17% Moments: Emotional Intelligence and Leadership Under Pressure with Steve Gutzler
Download MP3Well, hi, everyone. I'm Daniel Williams, senior editor at MGMA, host of the MGMA Podcast Network. We're back with another MGMA Insights podcast, and we are so excited because we're joined today by Steve Gutzler. He is a keynote speaker at our upcoming MGMA Financial Conference. That conference is March in Phoenix, in that beautiful Phoenix area.
Daniel Williams:So I highly recommend people getting over there to that show. Today, Steve's going to be talking on leadership, emotional intelligence, and how leaders handle the moments that are hardest to manage. Steve, welcome to the show.
Steve Gutzler:Thank you, Daniel. Great to be with you, and really can't wait for the conference. It's coming up soon.
Daniel Williams:That is exciting, and I'm hoping to be there. But we, we've got three spring shows. This is the one that's gonna kick off all of our spring content. You're that opening keynote speaker, so I may be at some of the other shows, but maybe I can I never like to turn down an opportunity to go to Phoenix, particularly when it's still snowy in Denver. So looking forward to you sharing your information with our MGMA members.
Daniel Williams:So let's just kick this thing off. First question, and this is in the main topic that you're going to be talking about. You talk about something called 17% moments. So I have to ask, what are 17% moments? Where'd you fall?
Daniel Williams:Why isn't it a 16% moment or an 18% moment? What is this, Steve?
Steve Gutzler:Yeah, interesting. So my journey started probably twenty five years ago in the field of leadership. I did coaching, some workshops, and it grew into keynotes. And I became fascinated with leaders and the leaders that can sustain great behaviors, influence and impact. And what I began to notice is it wasn't so much their strategy or their vision or their ability to execute, but it really had to do with self regulating emotions under high stress moments.
Steve Gutzler:I've worked with, you know, first responders, military leaders, my sons in law enforcement, people in high stress moments. And what I began to see is their influence and their reputation wasn't established in what Harvard indicated was the 83% moments
Daniel Williams:Okay.
Steve Gutzler:When we have manageable stress and kinda day to day responsibilities. But they determine the 17% moments when stress spikes or you face a challenging relationship. And how you as a leader handle that moment, let's call it the 17% moment, will determine your true influence, your reputation, and your lasting impact. So I've, for the last probably two decades, helped leaders around that. I usually will talk to audiences or workshops or leaders and say, look.
Steve Gutzler:You're great at the 83. I just wanna help you with the 17.
Daniel Williams:Yeah. I love that. Okay. So it's a Harvard study. And I love that because we know in life, there are triggers that I've talked to other leadership experts like yourself who talk about, well, this goes back to, caveman times.
Daniel Williams:You know? You needed to have that fight or flight or freeze response. That's stress, but that's good stress keeping you alive. And so it's good to know that there is an 83 of the stress we may be feeling, but it's something that, hey, this is manageable. We deal with this, and it helps us achieve great things.
Daniel Williams:So let's put it under the lens of healthcare leaders. They are in constant stress, complex situations, challenges they're trying to solve. What have you identified with those medical practice leaders, people in healthcare, who, when they hit that 17%, what are you seeing that's going on for them, and how do we address that?
Steve Gutzler:Yeah, such a great question because I think especially in the medical field, whether you're in finance or whatever level, you get into it for all the right reasons. There's kind of this human connection component. But I find in healthcare and other fields, you get into almost what I call compassion fatigue. You get exhausted. You're faced with so many human dynamics that your own emotional batteries run kind of low and dry.
Steve Gutzler:And I like to tell leaders often we take better care of our cell phones. I mean, when we get it down to one bar, it's like, man, gotta plug it in. But we will push through all sorts of warning signs of our own emotional health imbalance that puts it puts us at risk. And I call it the halted state when you're hungry, angry, lonely, or tired, you're at risk. And I find that leaders with high self awareness recognize those emotional signs and also the triggers.
Steve Gutzler:What are your triggers that trigger those emotional hijacking moments that put you at risk. So I think a lot of it is self awareness, understanding that the toughest person you lead is yourself, and self leadership is crucial, especially in these moments of high stress and challenging relationships.
Daniel Williams:Steve, that is resonating with me. People who have listened to the show know that we've talked a lot about stress, about burnout, talked about mindfulness, about even meditating to get a handle on what's going on in our lives. You talked a lot about self awareness. And it's really interesting. This is a dynamic I want to ask you about.
Daniel Williams:So we might be cruising along, you go, yeah, I meditate thirty minutes a day, and I've got all this under control. And then it's what you are talking about. You put yourself in that environment, that environment that triggers you, the individual, and suddenly that that, that buildup just melts, and suddenly you're in, like, oh my gosh, total stress mode. What do we do? Let's so let's break it down.
Daniel Williams:We we are self aware. We know what the triggers are, and yet we get into that situation and somebody just knows how to just give us that jab or that nudge that puts us over the edge. So how do we steal ourselves? What's our body armor? What do we need to do?
Daniel Williams:Even though we're aware of it, we're still not, so to speak, in control of it. So what do we do in those situations?
Steve Gutzler:Mhmm. Yeah. What a great question. And you said it, the body armor. I call it the emotional body armor.
Daniel Williams:Okay.
Steve Gutzler:And think of it in two terms. There is the proactive approach to the power of emotions and managing cortisol, that stress hormone. So proactive practices. You mentioned meditation. This morning, I got up.
Steve Gutzler:The weather was nice here. So on days I'm not traveling, I usually do a morning walk. And I find the walk isn't just, you know, feels good. It's it's oxygenating my body. We know that when you have low levels of oxygen, cortisol raises and it puts you at risk.
Steve Gutzler:So stretching, movement, exercise, good fuels, proactive emotional reservoirs are so important, and I find a lot of leaders ignore that. So get proactive. And then there's the reactive in the moment when you get emotionally hijacked by an email or a colleague or a vendor or someone making excuses. What do you do there? And you need to have strategies to manage that quote emotional hijack moment.
Steve Gutzler:So learning to stop, learning to disengage for a few minutes, learning to breathe, learning to recenter yourself, Easier said than done. Right? But if you're at least aware of it, you need to know the signs of emotional hijacking, what cortisol does to your body, how it moves you from a rational logical state over to that emotional jump to judgment.
Daniel Williams:Mhmm.
Steve Gutzler:And, I mean, there's I ask leaders, what are your so, Daniel, what are your physical signs when you get emotionally hijacked?
Daniel Williams:Oh, yeah. I'm glad you asked because I was about to ask you about those. But for me, we do this in our mindful programming we do at MGMA. Can feel it with the heartbeat speeding up, can feel it with that stomach tightening up, can even feel it in the chest area where the lungs are, just almost can't even catch a breath. Just feeling the sort of shutdown or the speeding up where things are not going well.
Daniel Williams:So those are a few for myself and some of the other folks that we work with here at MGMA.
Steve Gutzler:Yes. That's so great. And like the sweatiness of palms, the dryness of mouth. I feel it in my chest. My wife goes, I can always tell when you get emotionally hijacked, there's a vein in the side of your temple that comes out.
Steve Gutzler:And so that's a big piece, but I want to remind the listeners and one of the things I'll share with them is the 17% moments are closely linked to about eighteen minutes. Studies indicate that cortisol overtakes your rational brain for about eighteen to twenty minutes. So just think about that. If you can manage twenty minutes, eighteen minutes, and rather than resend the email, rather than respond to the text, rather than jump to judgment, remain calm, get some composure, resend to yourself, and often the cortisol levels come down and the rational options go up.
Daniel Williams:I love that you brought that into this space here. And what I wanna say is, hopefully, some of our listeners will be nodding their head. But in those situations, when we haven't played out that seventeen, eighteen minutes, I know I'm guilty of this, my mouth will move a little faster than my brain is processing information, and you say something, and then you go, I really wish I hadn't said that. So when you feel yourself and you're even being engaged in a way where someone is waiting for a verbal response to you, how do you do that mental time out? You know, in a football game, you just turn to the ref and you give it a time out, hey, we're going to chill here for a minute.
Daniel Williams:We're going to get two minutes, and we're going to gather ourselves, get a play, and then we're going to go. In real life, when you're sitting across a table from someone and it's gotten a little bit heated. What do you do? How do you do that time out in real life?
Steve Gutzler:That is such a key. And I think that when you know you are emotionally hijacked and you're at risk, I think of it as a yellow light that's blinking, and you know the signs. You feel the signs. You know you're at risk. You know that this could go sideways if you don't stop.
Steve Gutzler:I'll even say things like, hey. I know there's a lot of heat and emotion around this conversation.
Daniel Williams:Mhmm.
Steve Gutzler:Can we table this for even a couple hours or till tomorrow? I I I wanna give honest assessment to this. I wanna validate your feelings, but I don't wanna overreact. And I think just acknowledging it in real time, acknowledging it in a humble state
Daniel Williams:Mhmm.
Steve Gutzler:That you're that you're even at risk. And and and I've even called timeouts in meetings when meetings have gotten kinda heated. Say, hey, guys. I don't think we're accomplishing much at this point. Why don't we go to lunch?
Steve Gutzler:And it's interesting. Just lunch alone, even just a break alone, lowers cortisol. And, again, I think people come back into a more centered, rational state. So the first person you have to manage is yourself. But what if someone else is showing signs, sometimes you're actually having to manage their cortisol and that their amygdala in the brain has been fired, and you need to help serve them by maybe getting some time and space.
Daniel Williams:Mhmm. You bring up a great point, because so many of our listeners are leaders in their practices. Let's say they have a direct report. The leader themselves is not in that 17% state. They do notice they're having a one on one meeting with someone who reports to them, who is having a very difficult time.
Daniel Williams:How do you manage someone else in that situation to help them out? When feeling pretty calm in this situation, but you see someone else is struggling?
Steve Gutzler:Mhmm. Yeah. Daniel, you know, I'm sure in your work how important empathy is. And when I first studied empathy, I thought of it as a soft skill.
Daniel Williams:Mhmm.
Steve Gutzler:You know, putting yourself in someone else's shoes and and kind of feeling for them. I think of it as a hard edged leadership skill because true empathy, when you are in a challenging conversation and just think of one that you've had, If you can approach it from a state of empathy, the first thing you need to do is listen to their side of the story. I call it like the empathy bridge, the understanding gap between us. You're on one side. They're on one side.
Steve Gutzler:How do you close it? You don't close it with facts. You don't close it with logic. You close it with listening and labeling their emotion. So if you can listen to their side and you could say, you know, I can understand the emotion you're feeling.
Steve Gutzler:And you even acknowledge their frustration or their anger or their deep disappointment. What that does is it begins to close the gap and it actually lowers their cortisol if you'll listen and label, acknowledge their emotion, and then help them look for a solution. Say, can we work together for a solution on this? But if if someone expresses that they're kind of fired up and you just throw facts and figures, it's gonna create a bigger gap because you're not showing empathy. So I think your most skillful leaders understand the quickest way to lower the temperature is to acknowledge the emotions that people are feeling.
Daniel Williams:Okay. I wanna direct this next question to really pinpoint what a lot of the attendees who are gonna be at that financial conference, what they're focused on. And that's the bottom line, That's certain goals that are revenue based or other data points. These are things that maybe they're working so hard to to hit a certain number, they don't hit a number. And you can imagine the kind of stress that's causing.
Daniel Williams:And then they have to go present these numbers perhaps to an executive or someone else in the organization and the stress they're feeling. How do you deal with something? I know that there's still those same tools and techniques, but what's the mindset when you know you hadn't hit the number that you were promised you had to hit? What what do you do? How do
Steve Gutzler:you handle that? Such a good question because I think failure, setbacks, all of that can wear on us and it can lead to depletion. And I think in order to keep resilience, you have to really build those emotional reserves, recognize that you're vulnerable and that you can share points of vulnerability and humility. I think you also have to build personal confidence and centeredness and go back to some of your values of who you are and how you can rebuild. So I go back to self leadership.
Steve Gutzler:I mean, if you're a leader, you're giving out a lot, And there's there's a lot you're pouring out. And if you don't have inputs, if you don't have fountain inputs, if you're not listening to inspiration, if you're not reading to lead, if you're if you don't have a couple peers that lift you up, your your emotional reserves are gonna be totally depleted. So I would say the first person you have to inspire is yourself.
Daniel Williams:Right.
Steve Gutzler:Right? Mhmm.
Daniel Williams:I wanna ask you one more question about this. So let's look at it through this lens again. Numbers weren't met. Expectations weren't met. You know this going into a, what we call, a difficult conversation with a boss or maybe an executive council to discuss numbers not being met.
Daniel Williams:How do you address that? Again, you were talking about having confidence going into it. How do you steel yourself? How do you prepare for that difficult conversation and regulate yourself emotionally to basically get through that survive and thrive maybe, but at least survive that difficult situation.
Steve Gutzler:Well, I don't know if this would work for everyone, but I like to script. I like to literally script out some of my thoughts ahead of time, maybe my three or four core essential message points Mhmm. And how I would respond to pushback or individuals that are gonna kind of push back on that. Also visualize in advance and work through in advance your emotional response and how you're going to keep calm and composed. One of my my clients over the years is the president of the seahawks, Chuck Arnold, a fascinating gentleman who has a lot of responsibility.
Steve Gutzler:And when he goes to game day at the stadium, there's a lot of operational things that are going on in that stadium. And he goes, when he pulls in for, say, it's a 01:30 home game. He gets to the stadium at 08:30. When he pulls up to his reserve parking spot, usually two or three people are walking towards him. And guess what they're walking towards him with?
Steve Gutzler:Problems, issues.
Daniel Williams:Bad news.
Steve Gutzler:He goes, they're never coming and saying, oh, Chuck, we're so happy to see you. It's like, hey. Something's gone wrong with technology or Right. You know, whatever it would be. And he said the number one thing he reminds himself is he's a solution finder.
Steve Gutzler:And he keeps in the console of his SUV two words, calm and courageous. And I think if leaders can keep a calm and courageous attitude and almost imagine scenarios that aren't necessarily good, but how they will respond, how they will stay centered, how they will offer continued solutions, I think, that will that will regain their confidence.
Daniel Williams:Okay. Final question. You're gonna be in Phoenix for our financial conference. You're the opening keynote speaker, March 1. What do you want those MGMA members, those health care leaders to take away?
Daniel Williams:What's one good takeaway from your talk?
Steve Gutzler:Well, I would say that, you know, when it comes to emotional intelligence, the reason it's so important is you set the tone as a leader. And you can have all the facts. You can have all the technology. You can have all the finances, everything lined up. But if you're not setting the right emotional tone with your team, everything can go sideways.
Steve Gutzler:So I say leaders don't just read the thermostat. They set the thermostat. They understand that emotions are contagious, and the leader sets the tone. And if we can harness the power of self regulation during the 17% moments, this next year is gonna be successful. They're gonna overcome obstacles.
Steve Gutzler:They're gonna succeed. They're gonna actually have their best year. So I'm I look forward to giving them the emotional body armor. I know that, these are gonna be tools and strategies that will really help them.
Daniel Williams:Alright. Well, Steve Gutzler, thank you for joining us today.
Steve Gutzler:Yeah. My privilege, Daniel. Thank you.
Daniel Williams:Alright. Well, you've been listening to Steve Gutzler on the MGMA Insights podcast. Steve is our opening keynote speaker for the MGMA Financial Conference. It is March in Phoenix, Arizona, and I will provide a direct link for everyone so you can register now and make sure you're at that show. So until then, thanks for being MGMA podcast listeners.
