Bernie Borges [00:00:00]:
Hey. Welcome to episode 211. This is Bernie Borges, your host of the Midlife Fulfill podcast. And, hey, this is an on my mind episode where I fly solo and I share something with you that’s, well, on my mind. And if you’re in the United States and you’re listening to this episode in early December, I hope that you and your family had a wonderful Thanksgiving. On this episode, I have prepared to share a story and some information. So first, the story. I recently gave a presentation at the National Society For Leadership and Success.
Bernie Borges [00:00:39]:
That’s a mouthful. So they’re known as NSLS. Now it was their annual virtual summit. My presentation was attended by 230 individuals, and they ranged from college students to directors and vice presidents across many different industries. So it was a very diverse audience. Now this was the first time that I delivered this particular presentation. And as with any presentation that I give, I prepared a lot. You see, throughout my speaking career, I have always been extremely diligent about preparing for any presentation.
Bernie Borges [00:01:19]:
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been really diligent about that. It’s just a discipline that was instilled in me early in my career. And the premise is simple. Being in front of an audience is a big responsibility. Not everyone is granted that privilege. So out of respect for the audience and out of my intense desire to present information that’s valuable to the audience, I always wanna be prepared. And if I’m honest, I want the audience to like me. Now, I don’t mean like me, but like my content.
Bernie Borges [00:01:57]:
I want the audience to feel that their time was well spent, that I delivered value, and I wanna get good scores on the speaker evaluations. Well, a few days after the event, I got an email from Chelsea, who was my point of contact at n s l s, with my scores. I remember opening that email. I was nervous. Remember, this was the first time that I delivered this particular presentation. Well, I received a score of 4.7 out of 5. Needless to say, I was pretty pleased with this score. In fact, in a separate conversation with someone at NSLS, I was told that my score was the highest of all the summit speakers at the NSLS event.
Bernie Borges [00:02:50]:
So you could say this is a humble brag and you would not be wrong. So the rest of this episode is gonna be devoted to sharing the information in this presentation because I believe that the content in this presentation aligns with my mission for the Midlife Fulfilled podcast. Now the title of the presentation that I delivered is 10 steps to fulfillment centric leadership for today’s leaders. And I plan to break this into 2 episodes to make it more digestible because I don’t want to fire hose you with all 10 steps in one episode. And before I begin, I want to explain why I created this presentation. You see, it begins with the thriving in midlife report that published in October of 2024. Now if you have not yet downloaded this report, you can grab it in the show notes or at my website at midlifefulfilled.com. It’s free, and it’s chock full of great insights.
Bernie Borges [00:03:55]:
The thriving in midlife report, which was produced in partnership with Udemy, inspired me to think about ways to reach more people with these insights. So I considered the fact that there are more than 8,000,000,000 people in the world, and according to some research, about 40% of those 8,000,000,000 are estimated to be over the age of 40. Well, the math on that is that it equates to about 3,000,000,000 people in the world over the age of 40. My goal, therefore, is to reach more than 3,000,000,000 people with the message of finding fulfillment across the 5 key life pillars, health, fitness, career relationships, and legacy. So I have a hunch you’re thinking what I’m thinking. That’s a big number. In fact, it’s daunting. And, you know, it saddens me to say that I don’t currently have 3,000,000,000 people listening to the Midlife Fulfill podcast.
Bernie Borges [00:04:51]:
I know that may shock you. So, how can I reach 3,000,000,000 people? Well, as I thought more and more about this, I was reminded of the principle that’s known as the head bowling pin principle. It’s a simple concept that was made popular by Geoffrey Moore in his classic book, Crossing the Chasm. Maybe you read it. It goes like this. When you roll a bowling ball at 10 pins and your goal is to knock down all 10 pins, the only way that you have a chance of knocking them all down is to hit, you guessed it, the head bowling pin. This principle led me to the idea of reaching people who lead others. These leaders can be my head bowling pins.
Bernie Borges [00:05:45]:
You see, if I can reach leaders who lead teams of 10 or 50 or 100 or even 1,000, I have a shot of eventually reaching 3,000,000,000 people with my message of finding fulfillment across the 5 key life pillars. So this, my friend, is the background story that led me to developing this presentation, which incidentally is my signature keynote presentation that’s available for delivery at private events and conferences. You can read more about that at my website at midlifefulfilled.com. Now, before I dive into the 10 steps to fulfillment centric leadership for today’s leaders, I wanna share some information that just might knock you off your rocker, so to speak. Not that I expect you to be sitting on a rocker. It’s an old cliche that probably dates me, but you get the point. So the information that I wanna share with you comes from Gallup. In their most recent state of global workplace report, the percentage of engaged employees globally, meaning those who feel involved in and enthusiastic about their work, is just 23%.
Bernie Borges [00:07:04]:
Just 23%. In fact, most employees are not engaged. 62% report just showing up and doing the bare minimum work, and they’re uninspired by their work. And then 15% say that they’re actively disengaged. They say they have a bad manager or they’re just miserable in their job and they’re actively seeking a new job. So in aggregate, 77% of the global workforce is not engaged in their job accounting for are you ready for this? A staggering 8.9 trillion with a t in lost productivity worldwide or 9% of the global GDP. Let that sink in and consider this staggering fact as I present to you the 10 steps to fulfillment centric leadership for today’s leaders. Alright.
Bernie Borges [00:08:08]:
Let’s get started. Step number 1, start with your own journey. You see, my friend, before you can lead others, take an honest look in the mirror. How fulfilled are you in your own life? I’m talking about the whole package, your health, your fitness, your career satisfaction, your relationships, and the legacy that you wanna leave behind. Understanding your own fulfillment journey can make you better equipped to support others on theirs. When you are self aware of your own fulfillment across these 5 pillars, you equip yourself to be an empathetic leader. It sets you up to understand that everyone that you lead is going through their own fulfillment journey across these same 5 key life pillars. But self awareness is not meant to be kept a secret.
Bernie Borges [00:09:10]:
It’s meant to be shared. But I’m jumping ahead. So hold on to that thought because we’re gonna come back to that. So now, get to step number 2 in the 10 steps to becoming a fulfillment centric leader. Get to know the 5 pillars of fulfillment. This, my friend, is foundational. You know, I like to use metaphors when I’m explaining something. So think of fulfillment as like a house or a building.
Bernie Borges [00:09:40]:
It needs strong pillars to stand tall and stand firm. In this case, these pillars are you’ve heard me say before, health, fitness, career, relationships, and legacy. So I wanna speak to each one individually beginning with health. Every individual on your team has physical and mental well-being needs. Everyone. For some, their health needs might be minor. And for some, they might be major. Your job as a leader is to be aware that everyone has something to manage in their health.
Bernie Borges [00:10:22]:
Sometimes, an individual is managing the health of a loved one. In that case, it’s not their health pillar, but to some extent, it can feel like it’s theirs when the individual is burdened with caring for someone else’s health situation. Personally, I went through this with my parents when they were in their nineties in their final years before they passed. Their health challenges became my burden. Pillar number 2, fitness. Every individual on your team needs the ability to tackle each day with energy. I’ve often said that the fitness pillar is not about competing in the Olympics. It’s about being able to do everyday activities that require some strength, agility, and or balance.
Bernie Borges [00:11:14]:
Whether it’s going up and down stairs, which is physical, or managing the stress of the job, which is mental. It’s about contributing to pillar number 1, health. And, hey, if you want more on this, I suggest that you check out episodes 193 and 194, which is a 2 part series dedicated to health and fitness education. Okay. Pillar number 3, career. This pillar is about finding purpose and growth in your work. Once again, every individual on your team is on a career journey just like you are, even if you’re in a later stage in your career journey. Leading individuals with an understanding of their career goals is an effective way to win their loyalty, even if that means helping someone move to a new career chapter that’s outside of your group or even outside of your company.
Bernie Borges [00:12:14]:
Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn, wrote a book titled The Alliance. The key principle in this book is to build an alliance with the people that you lead during the time that they are with you. The key is recognizing that they probably won’t be with you forever. So during that period of time that they’re with you, learn about their career aspirations and support them in return for a commitment to give you their best work during the time that they’re with you. I love this approach. It makes so much sense. Okay. Pillar number 4, relationships.
Bernie Borges [00:12:59]:
Likewise, every individual on your team deals with building and managing meaningful relationships, both in and outside of work. Often, this pillar has a significant impact on people when major relationships are not doing well. And among the many areas of consequence in struggling relationships is the impact that it can have on someone’s work performance. And sometimes, people’s job performance takes a hit when struggling relationships affect their ability to work. Leaders need to be aware and also sympathetic to these circumstances when they occur. Now, I’m not gonna get into the how in this episode because that can be an entire podcast episode alone. Suffice to say that leaders need to be aware of this and lead their people with empathy. Pillar number 5, legacy.
Bernie Borges [00:14:02]:
And once again, every individual on your team wants to have an impact on someone or maybe a cause. Now, not everyone’s on the same page with regard to legacy though, but the human spirit drives all of us to wanna have an impact on others at some point in our lives. As I mentioned, I wanna reach 3,000,000,000 people with the message of attaining fulfillment across the 5 key life pillars. Whatever your team members want in the legacy pillar is gonna be unique to each individual. And as a leader, you can encourage individuals to seek a legacy project of some sort, or simply acknowledge and support their current legacy projects. Now, the thing thing that I want you to know about these 5 pillars is that each one supports the other. Just like a house or a building, when one pillar is weak, the whole structure is at risk. Now, that’s not to say that we expect everyone, including yourself, to be clicking on all cylinders in each pillar.
Bernie Borges [00:15:08]:
Speaking personally for myself, I don’t have 100% fulfillment across all 5 pillars. In my opinion, no one does. Now you might disagree, and that’s okay. All I’m saying is that, as a leader, you should be familiar with each of these pillars in your own life and in the life of those that you lead. Leading through the lens of fulfillment makes you a more empathetic leader, a more engaged leader. And when you lead people in an organization, whether it’s nonprofit or for profit, or in a community setting, or even in a family setting, You have goals that you have to achieve, and there should be accountability for individuals to achieve those goals. That’s business 101 or community management 101 or even family management 101. That’s never gonna change.
Bernie Borges [00:16:03]:
A fulfillment centric leader is simply more keenly aware of the individuals on their team holistically as people. If you wanna achieve the goals that you set out to achieve on your team, demonstrate that you have empathy for each individual on your team through, and this is the key point, through the lens of these five key life pillars. By way of a simple example, and this is one of many, if somebody on your team needs to go to medical appointments, show support by working out flex hours with mutual alignment on meeting the goals and responsibilities that are on their plate. If someone can’t make 9 AM calls due to another commitment that’s anchored in one of the pillars, arrange another time, or let it be okay for them to attend the meeting from their car, or whatever you need to do to show empathy for that circumstance. Alright. Step number 3. Let the data guide you. Don’t just guess at what your team needs.
Bernie Borges [00:17:14]:
Ask them. I recommend that you implement a survey or an app that allows people to tell you how they’re doing. You can keep it anonymous or allow them the option of self identifying. These regular check ins can reveal what really matters to your people. The exercise alone can prove that you care, that is if you really care. Use the data to stay in tune with how your team is feeling. Yes. Feeling.
Bernie Borges [00:17:48]:
Look, until you replace your team with robots, they will always have feelings. And by the way, I’m not suggesting that you will or even could replace your people with robots. I’m making an extreme point here. Robots don’t have feelings. People have feelings. Staying in touch with how your people are actually feeling across each of the 5 pillars lets you keep your finger on the pulse of their fulfillment. For example, here’s one way to gather data. It’s not the only way, just one way.
Bernie Borges [00:18:21]:
Offer a digital survey at the end of each month that asks individuals to rate their fulfillment in each pillar. The rating must be a number between 01100. Keep the survey anonymous. Gather the data monthly, and then aggregate it and plot the trend each month. Over the course of months, you may spot trends in fulfillment across the pillars. Share these data with your team so that they can follow the aggregate scores. It’s only natural that people will compare the aggregate scores to their own score. Then, in your 1 on 1 meetings, invite people to discuss how they answered the monthly survey.
Bernie Borges [00:19:04]:
Now, this should be optional. But when you encourage it, some individuals may open up to you with a willingness to share some aspects of what they’re experiencing across the 5 pillars. Those conversations have potential to strengthen relationships between leaders and individuals because they transcend spreadsheets and PowerPoint slides or house chores, whatever it may be. In other words, those conversations can build an alliance as I spoke of earlier. Now, if you’re thinking, wow, Bernie, seriously? That sounds really time consuming. I don’t have time for that. Okay. In the context of leadership in a business, you know what’s more time consuming than this? Replacing someone with years of institutional knowledge because they didn’t think you valued them as a person, or because you didn’t accommodate a need that they had to deal with a personal circumstance in their health pillar or relationship pillar.
Bernie Borges [00:20:05]:
Let Let me tell you, that’s a lot more time consuming and costly than having the conversations that I’m suggesting in the fulfillment centric leadership model. In fact, I know someone who went to the gym at 2 PM every day for 1 hour. That was his so called lunch break. Now his immediate boss supported him because he knew how important it was to this individual’s health and fitness management. Now this individual’s work performance was just fine. He navigated his work responsibilities to the complete satisfaction of his boss in the business and his colleagues, and he went to the gym every day for a workout at 2 PM. So my friend, keep your finger on the pulse of your team. I’ve shared just one way to do this.
Bernie Borges [00:20:55]:
Come up with your own version of this. Whatever it takes to measure your team’s fulfillment across the 5 pillars, it’s worth the effort to keep your team engaged, productive, and retained. Now to recap this episode, I began by sharing that horrifying statistic from a recent Gallup report that 77% of the global workforce is not engaged in their work, costing a staggering 8.9 trillion to the global economy. And I reviewed 3 of the 10 steps to fulfillment centric leadership. They are start with your own journey, get to know the 5 key life pillars, health, fitness, career, relationships, and legacy, and let the data guide you as a leader. So I’m gonna break here for this episode. And on the next episode, I’ll cover steps 4 through 10 without the setup that I provided for this episode. Incidentally, I have a blog post that summarizes these 10 steps to fulfillment centric leadership, and it takes about 5 minutes to read.
Bernie Borges [00:22:03]:
That blog post is linked up in the show notes. So my friend, tune into episode 212 for steps 4 through 10 of the 10 steps to fulfillment centric leadership for today’s leaders. Hey. Don’t go anywhere just yet. I have one more quick message for you in this prerecorded outro message.
