339. Embracing Leadership in the Age of Continuous Learning with Damon Lembi

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Damon Lembi:

Keep learning. If you feel like you've come to a point where you know everything or you got it all figured out, challenge yourself on that. Keep learning. Keep evolving. And I think it's not only fun, but there's a lot of value in it.

Dr. Richard Shuster:

Hello and welcome to The Daily Helping with Dr. Richard Shuster, food for the brain, knowledge from the experts, tools to win at life. I'm your host, Dr. Richard. Whoever you are, wherever you're from, and whatever you do, this is the show that is going to help you become the best version of yourself. Each episode you will hear from some of the most amazing, talented, and successful people on the planet who followed their passions and strived to help others. Join our movement to get a million people each day to commit acts of kindness for others. Together, we're going to make the world a better place. Are you ready? Because it's time for your Daily Helping.

Thanks for tuning into this episode of The Daily Helping Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Richard. And our guest today is awesome, his name is Damon Lembi. And he's the CEO of Learn iT! and bestselling author of The Learn-It-All Leader. With 24 years at the helm of a corporate training company, he has upskilled and trained nearly two million professionals. He studies how leaders and organizations learn - or don't learn - what prepares them to succeed in life. I'm going to eliminate a little bit of his history because we're going to jump right into it. But he is so well-known. He's been on media platforms such as Forbes and Fast Company, where he writes and speaks on topics including learning, leadership, behavior change, and the future of work. We're going to have a good call today. Damon, welcome to The Daily Helping. It is awesome to have you with us today.

Damon Lembi:

Dr. Richard, I'm excited to be here. Thanks for having me.

Dr. Richard Shuster:

Absolutely. I'm excited to have this conversation. We talked a little bit off air and you told me a bit about your journey, which I am always so fascinated in people's journey. So, let's hop in the Damon Lembi time machine, tell us what put you on the path you're on today.

Damon Lembi:

Well, I also think it's great that we're both KISS fans, like we talked about earlier.

Dr. Richard Shuster:

Yes.

Damon Lembi:

Detroit Rock City, right?

Dr. Richard Shuster:

That's right. Absolutely.

Damon Lembi:

Yeah. So, my story is I grew up in the San Francisco Bay area in a town called Burlingame. I'm the oldest of four siblings and I have great parents. Unfortunately, my dad passed away in 2010. But, really, I was fortunate to have great friend and a lot of it was focused on sports, so we played sports, you know, whatever season it was baseball during baseball, football, basketball, soccer, whatever. And as I got older, I was pretty good at sports, and I figured out by my sophomore year in high school if I was going to continue on, baseball was my best bet.

And so, I was fortunate enough after my senior year in high school to be drafted by the Atlanta Braves in the 13th round. And I had my first really difficult decision, do I go minor leagues or do I take a full ride to Pepperdine University? My parents were great, Dr. Richard, they gave me the opportunity to make whatever decision, they said they'd get behind me. I chose college. I went to Pepperdine University. I got hurt playing, I left my first year. And as things would have it, they ended up winning the College World Series - which is funny - the year after I left. Great for them.

And I ended up playing at Arizona State where I got to play their baseball. You know, my claim to fame is I hit a home run in the College World Series, which was great, which was fun. And I was really planning on continuing to play professional, get drafted again, and move forward. And unfortunately at the end of the year, I didn't get drafted. I didn't want to go the independent route, so I said to myself, "Well, what do I do now?" I was kind of stuck, right? I was stuck thinking what's my next step and are the skills I have transferable.

And taking a step back, as I mentioned my father, they built one of the largest real estate companies in San Francisco, and we had hotels and everything, and I was really fortunate in a sense that I had an opportunity to go work for one of these organizations. But, you know, I was pretty intimidated. And one company that my dad started in 1995, right when I was getting out of Arizona State, was this computer training company called Learn iT!. And back then, I barely used computers and so I took a job as a receptionist at Learn iT!. And I did so because I wanted to roll up my sleeves and prove to everybody that I belong there and I wasn't just put in the top.

And so, fast forward about seven years there, I taught classes, I answered more phones than anybody. And when they were looking for a new CEO, I threw my hat in the ring and I said, "Hey, I've taught classes. I've closed some of our biggest sales. Can I have an opportunity?" And so, for the past 24 years, I've been running Learn iT!, which is a corporate training company and we work with customers who are looking to upscale managers, maybe for the first time, build cultures of learning, or just typically learn how to use products like Excel.

So, that's really my story. And as you mentioned, we've trained about 2 million individuals, which is crazy. I never thought I'd even be in this position. And I wrote a book called The Learn-It-All Leader that was released earlier in the year.

Dr. Richard Shuster:S

So, I want to talk about that, so what was the impetus for writing that book?

Damon Lembi:

So, the impetus for writing that book, originally I was thinking because I've got so many, I think, great stories over the years of learning lessons, and, really, the impetus was I really like to give back. You know, I get a charge out of helping and coaching and mentoring individuals. And I thought there is two main reasons why I want to write the book. Number one, I wanted to give back and share. The book is really my spin on leadership. I got to play for three hall of fame baseball coaches, and that's what really helped me model my leadership skills. So, I want to be able to give back and show others that if I can do it, they can do it. You know, throwing up your sleeves and hard work.

And the other reason why, is that, as I mentioned, my father passed away in 2010. I have two young kids, a five year old and a two year old. And I really wanted them to see not just my father, but my mom and my family, the legacy and how we've helped so many people over the years, and Walter Jr., my son I named after my dad, and my daughter, Lucy, to be proud of and to learn about their family.

So, those were my two driving forces, helping people and something for my kids to have.

Dr. Richard Shuster:

I love both of these things. And so, I'm curious, because not everybody who is listening to this is a business owner, is in a leadership role, but obviously if you played for three hall of fame coaches, there are some things that you learned from them that could translate to anybody no matter where they are in life or what they do. I'm wondering if you could, you know, kind of give us the top tier pieces of wisdom you glean from some of these coaches.

Damon Lembi:

Sure. One of my favorites is, at Pepperdine, Coach Andy Lopez, who won a World Series at Pepperdine, got to one at Florida and then won another one at University of Arizona, only has two rules, and that was show up on time and do the right thing. Show up on time is pretty self-explanatory. Get there on time, get there early, and this really carries over to the business world or whatever. And then, do the right thing, a lot of his players would say, "Well, that's pretty broad. What does that mean?" And he would say, "You know what that means. Do the right thing at all times. Live by your principles and your values. And even if nobody's around, make the right decision." So, that was something that really stuck with me.

And the other thing that I really learned from some of my other coaches was the importance of discipline and team collaboration, and a lot of it, Dr. Richard, around resilience. You know, in sports, you fail quite a bit. In baseball, if you fail seven out of ten times, you can be a millionaire. So, you have to learn to dust yourself off and get back up. And they taught me a lot around the importance of believing in yourself, how to overcome imposter syndrome, and all the above.

So, between those three coaches and my father, who I got to kind of fly on the wall for their business, that's really what's helped model my leadership style.

Dr. Richard Shuster:

I'm grateful for that. And, again, I want to talk a little bit more about your book, but I didn't want to lose that piece because you just gave us some really wonderful pearls of wisdom there.

So, let's jump back into The Learn-It-All Leader. And because leadership is something that you need in your life, whether you're a parent or in a boardroom, so talk to us about some of the tenants of this book. And I want to learn more about your specific approach to leadership.

Damon Lembi:

Well, first, let me define, Dr. Richard, what I mean by a leader, and you kind of touched on it right there. Being a leader, you don't need to manage a massive company of thousands of employees or even 15 employees. You can be a leader as a parent, as an individual contributor at work, somebody who leads by example, or even as a college student. That's really what my definition of a leader is and what I call a Learn-It-All Leader.

And for me, there's really four key traits to being a Learn-It-All Leader, which I believe are humility, curiosity, integrity - which we spoke about a minute ago - and then courage. So, those are really the four main traits that I talk a lot about in my book of about both being and then doing. This is a mindset. This is how you're going to go about being this and then here are some actionable items on actually doing and moving forward with those traits.

Dr. Richard Shuster:

We did touch on integrity, though not on purpose, but we got that one knocked out a little bit. Take us through the other three.

Damon Lembi:

Well, let's start with humility. So, talking about humility, what I believe is you have learn-it-alls and you have know-it-alls, and sometimes you could be a know-it-all in a certain situation, maybe in parenting, but a learn-it-all at work. But overall, I think that being a learn-it-all is a better way to go about it and it really starts with humility. And to me, that means understanding that you don't know everything and that there's other people out there who have better answers and smarter.

And it's important for you as a leader, especially in the business world, to surround yourself with individuals who are smarter and can challenge you. And then, be open, having a beginner's mind and being open to diverse opinions that people have. And, also, being vulnerable in the sense of not being afraid to say, "Hey, look. I don't have an answer to this question, so come in here and help me figure out how to go about answering this," but doing it with confidence.

And then the other trade, I think is really important, is curiosity. And curiosity is being good at asking questions and listening. When we moved into the pandemic and everything went from being in-person for our business to remote, I kind of got curious and I said to myself, "Well, a lot of people are really concerned with what's going to happen, now might be a great time to find great salespeople." And so, I got curious, I thought about what industries are struggling, and I thought about event planning, ticket sales. And I leveraged that and talked to some people I knew, and we ended up hiring half-a-dozen individuals throughout the country that maybe we would have never worked with before to join our sales team. And it all kind of started with being curious and figuring out how, as a leader, we can evolve our business.

And then, when I talk about courage, what I really mean is getting out of your comfort zone. It takes courage to get out of your comfort zone, try things that you don't know, make mistakes, and learn from those mistakes. And I think we've all been in that position. So, having the courage to try something, fail, and then move on.

Dr. Richard Shuster:

And you mentioned that this book will give people actionable strategies to address these four core areas. I don't want you to give away the whole keys to the castle, but give us a few that you think somebody listening to this might want to try out.

Damon Lembi:

Sure. There's two that I think have really stuck out that people have appreciated. One is I dealt with a lot of imposter syndrome myself, you know, which I think a lot of us have - well, actually, all of us have whether you want to admit it or not. And so, I have a three step approach, really, for dealing with imposter syndrome. Number one is work hard. You know, put in the reps. I'm not saying work 10 to 14 hours a day, but put in the work. If you're in sales and your job is prospecting, make the calls, you know, do what it is you need to do. Work hard.

Step number two is focus. Focus in on what you're concerned about, what you're worried about, because it's easy to procrastinate and get off topic, but really focus in on what you're doing. And number three, finally, is learn and let go. I mean, after you've put in the work and you focused, things may not turn out the way you want them to turn out, but don't beat yourself up over that. Pat yourself on the back for putting in the hard work and effort. So, kind of let go. And if it does fail, it's not really a failure because you can learn from that for next time. So, that's one in there.

And the other one that I think a lot of people have been fascinated by is I have something called the trust tax. And what the trust tax is, is that starting all relationships giving somebody the benefit of the doubt, and this could be personal, this could be professional. Giving people the benefit of the doubt and then if things don't work out, if they let you down either on purpose or not, then you learn from that. But going into every relationship, instead of being skeptical or being a cynic, believing in this relationship until proven otherwise. And I think that that's important because it takes so much negative energy, I believe, to start off negative and focused on what possibly could go wrong. So, I just try to believe in the best in people. And if it doesn't work out, learn from that and move on. So, those are two of the actionable items that I talk about in my book.

Dr. Richard Shuster:

I like that a lot. I'd like to ask a couple questions because I know you're a bit of a futurist and known for that in terms of what work looks like.

And before we get into what the future of work looks like through the lens of Damon Lembi, I'm curious, you've trained so many people, what are the biggest changes you've seen pre and post-pandemic in terms of training people? What are the things that, you know, present as problems now for people that you haven't seen before?

Damon Lembi:

Well, that's a great question. Great question. Well, a lot of it has to do, obviously, with remote work and with hybrid work. And going back to trust, we work with a lot of leaders who, frankly, have a hard time trusting or learning how to trust their team when they're not sitting, Dr. Richard, right in front of them. So, it's how to set up an environment where you base the results on whatever projects they have and timelines and goals, and allow people to work in the remote environment that they have. And if they've decided to go back to hybrid or in person, it's how to collaborate with the different groups, you know, some people are remote, some people are in-person.

So, navigating that, well, at first, literally, just kept kept us in business because everybody needed to learn how to go remote and collaborate. And then, when everybody started to come back to some degree, it was navigating those waters. So, that's really one of the big differences.

And I would say with the new generation, the Gen Z coming in, their approach, which I think is great, they ask a lot of questions, they want to know more about career trajectory and professional growth, and I've really seen that take up over the last couple of years, which is helpful for me and for Learn iT! because they demand learning opportunities. And so, in the past, maybe investing in your team was nice to have. I see a lot of our customers, it's like a must have now is investing in your team because the great talent, even in a tough economy like right now, they could leave and attrition is expensive. So, you want to keep your best team members and you want to help them evolve in their career.

Dr. Richard Shuster:

I want to kind of go deeper into this because this is so interesting. So, Gen Z, they don't just want training, they demand it. And yet, as I understand the data, Gen Z employees job hop more than any other generation of people. How do you reconcile those two things? Because they're interesting to me.

Damon Lembi:

Well, I think you reconcile that by, first of all, I think it's easier to job hop when you're on Zoom 100 percent of the time, you know, one day you click off and then the next day you click on somewhere else. It's trying to build a strong culture, which you can do remotely and in-person. And I'm kind of curious to see what you think about this or how your jobs changed since it's all gone remote, but getting them behind a shared purpose or vision of your organization, I think, is key.

Because if they feel like they're part of something greater than just coming in and getting a paycheck, and then actually that the work they're doing is contributing to those goals, like I've been really fortunate over the years to have a tremendous team and who've always referred great talent to me as well, and that's partially because, hey, look at what we do, we help people become better at their jobs and their future jobs and help them build self-confidence in these skills. So, that's something that a lot of people can get behind. And I think a way to cut down on attrition is getting your team members to really believe in your company shared vision and purpose. What do you think?

Dr. Richard Shuster:

I think you're right on. I was very privileged early on in my podcast to interview, Bob Burg, who was really one of the forefathers --

Damon Lembi:

The Go-Giver?

Dr. Richard Shuster:

... yeah -- and really one of the true pioneers in having purpose-driven work, having a company that truly lived by the mission that they have. And so, there's no question that as the workplace has gotten younger, the pendulum has swung more in the direction that people who are looking for jobs today, they don't just want the money. They want the money plus recognition for what they're doing, plus being part of something that makes the world a better place. So, I think you're right on. So, I think astute observation for sure.

Damon Lembi:

And I think that that's good because they're pushing to get things to evolve. I think gratitude is key. And I also think that having people demand having a purpose and something to buy-in forces leaders or organizations to make that crystal clear what that is. Because if they don't, those people are going to leave.

Dr. Richard Shuster:

Yeah, and they are. I mean, the data is very clear that if people aren't feeling appreciated, if they're not recognized, the most dangerous thing, and this is true in sales as well, is not a customer employee who's filled with discontent, it's a customer employee who's neutral and they could take it or leave it. So, everything you're saying is right on the money.

I want to spend a few minutes because you're known for this, as I mentioned, you talk about the future of work. So, let's jump forward. We've got quantum computing, and we've got large language models, and AI is changing the world at rapid pace, and pandemics, and all these things, what do you see work looking like in 5, 10, 15 years?

Damon Lembi:

So, obviously right now, everybody's talking about generative AI and where that's going to happen. And you have some people on one side of the fence who think it's going to destroy the world, you know, take away all the jobs, robots take over everything. And then, you have the other side of the fence where it's going to save the world, everything is going to be phenomenal and create jobs.

I think it's really too early to tell what's going to happen, but I want to lean on the side of what's happened in the past industrial revolutions where it ends up creating more jobs. If I had to put my money on it, I would say that AI, Dr. Richard, isn't going to take people's jobs. That's not going to happen. What's going to happen is people who leverage AI and know how to leverage it and improve or move forward, those are the people who are going to be taking jobs.

So, for everybody out there who is relatively anti, like, "Oh. I don't want to learn. I don't want to get involved with this," I think that that's going to be a negative moving forward. So, I think you got to be open-minded and see how you can leverage AI either in yourself or in your team to evolve. Maybe AI can help automate tasks for you that allows you to focus on higher level tasks or more important goals. And I think that if things keep going well, that's the direction that we're going to go on in the next five years.

Dr. Richard Shuster:

All right. So, you're not necessarily predicting that the machines are going to come kill us all, so that's good.

Damon Lembi:

No. What do you think? Do you think they are?

Dr. Richard Shuster:

I think --

Damon Lembi:

You're a scientist, you know more that I know.

Dr. Richard Shuster:

Well, I've talked about this on another episode, I think AI could be the greatest thing that humanity has ever seen and I think it also could be the worst, or it might be a little bit of both. I think what's going to be the key is do we really rein it in from an ethical standpoint? Obviously, we're able to create new medicines now. I mean, I was reading the other day that some company took some kind of a protein secret syrup, put it through an AI algorithm, and now they're talking about really creating a custom - and I mean custom like custom for you - pill that you could take if you had cancer, kill your cancer, just that cancer. That's amazing.

But, you know, what can you do with AI tech wrapped up into surveillance? What can you do with it in politics? There's a lot of things that, frankly, are terrifying. And so, we just have to have the courage - there's your courage - to do the right thing and make sure that we're using this technology to help people instead of hurt people. So, hopefully --

Damon Lembi:

I'm with you on that. I mean, I think you bring up a really good point. I mean, I don't know how much regulation there should be, but you have to be really careful with getting it in the wrong people's hands or what they can do. But I want to be an optimist and look more at what you're just talking about, about curing cancer and things like that.

Dr. Richard Shuster:

Yeah. So, we'll keep it optimistic for sure. But amazingly, our time has flown by and we're at the end. I've so enjoyed this conversation, Damon. As you know, I like to wrap up every episode by asking my guest just one single question, and that is, what is your biggest helping? That one most important piece of information you'd like somebody to walk away with after hearing our conversation today.

Damon Lembi:

That piece of information would be my recommendation is to keep learning. If you feel like you've come to a point where you know everything or you got it all figured out, challenge yourself on that. Keep learning. Keep evolving. And I think it's not only fun, but there's a lot of value in it. 

Dr. Richard Shuster:

Amen to that. Damon, tell us where people can find out more about you online and get their hands on your book.

Damon Lembi:

Sure. So, our company website is learnit.com, and that has all our classes and our content. You can find my book on Amazon, The Learn-It-All Leader, Amazon, Barnes Noble, wherever you get your book. And then, connect with me on LinkedIn at Damon Lembi.

Dr. Richard Shuster:

Outstanding. And we'll have everything Damon Lembi in the show notes at drrichardschuster.com, where you can find this episode and a whole lot more. Well, Damon, I have loved our time together. Thank you so much for coming on the show. This was awesome.

Damon Lembi:

Thanks for having me, Dr. Richard.

Dr. Richard Shuster:

Absolutely. And I also want to thank each and every one of you who took time out of your day to check out this interview. If you liked it, if you're inspired, if you learned something, go give us a five-star review on you podcast app of choice because this is what helps other people find the show. But most importantly, go out there today and do something nice for somebody else, even if you don't know who they are, and post it in your social media feeds using the hashtag #MyDailyHelping, because the happiest people are those that help others.