The Rooftop Podcast
154 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 3 years ago - ★★★★★ - 13 ratingsThe Rooftop Podcast helps servant leaders make stronger human connections so they can get big stuff done. We release short "Fireside Chat" episodes on Tuesday and full episodes on Friday.
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Episodes
Hard Conversations in the New Normal
July 28, 2020 15:37 - 7 minutes - 18.1 MBPeople are going to have to get furloughed. People are going to get laid off. People are going to get fired. You're going to have to tell vendors that you don't use their services anymore. It's not easy. Because we're meaning seeking, emotional social story animals, we thrive on connection. Our relationship portfolio is our greatest asset. It's our best book of business, especially in a crisis. So how do we do that? How do we have these hard conversations? Join me by the fire-pit and let...
The Value of a Handshake
July 21, 2020 18:18 - 8 minutes - 19 MBWhat's the value of a handshake? That's the question that's been on my mind for several days. Now, when this COVID pandemic kicked off, I started talking to leaders about my concerns around social distancing. I felt like we had misnamed it, it should have been physical distancing. The reason is that humans are meaning seeking, emotional, social, story animals. We thrive in times of chaos by our ability to form groups to overcome what nature throws at us. Our defense in this pandemic, h...
Leading Our Teammates Back Into the Arena
July 14, 2020 14:00 - 7 minutes - 16.9 MBOne of the biggest questions that we're going to have to ask ourselves, is how do I help my teammates get back into the arena? And what does that look like when they do it? I coach a lot of very high-level executives who cannot wait to get back into the office, but guess what? It's a 50/50 split on their leadership team about being ready to get back into the office. How do we lead our people in such a way that we help them get back into the arena and then reframe and redefine the arena so ...
Getting Clear on Social Distance
July 07, 2020 19:00 - 8 minutes - 20.5 MBThe question I'm asking is this, after these last nine to ten weeks of the pandemic and the social distancing, how do you feel about human connection right now? Have you asked yourself that open-ended question? How do you feel about it? How do you feel about it as an individual who's going to encounter humans on the street? How do you feel about it in your business, like with clients and prospects and investors? Join me by the campfire as we, “Get Clear on Social Distancing”. I’ll see...
Get Back Into the Game
June 30, 2020 18:52 - 9 minutes - 20.6 MBEverybody has challenges that have come out of this new time horizon. Even if you think you don't, when you have eight to nine weeks of mandated social distancing and isolation, it's going to have an effect on us as humans, right? So, the larger question though is how do I, “Get Back in the Game”? How do you get back in the game? Join me by the fire pit and let’s talk about what we can do to, “Get Back in the Game”. I’ll see you on the Rooftop, Scott Join Our Rooftop Tribe! Websit...
What's Changed in Your Arena?
June 16, 2020 20:07 - 9 minutes - 21.2 MBIn Special Forces, Special Operations, we have these things called imperatives. These are the guidelines that move us through complexity, crisis, ambiguity. A lot of the same things that you're facing. The number one Special Ops imperative that we live by, is understand your operational environment. In other words, pay attention to your arena, right? Wherever it is that you work, and you play, you always want to be asking yourself what's changed? I want to go into that right now, as we ki...
Mistakes Leaders Make During Crisis
March 17, 2020 17:28 - 14 minutes - 33.6 MBWe all face crisis as leaders, as organizational leaders, certainly. We live in a dangerous world. We may think we're super sophisticated and we've got everything going on, but as we're seeing today with the coronavirus, with 9/11, with natural disasters, active shooters, there are a range of things where life happens while we're making other plans. So how do we lead through those moments, and can we look at situations from the past where leaders made mistakes, and learn from them? Join me...
Leading Through Fear
March 10, 2020 16:23 - 14 minutes - 33 MBWe need leaders who can lead through fear because the reality is, fear is a normal human function. It kept us alive for hundreds of thousands of years. It is a fight, flight, or freeze thing. It is a primal reality. Fear motivates us. Fear drives us. But in many ways in today's world, fear can be a great inhibitor to us meeting our goals. If we allow fear to dominate us, it can have a prolific effect on stopping us from achieving the goals or the higher purpose we want to achieve, and fear ...
Self Sabotage: No One Wants To Hear This
January 28, 2020 14:00 - 11 minutes - 25.7 MBWe've talked about things that are too daunting. Overwhelming. We've talked about the “Imposter Syndrome”, talked about being “Too Busy” and now we're talking about, “No One Wants to Hear This”. That's another form of self-sabotage. It's the first cousin of Imposter Syndrome, right? “It's not good enough. What I have to say is just not something that people want to hear”. It’s something that we need to work through as leaders, and I will tell you that leaders at every level deal with this c...
Self Sabotage: Too Busy...
January 21, 2020 17:41 - 10 minutes - 23 MBThe “rat race”, the operational tempo that will dominate you, own you if you're not careful. It can make it very difficult to do what Rooftop Leaders are supposed to do, which is to play a bigger game. To serve a purpose bigger than yourself and to have an impact that leaves tracks. We sometimes let the rat race dominate us, consume all we do and create the state of, “Too Busy”. I can't tell you how many senior executives say the same thing to me, "Scott, I just don't have time right now. I...
Imposter Syndrome: Who am I to Do This?
January 15, 2020 00:45 - 10 minutes - 23.5 MBWho are you not to do it? What happens if you don't write your book? What happens if you don't put your music out there? Your art, your movie, your ideas. Who are you not to share the lessons you have learned? Who are you not to do that thing that you know must be done? These are the questions you should be asking. Imposter Syndrome. Join me by the fire-pit and let’s discuss how to crush, “Imposter Syndrome”. I’ll see you on the Rooftop, Scott Game Changers: Abridged Citizens Edition ...
Self-Sabotage: Do What Scares You
January 09, 2020 18:56 - 10 minutes - 23.7 MBWelcome to 2020! This year I am going to talk about pain points that leaders just like you who are playing a bigger game, who want to do something bigger than themselves, who are creating movements, who value connection and impact are coping with every day. We're going to talk about the pain points that you face, whether you're a fortune 500 CEO or leader of a nonprofit. We're going to talk about what Rooftop Leaders face in terms of pain points and our pain point this month is “Self-Sabotag...
Manage Your Anxiety: What if My Nerves Get in the Way?
December 17, 2019 13:57 - 10 minutes - 24.5 MBWe all have to manage different kinds of rooms don't we? Some of us find ourselves on the stage. Some of us are in board rooms or meeting rooms. Some of us are asking donors to invest in our nonprofit to make a difference in the community or in the world. Some of us are asking our employees to follow us on a vision that they can't quite see yet. What seems to be consistent in the rooms that we have to own is that generally the rooms are high stakes, high risk, no fail type situations. ...
Relationships Before Transactions: What Makes Clients Loyal for the Long Haul?
December 10, 2019 20:42 - 9 minutes - 22.2 MBOne of the challenges that we face today as rooftop leaders, whether we own our own business, or maybe we work in a corporation or a midsize company as leaders and we do sales or we're relationship managers, how do we keep our clients, our investors, loyal for the long haul? Well, there's a science to that. There's a process that I call putting the "Relationship Before the Transaction”. It's one of the most important things that we can do today as Rooftop Leaders. It's right at the heart o...
Making Human Connections: How Do I Overcome Skepticism?
December 05, 2019 16:42 - 9 minutes - 22.8 MBWhen you think about a tough negotiation or a tough client, the first thing is you've got to make a human connection. If you just roll in with the agenda, if you just roll in with the transaction, if you're just rolling with the PowerPoint or the spreadsheets, the odds are they're going to dismiss you, especially in this skeptical, trust depleted environment. I will tell you that relational gifting is a really powerful way to make a human connection. Again, there's all kinds of ways to do ...
Being Present: What if People Don’t Pay Attention?
November 27, 2019 15:53 - 8 minutes - 20.4 MB"Scott, I totally get the need to own the room, but what if people don't pay attention to me? What if people look at me like I don't have the rank or title necessary to put out the kind of ideas and innovation that I think I have to offer? What then? What do I do if people don't pay attention?" I think that's a great question to ask. Whether you're a young person or an underrepresented segment of the population or heck, all of us at times find ourselves in a position where we don't feel like...
The Skill to Ask: How Do I Close Trust Gaps?
November 19, 2019 16:47 - 10 minutes - 24.9 MBWe always talk about what it takes to be the most relevant, relatable and resonant person in the room. Why? So that you can move people to take action in this trust depleted, disconnected time and it's all based around human connection. Owning the room is a skill, not just an instinct. A very common question I get and just got the other day is, “what do I do to close the trust gaps that exist between my prospects or my clients and me, or even my associates, my employees and me?”. How do I c...
Goals When Owning the Room: Where Do I Start?
November 12, 2019 20:39 - 9 minutes - 21.4 MBA lot of leaders ask me, “Scott, how do I even start when trying to own the room?”. With the stakes for owning a room even higher in these trust depleted times, what I always ask is, “what are your goals?”. Goals are paramount to any negotiation, your goals are important but even more than that, are you working to keep the goals of your client or co-worker or team in mind? Have you done the work to identify the goals of your client or prospect to make sure you address them? If you want to t...
Intro to "Own the Room" Series: How Do I Make a Bigger Impact on My Bottom Line
November 05, 2019 19:25 - 7 minutes - 17.6 MBWhat I mean by own the room is to be the most relevant, the most relatable, and the most resonant person in that room. This requires a lot of narrative, a lot of storytelling, a lot of active listening and other skillsets. Some of us, in fact, all of us do these things instinctively at times because we're social creatures, but in today's high stakes, low trust environment, we need to do them more than 90% of the time if we're going to be strategic and we're going to have the effect we want. ...
How Do I Overcome Anxiety Before a Sales Pitch?
October 29, 2019 17:51 - 10 minutes - 22.9 MBOne of the questions I get a lot from business leaders when I travel around the country working with them is, “how do I overcome the anxiety that goes along with a sales presentation?”. You would be surprised at how many people actually deal with this issue. It’s that anxiety that can grab you before you're getting on stage or before getting on a sales call, before getting in front of investors or donors or a room full of people when you have to make an offer. This evokes a primal fear and ...
How Do I Deal With In-Fighting at Work?
October 22, 2019 18:04 - 7 minutes - 16.2 MBA couple of weeks ago I was sitting down with one of my coaching students, and we were talking about what's going on. One of the things he was sharing with me was, you know, “my people just keep dumping their crap on me. Not only are they dumping their crap on me, but it's all this in-fighting and bickering. One group will come in or one leader will come in and share with me what's going on here and what these folks are doing over there, and then I'll ask that person to handle it, but they do...
How Can I Get Prospects To Lean In and Listen?
October 16, 2019 04:09 - 8 minutes - 19.2 MBDo you ever have a challenge getting your prospects to lean in and listen to what you're saying? To get them to focus and pay attention on the products or services that you're putting out there? Well, you're not alone. Lots of folks deal with this, and lots of folks wrestle with this, especially in the trust-depleted, disengaged, distracted arena that we operate in today. I saw it all the time as a Green Beret working in tribal villages, but in the last several years since I've been workin...
What's Happening With Trust in My Business?
October 08, 2019 18:59 - 9 minutes - 20.6 MBWhat's happening today with trust in our business? What's happening today with trust in our community, in our schools where our kids go? It seems that everywhere you look, trust is going down. In all the years I spent as a Green Beret working in trust depleted villages around the world, this was something we had to contend with all the time. We had to find ways to read trust in a room, overcome trust gaps that were there between tribes and then find ways to lead and bridge through those gap...
How to Wear Your Power: When Trust is Low and Risk is High
September 25, 2019 19:33 - 8 minutes - 19.1 MBHow to Wear Your Power: When Trust is Low and Risk is High You know, Stuart Diamond, one of my mentors in negotiation says, "Leaders should wear their power lightly." Teddy Roosevelt said, "Speak softly and carry a big stick." I think all of those are relevant. Right? I say red lines. Wear your power lightly, be self-deprecating, but always have your red lines established and defend them viciously. Those red lines being your values and your morals and what you stand for, your principles. ...
Giftology: The Art and Science of Making Connections
September 17, 2019 02:29 - 11 minutes - 26.4 MBI love sitting around the fire pit and talking with you about leadership skills and leadership actions that I learned in the trust depleted places around the world, that work even better in your world. Sharing the skills of leadership, Rooftop Leadership, from life and death so that you can use them in life and business. Let’s take a moment to talk about the “soft skills”. I call them the “Lawrencian” skills. The same skills that T. E. Lawrence used to mobilize the Badu tribesmen to overthr...
Hospitality: A Timeless Skill for Better Business Relationships
September 10, 2019 17:00 - 8 minutes - 19.8 MBUnderstanding the power of hospitality both as a giver and a receiver is a powerful skill. Hospitality has tremendous business impacts for you in the modern era, especially when you think about how trust depleted, how distracted, how disengaged the world is. When someone demonstrates hospitality, it's a powerful thing. I would go to places in Afghanistan that were so trust depleted, so violent, yet an elder would bring us into their home, give us their last quarter of meat, share their fir...
The Hammer: The Wrong Tool for Today’s Business Leaders
September 04, 2019 18:19 - 9 minutes - 21.4 MBIf the only tool in your kit bag is a hammer, then every problem you face in life is going to be a nail. We live in what I call the triple “P” environment. “Pissed off, Put upon, Pisces”. Two thirds of Americans don't trust their neighbor and it's climbing. We don't trust banks, politicians, media or law enforcement like we used to, our institutions that were once the vanguards of leadership and trust in this country are no longer trusted by ordinary citizens, but we don't trust our neighbo...
Reciprocity: How to Influence Without Being Creepy
August 27, 2019 17:56 - 10 minutes - 23.6 MBBuilding rapport and understanding reciprocity is essential for leaders today. I don't care if you're the president of a commercial bank, I don't care if you're the founder of a nonprofit or if you work in sales, right? Your understanding of reciprocity is essential and the reason is because humans are meaning seeking creatures. We are emotional creatures and we are certainly social creatures. You can put us in any society you want. You can add all the transactional stuff you want. That's al...
Relationships Before Transactions
August 20, 2019 15:43 - 11 minutes - 26.2 MBAlways put “Relationships Before Transactions”. If you want to get “surrounded on purpose”, if you want to apply the “Lawrencian” skillset, if you want to establish rapport with a prospect and turn them into a client, if you want to keep a client for the long term so that loyalty is in place and transactions just spin off that relationship, if you want to keep your clients when the market tanks and everybody else is bailing, put relationships before transactions. Join me by the fire-pit and...
Finding Lawrence: Using story to lead people who don't want to follow.
August 13, 2019 15:50 - 9 minutes - 21.4 MBHave you ever heard of a guy named Lawrence of Arabia? What I am interested in and I think will serve you is the skill set that he used to build rapport, to establish relationships, and ultimately loyalty with very disparate, distrustful, difficult to work with folks. And then mobilize them, and galvanize them into a fighting force. What Lawrence did simplistically, was that he created a vision, he told a story about the city of Aqaba, this was a fortress on the sea that belonged to the Ott...
Rooftop Rally Point: Building Rapport
August 07, 2019 15:49 - 9 minutes - 20.8 MBWhat does it take to establish rapport? Building Rapport is a critical skill for all business leaders, all entrepreneurs, anyone who has to deal with people. We are always faced with situations where we have to establish rapport. Rapport is that initial connection that is a harmonious relationship where two parties understand each other and connect. And if you don't have that rapport, because humans are social creatures who protect their jugular, they won't connect. They won't buy from yo...
Surrounded on Purpose
July 30, 2019 16:18 - 9 minutes - 21.9 MBOn this episode of Rooftop Rally Point, we're talking about another principle of the Special Forces approach that you can use in life and business which is getting, “Surrounded on Purpose”. How do we get Surrounded on Purpose? Well, what I teach on this, and I still teach this to special ops and law enforcement is, one, let's get a really clear understanding of what the goals are. What are our goals, and what are the other party's goals? For example, if I'm taking over a new position as a V...
Rooftop Rally Point: Work Yourself Out of a Job
July 24, 2019 18:25 - 7 minutes - 17 MB"Look sir, I think, right in this area here we're doing too much show and tell and we're not working ourselves out of a job." And I was like, "What do you mean?" And my old and wise Team Sergeant started to explain to me that, the most important thing that we could do on this deployment was not demonstrate our prowess or our capability, or to provide a short-term skillset, but to work ourselves out of a job. Join me by the fire-pit and let’s discuss the positive impact on your team if you we...
Shared Experience When Building a Team
July 16, 2019 13:49 - 7 minutes - 17 MBAs Green Berets building solid teams, we knew that the next best thing to shared struggle is shared experience. As humans, remember, we're the most social creatures on the planet, so we're always keeping tabs at a semi-conscious level of who we can group with, who we can work with, who we can stand shoulder to shoulder with, and obviously the people that we have shared experiences with are the ones that we're going to form deeper bonds with. Join me by the fire pit and let’s take a deep div...
Soft Skills in Hard Places
July 09, 2019 01:51 - 9 minutes - 21.3 MBMany leaders believe that "soft" skills, like active listening, narrative competence, interpersonal presence, they think that those skills, because they're called "soft skills", are secondary to the "hard skills", or that they convey a form of weakness that a leader really doesn't need, right? They believe you need the "hard" skills if you're going to be a leader, and that the "soft" skills are for the weaker leaders. It's a very, very unhelpful way of framing those skillsets. And I say th...
First Report is Always Wrong
July 03, 2019 02:18 - 10 minutes - 24 MBIt was a big lesson for me as a leader to see that in high stakes, no fail situations, the initial reports that often come in are wrong or at least inaccurate, or at least not fully baked. And that's just human nature. We all go through this. If we are exposed to a crisis situation or a high stress situation or a situation where there's just a lot of stress, we likely won't get all the facts right. As leaders, having a mindset that the first report is always wrong, ensures that we are alw...
Rooftop Rally Point: Don't Quit
June 18, 2019 02:26 - 8 minutes - 19 MBI made lots of mistakes as an army officer in Special Forces. Lots of things I could have done better, but one of the things I did learn was never to quit. Because of the training that you go through in Special Forces and all the training leading up to Special Forces, if you quit you won't make it. It's just that simple, but I believe that's true in life as well. Join me by the fire pit as we discuss how to impart the message to your team and family that when the chips are down….”Don’t Q...
Be Straight with People
June 11, 2019 16:13 - 7 minutes - 17 MBAs a rooftop leader, there's going to be times when you have to do things that are not pleasant. You're going to have to do things with your coworkers that involve you standing up for things. With your associates and your employees where you have to hold the line on standards. Or with your boss where you have to push back on behalf of your people, or what you know to be right. Again, people don't want you to be sweet to them, but they do expect you to be straight with them. Leveling with the...
Leadership is Forever
June 04, 2019 18:57 - 7 minutes - 16.2 MBAs I look at my life, six years after retirement from the military, after 23 years, I am coming to see more and more that leadership is forever, that is, real leadership. Rooftop leadership is forever and that's why I chose this title for the third video in our little series right now on, “Rooftop Rally Point”, of five lessons I learned in combat, that I believe you can apply in your life Join me by the fire-pit as we discuss how, “Leadership is Forever”. I’ll see you on the Rooftop, Sco...
The Opposite of Fear
May 28, 2019 20:10 - 6 minutes - 15.3 MBThe opposite of fear, is love. The greatest counter poised to fear the ancients believed is love, the love of the individual warrior for his brothers in arms. At Thermopylae, on the final morning when the last surviving Spartans knew they were all going to die, they turned to one of their leaders and asked him what thoughts they should hold in their minds in this final hour to keep their courage strong. He instructed his comrades to fight not in the name of such of lofty concepts as patriot...
Rooftop Rally Point: Every Breath is Precious
May 21, 2019 19:49 - 6 minutes - 14.4 MBThe thing that I learned that I want to talk about today as we go into Memorial Day is that “Every Breath is Precious”. Every breath we take in, every breath we let out is precious because our time on this earth is limited and we don't know how much time we have. And I will tell you this, Sergeant Major Willy Lubbers knew that. I wanted to highlight Willy as a part of our Memorial Day discussion, and in part one, of this five part series I'm doing right now, “Five Lessons That I Learned from...
Rooftop Rally Point: Creating a Movement
May 15, 2019 02:16 - 10 minutes - 24.2 MBA movement is where people take action, in a collective way, that they otherwise wouldn't take in the face of high stakes, high risk, ambiguity and complexity. Yet they take a stand, shoulder to shoulder, and achieve a tipping point that sways the scales, tips the balance in a way that is representative of historical change. And whether you're doing this with a product, whether you're doing this with a movement inside your school, or inside the political system, or with your team or family, ...
MTWA: Meet Them Where They Are
May 07, 2019 15:21 - 9 minutes - 21.4 MBHumans will not take action unless they feel psychologically safe, and unless they feel connected to the other humans around them. Humans will not take action of any kind, they won't buy from you, they won't invest in you, they won't believe in you, they won't follow you, unless they feel safe and unless they feel connected. Meeting people where they are, not where you want them to be, is one of the best ways to do that. Because people are going to be emotional all the time, they're going t...
MDL- Mission Decision Line
April 30, 2019 16:05 - 7 minutes - 17.8 MBThe “Mission Decision Line”, or the “MDL”, is the point of no return. It's a line on the ground, and on your map, it's like a valley, or a linear feature like a road, it's easily recognizable and it tells everybody from the highest headquarters to the operators and the pilots, that once you cross it, there's no turning back. That is the decision line that no matter what happens, unless you hit extreme abort criteria you're going forward with the mission. We have inundated ourselves in ...
Rooftop Rally Point: Practice and Preparation
April 23, 2019 14:51 - 8 minutes - 20.5 MBIf you want to move people to action it's those soft skills of storytelling, physicality, interpersonal connection, reciprocity, active listening, and negotiating that are the most effective, and you must practice those skillsets. The two ways that I say to do it are the same methods that the Green Berets employed before going into Sanh Te. They used the skillsets of Practice and Preparation. Join me by the fire pit and let’s talk about how you and your team can master Practice and Prepara...
Storytelling and Leadership - With Story Expert, Kendall Haven (Part 2)
April 16, 2019 19:01 - 32 minutes - 73.9 MB“The Proof, power, and purpose of how stories can help you make deeper connections and bigger impact in life and business.” In this second part of the hard-hitting interview with Kendall Haven, Scott will dive in with Kendall as they explore the critical components and methods to ensure your story influences at the optimal level. Whether you deal in sales or military ops, Scott asks questions in this interview that will shed light on the most relevant aspects of your life and how story can...
Storytelling and Leadership - With Story Expert, Kendall Haven (Part I)
April 09, 2019 18:20 - 25 minutes - 58.5 MB“The Proof, power, and purpose of how stories can help you make deeper connections and bigger impact in life and business.” Everywhere you look, people are talking about the power of story as a leadership and communication tool. Hell, it’s part and parcel of the Rooftop Leadership Methodology. But, how do we know if story works? And does it work for everyone, even those “left-brainers” who deal in data and bottom lines? In this high-impact interview Scott dives in with a world-renown sto...
Intelligence Preparation: Knowing Your Clients
April 02, 2019 17:43 - 8 minutes - 18.8 MBIntelligence preparation. It is, the work you do on the front end before a mission to really get to know the terrain, the climate, the enemy, all of the things around you in your battle space that you need to be familiar with at a micro level all the way out to a macro level and then back into a micro level. Because as Sun Tzu, the ancient Chinese philosopher says, know the enemy, know yourself and you will never lose in a thousand battles or something close to those words. He was absolute...
Speed of Trust: Bridging the Gap
March 26, 2019 15:48 - 7 minutes - 16.7 MBWe have an epic erosion of trust. At the institutional level, we don't trust the media like we used to, we don't trust politicians. We don't trust bankers, we don't trust the mortgage industry. All of these pillars of leadership that once held our society together, this society that values the individual, not the group, that values the dream of the individual, right? The inalienable rights of the individual, a lot of that is eroding in this country. At the same time, we have an erosion of s...
Loneliness of Command: The Weight of Leadership
March 19, 2019 16:04 - 7 minutes - 17.4 MBI think in this day and age, one of the things that we fail to teach our young leaders as they are coming up in the ranks, is that there is a “Loneliness of Command”. There is a weight of leadership that one must bear when going through the tough decisions in life. And you cannot outsource that, you cannot avoid that, you cannot deflect that. Join me by the fire pit as we dig in and discuss the, “Loneliness of Command: The Weight of Leadership”. Join Our Rooftop Tribe! Website: http:...