Great culture is not built on inspiration and good vibes. That might look good on a poster, but it is a terrible operating system.
In this episode of Is Anything Real?, Adam W. Barney sits down with Dr. Al Philip-Neri, founder of Cohesion HQ and author of The Execution Advantage, to unpack what actually makes teams execute when pressure hits. Al’s work sits at the intersection of team performance, behavioral analytics, accountability, execution, trust, and what he calls the science of team excellence.
This conversation challenges one of the most common leadership myths: Culture is not what people say when things are calm. Culture is behavior under pressure.
Adam and Al dig into why motivation alone does not hold up when deadlines move, clients get loud, money gets tight, and the team’s nervous system starts looking for the emergency exit row.
They also explore why alignment is not the same as agreement, why role clarity matters, how leaders accidentally ask people to operate against their natural wiring, and why positive pressure can build capacity when it is applied with clarity instead of panic.
The big idea: Culture is a feeling. Cohesion is a system. Behavior drives execution. Execution drives outcome.
In this episode:
- Why good vibes do not create execution
- Why culture breaks under pressure
- Why alignment is not agreement
- How behavioral analytics improve team performance
- Why role fit is execution intelligence
- Why emotion is real, but emotional chaos cannot run the team
- How leaders can become the lighthouse in crisis
- Why positive pressure is different from toxic pressure
- How controlled mistakes build trust
- Why execution requires clarity, trust, and repeated reps
- The Positive Pressure Audit leaders can run this week
Guest:
Dr. Al Philip-Neri
Founder, Cohesion HQ
Author of The Execution Advantage
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alphilipneri/
Cohesion HQ: https://teamcohesionhq.com/
The Execution Advantage: https://theexecutionadvantage.com/
Email: alphilipneri@gmail.com
Host:
Adam W. Barney
Transition Leadership Coach
Author of Make Your Own Glass Half Full
Creator of EnergyOS
Book your 20-minute Exploration Call:
https://calendly.com/adamwbarney/explorationplugin-20min
00:00:06
Here's a leadership myth
00:00:08
that needs to be benched immediately.
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Great culture is built on inspiration and good vibes.
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Now that's a beautiful poster,
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but it's a terrible operating system.
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And that's because good vibes don't clarify roles,
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they don't create accountability,
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and they don't tell you, you know,
00:00:26
how someone reacts under pressure.
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Culture isn't the playlist that's in the lobby;
00:00:33
it's actually the behavior under pressure.
00:00:36
Welcome back to "Is Anything Real?",
00:00:38
the reality-first leadership show
00:00:39
where we test advice,
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publish the receipts,
00:00:42
and ship what actually works under pressure.
00:00:44
I'm Adam W. Barney,
00:00:45
transition leadership coach,
00:00:47
author of Make Your Own Glass Half Full,
00:00:49
and builder of Energy OS,
00:00:51
where I help leaders rebuild their operating system
00:00:53
when the tools that got them here stopped working.
00:00:56
Today's guest is Dr. Al Philip-Neri,
00:00:59
founder of Cohesion HQ
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and author of,
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and he's happy to hold this up, I think,
00:01:04
The Execution Advantage.
00:01:06
Al's work sits at the intersection of team performance,
00:01:10
behavioral analytics, execution,
00:01:12
accountability, trust,
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and what he calls the science of team excellence.
00:01:18
And this episode has been a long time coming
00:01:20
because we intentionally held the conversation.
00:01:23
until the book was ready,
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and the book is out now,
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so now we get to go.
00:01:27
And what I appreciate about Al especially
00:01:29
is that he's not selling leadership as
00:01:32
vibes, charisma,
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or another inspirational speech
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that evaporates by launch.
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His work asks,
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How are people actually wired?
00:01:40
What role are they being asked to play?
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What behavior needs to align?
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And how do we apply pressure in a way
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that creates resilience instead of resentment?
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Al, welcome to the show.
00:01:51
What's up, buddy?
00:01:51
What's up?
00:01:52
How we doing?
00:01:53
All right, let's start here.
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You know, Al, what what do leaders get wrong when they think
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culture is built on inspiration and good vibes alone?
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They're wrong.
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That's what they get wrong.
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So the problem is it doesn't hold up, right?
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So, you know, the kumbaya could
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hold up for a day or something like that,
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but the problem is when the rubber meets the road.
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When things get intense,
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when deadlines hit,
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when money's a problem,
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lose a big client,
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situation is intense,
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that stuff doesn't stand up.
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It just doesn't stand up, right?
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The rah-rah motivational, we can do this,
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just does not stand up against the test of time, period.
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Not saying there's anything wrong with that,
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but it doesn't stand up against the test of time
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when it really really matters.
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The stakes are of higher yield
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for whatever environment you're in.
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Well, and that's the part that cuts through, right?
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You know,
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but also culture isn't what people say
00:02:55
when things are calm.
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It's what happens to the team when plans change.
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Clients get loud, deadlines move,
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and everybody's nervous system
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starts looking for the emergency exit row, right?
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And I think what you're saying here is that
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a lot of leaders say they want accountability,
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but they haven't defined the behavior.
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They've defined standards but haven't clarified roles,
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or they just want execution,
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but they're relying on motivation.
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You know, what's the difference between a team that feels aligned
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and a team that's actually behaviorally aligned?
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So the biggest thing with alignment is
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disagreement is part of alignment, right?
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So a lot of leaders think that alignment is agreement.
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But alignment is not agreement.
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Alignment is moving towards the collective, right?
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And with that comes disagreement.
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Challenge the status quo.
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What's best practice?
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But at the end of the day, if people don't have clarity,
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and that's clarity in communication,
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clarity in role,
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clarity in expectations,
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clarity in performance,
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clarity in performance metrics,
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if they just don't have clarity,
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and the tools that they need
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and they can't trust one another,
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you'll never end up having execution
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at a level that's satisfactory or scalable.
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Along that journey, as pressure hits it,
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yeah, those gaps will get just bigger and bigger and bigger.
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So people think growth is the issue.
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Well, growth isn't really the issue.
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If you don't have a tight enough shift
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to handle the growth, that can handle the complexity,
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that can handle the pressure,
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that can lead to, you know, one, two, three.
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So, and it's complicated.
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It's complex.
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It seems simple.
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Sounds simple.
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You read a book, you're like, oh, that's easy.
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But until you go to implement it and manage it
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and you're like, oh my, look, this is nuts.
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Correct.
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Yeah, because you're dealing with
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the most complex creature in the world:
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a human being.
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Al, you also made a point on our first call
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that I really loved.
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You know, if leaders don't understand someone's natural wiring,
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they actually might accidentally ask that person
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to operate with their non-dominant hand all day.
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And me being a lefty, I can imagine
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if you push me to do things with my right hand most of the time,
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it's such a clean image and, you know,
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people can stretch,
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they can adapt,
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but behavior modification
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that fights someone's wiring all day
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usually doesn't last,
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and it definitely,
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definitely isn't something that lasts when pressure hits.
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How do behavioral analytics
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change the way leaders set expectations?
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And basically, you keep people in their dominant hand.
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So that's funny because I'm left-handed also.
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I don't think I knew you were left-handed.
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So basically, it's just understanding
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where do they lay in their strengths,
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and does the position requirements
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allow them to take their natural strengths,
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their natural wiring,
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and operate in that capacity all the way along.
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You've got a better success
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of an individual who's happy at their job,
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thriving at their job,
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fulfilling the expectation of the role,
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if they're on the right bus and the right seat.
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To your point, anytime that gets derailed,
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and now we go to behavior modification,
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behavior modification only lasts so long,
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and will definitely grumble under pressure.
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Now that doesn't mean that somebody can't work a whole career
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for 30 years in a behavior modification mode.
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Then you'll hear things like,
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"Yeah, I lost myself.
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I forgot what it felt like to be happy at work."
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"When I first started, I used to really enjoy myself.
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Now I can't."
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"I've got a year and a half left for retirement
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and I can't wait till that date comes."
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It's just drudgery.
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That's all it is: drudgery, right?
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Ironically, I just know somebody got laid off
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and got a year and a half until retirement
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and I said, what would make you happy
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like to do in your last year and a half gainful employment, right?
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Like how about you answer that question, right?
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And try to fix something.
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So, you know,
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the alignment of people
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into the role is really, really critical.
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I would even say, like,
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depending on your environment,
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depending on your industry,
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depending on the flexibility,
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and I know leaders you're probably gonna dislike,
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what I gotta tell you,
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but people have certain peak hours.
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Would if your environment allowed for it,
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because some environments don't allow for it,
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but if your environment would allow
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for people to work in their peak hours,
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which for some people might be at midnight.
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And it's not, AKA, their role is not customer-facing
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where it needs to be during normal business hours
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or something like that.
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It's seriously, if your business could allow for that,
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and that doesn't skirt them
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from being able to attend team meetings,
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or, you know, whatever the case may is.
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But if that's just where they're peak
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and they operate the best.
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And in that role, like three, four hours of that work
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is equivalent to eight hours of them working a normal schedule.
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Like seriously, like,
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if your business allows
00:08:19
for that kind of flexibility,
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figure out how to let that person do that.
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You pay them for eight, or you pay them for salary,
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whatever the case maybe is,
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but you are just getting
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an optimal human being
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performing at their best
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during their peak hours.
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And nobody really talks about that.
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Right, there's no books about that.
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Maybe I should write one, right?
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But nobody really talks about that.
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And again, this is, you know,
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in the world of hybrid,
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the world of, you know, a lot of countries,
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you know, people are, you know, like US-based
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and working with, you know, companies
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in different countries, different time zones.
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You know, and some people
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they just get up at 3 in the morning for a Zoom call.
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Yeah, really.
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Yeah, yeah.
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Those are the same kind of people
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who are jumping in the cold pool at 4 a.m. but, you know,
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the part of it here, you know,
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role fit isn't softness,
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and I think that's something that
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probably over the last 100 years
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has been the case.
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Role fit is actually execution intelligence
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for the way a business can succeed.
00:09:24
But I also want to bring in the emotional reset piece.
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You kind of mentioned this.
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You know, you were clear that
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The 555 isn't originally your idea,
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and the timing is less important than the principle, right?
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You know, in tennis, you get a pause
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in the SWAT team, you know,
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you get milliseconds
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or a fast-moving business moment in corporate,
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maybe it's 5 minutes, 15 minutes, an hour,
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but the bigger idea is emotion is normal
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and the differentiator that I talk a lot about is
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what happens when the emotions hit.
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How should leaders think about emotion under pressure?
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Because that's what matters here.
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Absolutely.
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Yeah.
00:10:04
So to give that context, I mean,
00:10:06
that came from Federer, right?
00:10:07
On how he resets between, you know,
00:10:09
a play where he messed up
00:10:11
the 5-5-5,
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he gives you 5 seconds,
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5, 5, 5 seconds.
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So, just to give the audience context
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5 seconds is have that emotional reaction, right?
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Cuss out the world silently.
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Do what do whatever it is you need to do.
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And then the next 5 is.
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Okay, I need to regroup.
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What's in my tool belt?
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I need to refocus.
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And the last five is,
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I'm going to deploy this technique, right?
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If we went in that kind of a framework,
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and again, depending on the environment,
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like you said, sometimes it's milliseconds.
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It could be five hours between each one,
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whatever the case is.
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And so the question is, you know,
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human emotion is real.
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And people are not robots.
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So, allowing people a vehicle or a way
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to process emotion quickly.
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You can't sit on it.
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And I think that's the skill set
00:11:01
you've got to potentially coach and teach
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is figuring out how people process.
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I mean, you know, the analytics tool I use
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actually shows us how people process.
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The minute something hits them,
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well, if you know how someone processes,
00:11:15
you now can come up with a tangible solution.
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How to give them a coping mechanism
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to quickly deal with that,
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so you can move on to the next step.
00:11:25
But if you don't even understand how someone processes,
00:11:27
if somebody doesn't even understand themselves,
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how they process,
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well, well, now you're just like,
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wow, let's just throw things on the wall
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and see what fits.
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And that doesn't work.
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So, you know, the emotional IQ of somebody.
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Emotional intelligence.
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The self-awareness
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that comes with controlling one's emotions
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is absolutely critical in decision-making.
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And what you'll see inherently is
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usually the strongest leaders
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are able to process fairly quickly.
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Doesn't matter if it's logical or emotional.
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Reset the button really quickly.
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Figure out what's in their tool belt
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and to deploy something
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while remaining calm,
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while displaying everything.
00:12:17
Right?
00:12:17
You don't see this frantic basket case.
00:12:20
Because that's not what people thrive to in chaos, right?
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They want the lighthouse.
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People want the lighthouse in chaos.
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Right?
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The lighthouse is there.
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It's sturdy, pitch-black, nasty environment.
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Light shines.
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It's there.
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It's not going anywhere.
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That's what people want in the metering
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in crisis and high pressure.
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Yeah, well, and I think that really matters, you know,
00:12:45
where we are today, because
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I think historically leaders
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have been trained to think emotion
00:12:50
is actually the energy.
00:12:51
So they either
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suppress it in themselves and their teams,
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or they become robots in quarters zips,
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or they spill it everywhere and call it authenticity.
00:13:02
But you know, neither is actually leadership, right?
00:13:06
What does a healthy reset actually look like
00:13:08
after some thing creates an emotional reaction.
00:13:15
Just so you can stay on track, right?
00:13:17
And they haven't taken down the troops with you,
00:13:22
with your chaos, right?
00:13:24
Man, it's it's your reaction.
00:13:27
Doesn't need to be the world's reaction, right?
00:13:31
So that you have the ability to process it,
00:13:34
deal with it,
00:13:35
cope with it,
00:13:36
and come up with what the next step is
00:13:39
quickly, efficiently,
00:13:41
based on your environment.
00:13:43
And understanding that emotion is real,
00:13:46
but it's what you do with it, right?
00:13:48
Like anything else, it's what you do with it.
00:13:51
So, I think what happens is is that in a world
00:13:54
you're kind of taught not to feel.
00:13:58
Right?
00:13:58
Like, oh, it's just business.
00:14:00
What does that mean?
00:14:02
Right?
00:14:03
Like, if it's a company, you're feeling it, right?
00:14:06
Right.
00:14:06
If you get fired, you're feeling it.
00:14:09
So, it's not just business, right?
00:14:11
This is about me, my livelihood, my kids, my family.
00:14:15
So I think the trick is
00:14:16
is just understanding that they're real
00:14:18
and just being able to reel people in
00:14:22
that can tend to want to be, you know,
00:14:26
aka, drama queens, right?
00:14:28
And just spread it.
00:14:31
And then there are people on the flip side,
00:14:32
that, you know, like myself,
00:14:34
I'm a very logical problem solver
00:14:37
that moves at a pace of speed, like of light, of urgency.
00:14:41
So also understanding why I can solve the problem in my head.
00:14:44
As the leader, that's not always great either.
00:14:49
Like in high stakes, yes, they want the problem solved.
00:14:52
But also,
00:14:52
if you're trying to grow and develop your team,
00:14:54
you have to allow for
00:14:56
people who process emotionally,
00:14:58
or can we talk through this,
00:14:59
or can, right?
00:15:00
Again, depending on the situation.
00:15:02
The situation doesn't always dictate that, right?
00:15:05
But just understanding you
00:15:06
and how do you get to the next positive step,
00:15:09
which is coming up
00:15:10
with what I'm going to do
00:15:12
and then how am I going to do it?
00:15:15
I mean, that also gets into this idea,
00:15:19
you know, Al, that that positive pressure is not toxic pressure.
00:15:22
I think that might be the heart of the book actually, right?
00:15:25
Yeah.
00:15:26
You know, pressure can be toxic, absolutely.
00:15:28
I've seen that in my career and even in my business,
00:15:31
but pressure can also be training.
00:15:33
It can be preparation.
00:15:35
It could be the fourth quarter.
00:15:36
It could be overtime.
00:15:38
You know, it could be
00:15:39
adding in plan A, B, and C,
00:15:41
and then everything goes sideways.
00:15:44
But you know, how do you define positive pressure?
00:15:48
And I think it gets back into analogy,
00:15:50
an analogy you used earlier in our conversation
00:15:53
about a child learning to walk, right?
00:15:56
Yeah.
00:15:56
The one I use is: yeah, walk, ride a bike, drive a car, all the same.
00:16:02
Right, those are exciting,
00:16:04
high-pressure environments, right,
00:16:06
for the for the child and for the parents,
00:16:09
so I like to use the analogy of a bike because
00:16:12
it's got different stages, so you know,
00:16:14
think about taking a child
00:16:15
and putting them on a bike?
00:16:16
Right? You got to sit them on the bike,
00:16:18
you got to training wheels,
00:16:19
you got evolution,
00:16:20
take the training wheels off, right?
00:16:22
And I tell people all the time,
00:16:23
what is your expectation as a parent
00:16:25
when you're training your child how to ride a bike?
00:16:27
It's that they'll probably fall,
00:16:29
they'll be afraid,
00:16:32
they'll be excited,
00:16:33
there'll be days they want to do it,
00:16:34
there'll be days they don't want to do it, right?
00:16:36
There'll be days they want to quit,
00:16:38
but your attitude to a parent is
00:16:40
you just want them to move the needle forward
00:16:43
every time they go out,get
00:16:44
a little bit more of a boost in confidence,
00:16:47
get a little bit more of a boost of independence.
00:16:49
Get a little bit more,
00:16:50
right?
00:16:50
Every time they go out, it's a little bit more,
00:16:53
and you don't put some crazy, unrealistic deadline on them, right?
00:16:57
That if they don't ride a bike in three days,
00:16:59
like they're the world's worst kid.
00:17:01
Like you don't do things like that.
00:17:03
Well, you shouldn't, if you do, yeah,
00:17:06
you probably need a different kind of psychologist.
00:17:08
But the reality is, is it's your attitude as a leader towards them.
00:17:14
You're allowing them to grow.
00:17:15
You're allowing them in a controlled environment
00:17:18
to make small mistakes
00:17:19
so that you can overcome the hurdle.
00:17:21
So what if you ran your company like that?
00:17:23
Just what if you ran your company like that?
00:17:25
So the problem with why pressure feels toxic and overwhelming
00:17:29
is because people aren't prepared to handle the pressure,
00:17:32
and so then it becomes very reactive.
00:17:35
Reactive measures tend to create a lot of stress.
00:17:38
A lot of stress creates all the other stuff that's going on,
00:17:41
and the last thing you're developing is trust,
00:17:44
because the most important thing
00:17:45
with your child on that bike
00:17:47
is you're creating trust.
00:17:48
That your child knows you're not going to let them crash.
00:17:52
So, for example, you would not put them going downhill
00:17:54
if they've never been on a bike, right?
00:17:56
And they have no idea that they got
00:17:58
to hit the pedal backwards to brake, right?
00:18:01
Like, I mean, you just wouldn't do that,
00:18:03
or intentionally you wouldn't do that, right?
00:18:05
And so when you start thinking like that, and you say,
00:18:08
"Okay, how do I get my team to grow?
00:18:11
How do I get my company to grow?
00:18:12
How do I get them to feel safe?
00:18:14
To be able to grow,
00:18:16
go back and teach a kid how to ride a bike,
00:18:18
and take the same skill sets
00:18:20
that you used to teach your child how to ride a bike,
00:18:22
the same attitude,
00:18:23
and then implement that in your team and your company.
00:18:26
And I promise you, if you give it enough time,
00:18:29
just like teaching a kid how to ride a bike,
00:18:31
they'll ride the bike,
00:18:32
your team will grow, your company will excel,
00:18:35
which now means they'll create trust,
00:18:37
that bond gets stronger,
00:18:38
now you can execute at the level you need.
00:18:42
And that's exactly this idea, you know, I think
00:18:45
pressure becomes toxic when leaders use it
00:18:47
to discharge frustration.
00:18:49
I think our listeners could easily see
00:18:51
how that relates back to that analogy there.
00:18:54
And it actually becomes developmental
00:18:56
when leaders use it to build that capacity
00:18:59
and that modeling is really important there, as well.
00:19:02
And also, it gets into this idea
00:19:05
that execution isn't just individual performance.
00:19:08
Throughout our conversation today,
00:19:10
execution is that collective trust
00:19:12
with behaviors understood and attached, right?
00:19:16
Absolutely.
00:19:17
You will not get your team,
00:19:19
or your company,
00:19:20
or your family
00:19:21
to execute at a higher level unless there's trust.
00:19:23
Yeah, period.
00:19:24
Like, period.
00:19:25
You will not.
00:19:27
And if you think you can do it without trust,
00:19:29
it's not long-lasting.
00:19:31
Yeah.
00:19:31
Well, I want to talk about the book
00:19:34
and one question here too quickly, Al, also,
00:19:36
but, you know, of course, again,
00:19:38
The Execution Advantage is out now.
00:19:42
What do you hope a leader does differently after reading it?
00:19:46
Apply it.
00:19:50
Like, you know, I've given you, you know,
00:19:52
I don't know if it's to be funny, right?
00:19:53
I've given them the framework.
00:19:54
Yeah, and I break down each pillar
00:19:57
in pretty, pretty, pretty broad detail.
00:20:00
I give a lot of lived experience examples in there
00:20:03
so that what I hope to do is jog,
00:20:05
you know, just jolt your memory.
00:20:07
Think.
00:20:07
So, I'm also, I don't want you to think like
00:20:10
oh, I'm Dr. Al, this PhD guy, this theory.
00:20:12
No, no, no, man, I'm a lived-experience PhD.
00:20:15
And so I put a lot of that in the book,
00:20:19
and you easily,
00:20:19
well I shouldn't say you easily,
00:20:21
you'll have the framework.
00:20:23
I'll give you, there's plenty of golden nuggets in there
00:20:26
for you to take the time to say,
00:20:28
okay, how do we do the what he's talking about,
00:20:31
how do we do,
00:20:32
where are our holes,
00:20:33
things of that nature.
00:20:35
And obviously, you know, I'm here.
00:20:38
I'm available.
00:20:38
I'm for sale, right?
00:20:41
So if you need help, I'm here.
00:20:44
Let's have a conversation.
00:20:46
Let's figure out where you're at,
00:20:48
where you're trying to go.
00:20:49
Let's figure out where your bottlenecks are,
00:20:51
and then let's create what needs to happen.
00:20:54
The biggest thing, though, I will tell,
00:20:56
and I didn't really talk about this in the book,
00:20:59
is there is no timeline.
00:21:04
Because that's independent to what we're trying to do,
00:21:09
and you know, for very high-functioning teams,
00:21:14
I mean we're talking the elite of the elite of the elite,
00:21:17
moving the needle forward by one millimeter
00:21:20
is success of their growth,
00:21:22
and I mean because they're so high functioning,
00:21:24
and you can get them to that millimeter fairly quickly
00:21:27
because of the foundation.
00:21:29
Right?
00:21:30
Of how everybody operates.
00:21:33
But for others, this is a marathon, right?
00:21:36
This might be the next 2 to 3 to 4 to 5 years
00:21:39
depending on how current circumstances sit
00:21:43
or how one individual sits.
00:21:46
Because I have dealt with leadership teams
00:21:48
where there's a vision,
00:21:51
and then there's another person
00:21:52
who's not on board with the vision
00:21:55
and will constantly get in the way of that growth.
00:21:59
Well, we got to deal with that first
00:22:02
before we ever move a group
00:22:04
or a collective forward, right?
00:22:07
The front runners have to be
00:22:09
on the same page
00:22:10
and in 100% agreement.
00:22:11
So the book will give them, you know,
00:22:14
plenty of guidance,
00:22:16
plenty of examples,
00:22:17
and it gives you an opportunity, you know,
00:22:20
for people to schedule a call
00:22:22
and it's complimentary,
00:22:23
and, you know,
00:22:24
if they haven't figured out my personality,
00:22:26
let's just jump on a Zoom and talk, man.
00:22:28
Let's just talk a little bit,
00:22:30
like, let's just talk.
00:22:31
And if I'm the guy to help you, great.
00:22:34
And if I'm not the guy to help you,
00:22:37
I know a lot of other people.
00:22:40
Not necessarily use my framework,
00:22:41
but they're good at what they do.
00:22:43
I am more than happy
00:22:45
to refer individuals to
00:22:47
if I'm not the right fit.
00:22:49
Right.
00:22:50
So.
00:22:51
Right.
00:22:51
That's great.
00:22:52
Well, you know, I want to move this out.
00:22:54
II know of course, you know,
00:22:56
everything with the book
00:22:57
and with your work
00:22:58
is not based on theory.
00:23:00
It's about, you know,
00:23:02
more predictable ways to help teams perform
00:23:05
when when life and work gets real.
00:23:07
But I I want to I want to move this
00:23:09
into a move that our listeners can run this week.
00:23:11
And I actually want to call it
00:23:12
The Positive Pressure Audit.
00:23:14
And it's four simple questions.
00:23:16
You know, the first being,
00:23:17
where am I applying pressure without clarity?
00:23:20
The second being,
00:23:21
where am I asking someone
00:23:22
to operate against their natural wiring all day?
00:23:26
The third is
00:23:27
where am I reacting emotionally
00:23:29
instead of resetting intentionally.
00:23:31
And the fourth last one being,
00:23:33
what's one rep I can design this week
00:23:35
to build capacity before the real pressure hits?
00:23:38
And I think those are pretty straightforward,
00:23:40
but, Al, what would what would you add
00:23:42
from that list from the book
00:23:43
or just your broader Cohesion HQ work?
00:23:47
Those are good questions Adam.
00:23:50
You know, the thing I would add is
00:23:52
if you're the leader,
00:23:54
it starts with you.
00:23:57
And one of the things I talk about in the book,
00:24:00
because it's part of the way you create cohesion,
00:24:03
you create alignment, is do you?
00:24:07
The question, if I put it in Adam's format,
00:24:11
ask yourself honestly,
00:24:13
do you show up every day and act like a role model
00:24:16
and be a role model in your company every single day?
00:24:21
Just ask that simple question.
00:24:23
The answer to that question is,
00:24:25
you gotta think about it,
00:24:26
or no, I don't.
00:24:28
Well, we gotta start there.
00:24:32
It's your company.
00:24:33
Be the role model
00:24:35
If you can embrace that attitude,
00:24:37
can implement everything else
00:24:39
based on just that attitude changing
00:24:41
that you're going to be the role model.
00:24:43
You're going to be the poster child.
00:24:46
That's fantastic.
00:24:47
Yeah.
00:24:48
Well, and that all gets into the fact that
00:24:50
you know, again,
00:24:51
execution gets real
00:24:52
when pressure becomes practice instead of panic.
00:24:54
And I think that's what we're trying to influence here.
00:24:57
But you know, Al, you know how we end.
00:25:00
After all of this, and the myth
00:25:02
that culture is built on just good vibes,
00:25:05
is anything real?
00:25:07
Is anything real?
00:25:10
I mean, I tell people,
00:25:12
look, culture is a feeling,
00:25:13
cohesion is a system.
00:25:15
Behavior drives execution,
00:25:17
execution drives outcome.
00:25:19
So, if those were the two sentences
00:25:21
you had to remember from this podcast,
00:25:23
just remember those.
00:25:24
Culture is a feeling,
00:25:25
cohesion is a system.
00:25:28
Behavior drives execution,
00:25:29
execution drives outcome.
00:25:31
Beautiful.
00:25:32
Yeah, and I think what feels real to me today
00:25:35
is behavior under pressure again.
00:25:37
It's not the value statement.
00:25:39
It's not the offsite exercise.
00:25:40
It's not the all-hands quote.
00:25:42
It's again, that moment when the pressure hitsand
00:25:45
the team still has enough
00:25:46
trust, clarity, and reps to execute.
00:25:49
And that's what's real.
00:25:50
But Al, where can folks find you,
00:25:53
order The Execution Advantage,
00:25:54
and hit you up for Cohesion HQ?
00:25:58
Yep.
00:25:58
You can find me on LinkedIn very, very easily.
00:26:03
Just put in Dr. Al Philip-Neri.
00:26:04
I'll pop right up and connect with me
00:26:06
and then we'll go from there.
00:26:08
To buy the book, a couple ways:
00:26:10
you can go to
00:26:11
theexecutionadvantage.com
00:26:13
and then it'll click you through to Amazon,
00:26:15
or you could go directly to Amazon,
00:26:16
but if you want to make sure you know it's legit,
00:26:19
just go through
00:26:21
theexecutionadvantage.com
00:26:22
and it'll take you straight to the Amazon checkout link.
00:26:25
And you know, as far as, you know,
00:26:28
if you'd like to just connect on a Zoom,
00:26:30
chit-chat for 45 minutes,
00:26:32
something like that,
00:26:33
yeah, just connect with me on LinkedIn.
00:26:35
That's the best way,
00:26:36
send me, you know, a connection request,
00:26:40
send me a message on LinkedIn,
00:26:41
and then we'll figure out a time,
00:26:43
approach for both of us,
00:26:44
and we'll just get to know each other
00:26:46
and figure out what's going on.
00:26:47
Perfect,
00:26:48
and we'll of course link to that in the show notes below,
00:26:50
but I would say for our listeners today,
00:26:53
stop trying to inspire your way
00:26:55
out of execution problems.
00:26:56
You know, understand your people,
00:26:58
clarify roles, align behaviors,
00:27:00
build trust through those repeated training exercises,
00:27:05
apply pressure tactically, not frantically.
00:27:09
And I think Al and I would challenge you
00:27:10
to send it to a leader
00:27:12
who thinks culture is a vibe.
00:27:13
You know, we care for them, we love them,
00:27:16
but we also need them to define the behavior.
00:27:18
And if you're navigating a leadership transition,
00:27:21
there's also a 20-minute foundational call with me
00:27:23
linked in the show notes below.
00:27:25
But Al, thank you for the partnership,
00:27:27
the pressure reframe,
00:27:29
and those execution receipts.
00:27:31
I'm so excited that we waited for the book here.
00:27:33
Yeah, yeah.
00:27:34
Thanks for having me.
00:27:35
Yeah.
00:27:35
Awesome.
00:27:36
And until next time,
00:27:37
stay grounded,
00:27:38
stay human,
00:27:38
and keep questioning the noise.