appreciate you underscoring that. Where did that come from? For me? I think, again goes back to, I think my parents really raised me to be teachable and coach.

[00:16:12] To respect the teachers and coaches and people in my life that wanted to pour into me and help me to learn. And then very specifically for me, Scott, I do believe reading is a real key. I think leaders are readers the most successful leaders. If you drill down, you learn more about them. You'll see that they're voracious readers and about almost 30 years ago, now someone in my life.

[00:16:41] Challenged me to read from a book one hour a day. And he said don't, it's done your Bible. Doesn't count magazines, newspapers. We used to have newspapers don't count online, younger

[00:16:52] Scott Maderer: people, a newspaper was this big square paper thing that had the daily news in it. Yeah. For the younger listeners

[00:16:59] Roy Heintz: [00:17:00] for the younger list.

[00:17:01] There's that your online reading as well? He said read from a book and of course you can read from Kendall, but. Read from a book on a daily basis, one hour, he said it doesn't have to be a 60 minutes setting. It could be two thirties, four fifteens, ten six is six, 10, whatever. But if you do that, research says that if you read five books from any one topic, you're considered a world of 40 on that topic.

[00:17:26] So that boy that got my attention, I wanted to be better and learn different topics. And then he said, if you do that, you'll read about a book a week. And that's been historically the case, especially in my last five years, I've probably read about 60 or 70 books a year. I would ask people, what are you reading?

[00:17:47] And then secondly, is what are you listening to? I don't listen to a lot of radio. I listen to podcasts and interviews to try to learn from other people. See [00:18:00] books are mentors because we can learn from other people's experiential knowledge, their experiential failures. And the same thing with interviews.

[00:18:11] I want to learn what they went through to build something or to create something great or where they had their challenges, the lessons that they've learned. So that's really a huge key. And then what are you watching? I think so many people say I don't have time to read by the way, the man who challenged me to read an hour a day, Was pat Williams, who was the senior vice president of the Orlando magic.

[00:18:34] And he's an author of about 55, 66. But when we talk about, I don't have time to read. Pat had 19 children, four naturally 15 adopted children. I think he had about a dozen that were all teenagers at the same time. That's a man who could have had an excuse for not reading. He understood the importance of it.

[00:18:55] The other thing that wastes so much time is television. So I [00:19:00] don't watch a lot of television. I would tell people that if you really want to grow and be a lifelong learner, DVR things so that you're not sitting in the recliner and vegging out and spinning through the channels. And three hours later, you think, wow, I just lost three hours of my life, but be very intentional about scheduling what you want to watch that way.

[00:19:19] But I'm watching YouTube. I'm watching Ted talks. I'm again, exploring how I can learn. From other people, because the most successful people, they don't know who the best dancers are. They don't know who got voted off the island. And they sure as heck don't know who the Kardashians are dating right now, successful people don't waste their time by watching television.

[00:19:44] And then the other thing that's really important. I talked about people that poured into my life. I think finding people that can mentor us. Is very important in, in, in my book. And in my speaking engagements, I talk a lot about learning that [00:20:00] lesson in doing what I call learning lunches. So if there's a leader that I want to learn from, I'd reach out to them and people will be surprised.

[00:20:09] How other people will agree to meet with them, even people that we would say, wow, they're really important. But you ha in my book goes into preparation. I think that's a huge key. Don't just ask to meet with somebody and then just stand there and all of them, or sit there and all of them, you have to come prepared with questions.

[00:20:25] I even share questions that I have. And mentoring and having people come into our lives is really important. And then lastly, you learn so much when you teach others. So find ways that you can pour into other people as well to solidify the things that you know, you're saying.

[00:20:43] Scott Maderer: So let's give you an opportunity to share some resources.

[00:20:47] If you had to, you've mentioned some general things like reading and that kind of thing, but let's get a little bit more specific. What are two or three resources that you feel like are key for folks that are [00:21:00] trying to develop themselves in this kind of mindset? Of leadership and developing others?

[00:21:04] Roy Heintz: I think first of all I do have to go back to books. Books are the, to me the best resource, you don't have to buy them. There are these things called libraries in most cities, and they give you a library card, which is completely free. And. And so books are a huge resource. And I will just say on my website is Roy speaks.net.

[00:21:26] You can always remember that. My name's Roy I'm a professional speaker and I was a basketball coach. So the.net goes in there, but on the menu, there's a link called Roy's life. And there's probably four or 500 book titles on there that you can look at and maybe get some reading ideas but buy books, get books from the library and really pour into them, read things that you're interested in or interested in learning.

[00:21:53] And reading is your it's. It's a way to strengthen your brain as a [00:22:00] muscle. And the more you read the better you'll read. That's one thing. Second thing is conferences. Again, if I'm going to, if I'm in a job and want to improve or say I'm in a job that I really aspire to have a different job, it wouldn't, to me, I think you need to find.

[00:22:16] Conferences online classes, mastermind groups, where you can get with people and you can learn from them directly. I think that is a tremendous way to learn. We spend so much money in our lives. But how much are we investing in our lives? And in our careers, don't look at it is all I've got. It's like television and how that's a time zapper from us.

[00:22:45] We think that, oh, that book costs so much money. But if we really put it in context of where we're spending our money, don't see it as spending your money, see it as an investment in your life and in your career and [00:23:00] in improving yourself. So I'd say books and conferences are two great ways of doing that.

[00:23:06] Scott Maderer: You can find out more about Roy and his speaking and you can book him over@royspeaks.net. Of course I'll have links to that over in the show notes. Roy, is there anything else you'd like to share with the

[00:23:18] Roy Heintz: listener? I'd like to thank them for listening today and encourage them that if I said something that really struck a chord with them, any in any way, Don't just put it away, but act on it and act on it today.

[00:23:32] A lot of times we, if we're listening to learn and I love to listen to podcasts, including this one. I listened to this podcast and learn from it. But you only learn by taking what you hear and applying it quickly. And so I'd encourage you to do that. If the listener hasn't bought my book yet, I'd appreciate it.

[00:23:50] If they'd consider doing that on Amazon and then read it. Apply it to their lives as leaders, and then write a review of the book, meant something to you. And [00:24:00] then if you're as part of an organization that would like me to speak to your group or in any way, as you said, just reach out to me through my website because I'd love to speak to your group if we can make it work.

[00:24:12] Scott Maderer: Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoy this episode please do us a favor. Go over to inspired stewardship.com/itunes rate.

[00:24:40] All one word. ITunes rate, it'll take you through how to leave a rating and review and how to make sure you're subscribed to the podcast so that you can get every episode as it comes out in your feed until next time, invest your time, your talent and your [00:25:00] treasures. Develop your influence and impact the world.