P³ with Preston Poore
P³ with Preston Poore aims to equip and empower emerging leaders, particularly Millennials, by sharing insights on leadership and faith in the workplace. Leveraging Preston Poore's extensive experience, training expertise, and books "Discipled Leader" and "21 Days to Sound Decision Making," the podcast will feature engaging discussions with leaders, exploring what excellence looks like and sharing their personal stories.
P³ with Preston Poore
Symptoms vs. Root Cause: How Leaders Align Teams to Solve the Right Problem
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Every leader wants to take action when something goes wrong. But what if you're fixing the wrong problem?
In this episode, Jerry Caldwell, President of Bristol Motor Speedway, joins me to explore how leaders can identify root causes, avoid surface-level fixes, and ask better questions to solve the problems that actually matter.
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⏱️ Episode Highlights
[02:02] Symptoms vs. Root Cause: Why solving the wrong problem wastes time and effort.
[04:14] The Chariot Race: Preston's Coca-Cola story and the lesson about targeting the real problem.
[10:21] Meet Jerry Caldwell: How Jerry went from intern to President of Bristol Motor Speedway.
[12:40] Solving the Wrong Problem: Jerry's first season as General Manager and the lesson he learned from it.
[15:53] The Internal Shift: How Jerry discovered the real problem started with his own leadership mindset.
[18:14] Wise Counsel Over Solo Analysis: Why trusted advisors can help leaders see what they miss on their own.
[21:36] Whack-a-Mole: Why some problems keep returning in different forms.
[23:26] The Most Expensive Band-Aid: How hiring the wrong person can become a costly surface-level solution.
[26:12] Are We Solving the Right Problem?: The question that helps Jerry's team get unstuck.
[28:09] Feed Yourself First: The advice Bruton Smith gave Jerry that continues to shape his leadership.
[31:16] The Pharisees and the Manicured Grave: A lesson from Matthew 23 about focusing on what's happening beneath the surface.
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Links & Resources Mentioned
• Discipled Leader Apprenticeship: https://prestonpoore.com/
• Discipled Leader Book: https://prestonpoore.com/books-by-preston/
• How is Greater Than What Book: https://prestonpoore.com/book/
• About Preston: https://prestonpoore.com/about-preston_poore/
• Bristol Motor Speedway: https://www.bristolmotorspeedway.com
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Connect With Me
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prestonpoore/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PoorePreston
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/prestonpoore1/
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Closing Thoughts
If today's episode hit home, share it with someone who needs to hear it. Like, comment, and leave a review to help more people discover the show.
Peace out. Be a rock star.
About Preston Poore
Preston Poore is a former Coca-Cola executive who practices what he preaches. He uses his wealth of hard-earned experience in the corporate arena to help emerging leaders and millennials reach their potential—all while staying true to his values, purpose, and goals.
Preston is a Certified Maxwell Leadership Team Keynote Speaker, Facilitator, Trainer, and Executive Coach. Through his books, How Is Greater Than What, Discipled Leader (2022 Selah Awards Nonfiction Book of the Year) and 21 Days to Sound Decision Making, his blog, and podcast, he seeks to help people become redemptive influences in their workplaces and live more fulfilling lives.
Learn more about Preston Poore & Associates: https://prestonpoore.com
Work with Preston or invite him to speak: https://prestonpoore.com/leadership-development-services/
Sign up to receive the P³ Newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/prestonpoore.com/thepulse
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While there is some truth to making sure that you're putting in the effort that you need to, and that can be okay as long as you're trying to solve the right problem.
SPEAKER_01Sometimes in organizations you want to hire maybe what you consider exciting best talent to bring in, but they may not be a cultural fit and it's more disruptive than anything else.
SPEAKER_00As the leader, you really need to embrace that and know that you gotta take care of yourself first. I was losing, and I knew it.
SPEAKER_01Three sales teams had rolled into my territory after a major acquisition. They came in with big budgets, flashy incentives, and zero interest in coordinating with me. They win and dyed the baller, booked every available meeting slot, took over the market visits. Slowly, steadily, they squeezed me out. My legacy brands like Coca-Cola, the ones that generated 90% of the baller's revenue, started slipping. Total sales stagnated, and I could see the numbers falling, and I knew exactly what to do about it. Fight fire with fire, double my efforts, bigger incentives, better dinners, outhustled them the way I've always out-hustled everyone. I was one phone call away from launching that counterattack when something stopped me. Not a person, not a meeting, a movie, a scene from a 1959 film about a chariot race. And it showed me that everything I was about to do was aimed at the wrong target. If you've ever worked harder, moved faster, and spent more only to realize that the problem that you were solving wasn't the problem at all, welcome to the conversation. This one is the one most leaders need and almost nobody has. I spent 30 years in corporate leadership making every mistake in the book, some of them twice. I'm Preston Poore, and if you're a leader who's ever felt in over your head but too proud to say it, you're in the right place. This is PQ. Welcome. Quick recap. Last episode we talked about responsibility and fear. What happens when the decision lands on you and nobody else? We learned that the cost of leadership isn't always a bad outcome. Sometimes it's carrying the weight of being the person who has to act. Well, you made the call. You own the weight, you pushed through the fear. Good. But here's what can still go wrong. Every sound decision starts with a step that most leaders skip defining the right problem. Get that wrong, and the boldest call you'll ever make is aimed at the wrong target. What happens when leaders work hard, act boldly, and put everything they have into the wrong thing? Well, that's episode 12. Symptoms versus root cause. Before you can make a sound decision, you have to define the right problem. Most leaders skip that step. They see what's visible, name it fast, and start acting. Every leader has a bias toward action. And when something breaks, we fix it. When the numbers drop, we push harder. When a team underperforms, we restructure. And sometimes that works. But sometimes the thing we're fixing isn't the thing that's broken. It's just the thing that's visible. Symptoms are loud, they show up like dashboards, quarterly reports, and Monday morning meetings. They demand attention. Root causes are quiet. They hide underneath the noise, behind assumptions, inside relationships and structures that nobody wants to examine. Here's the trap. Treating a symptom feels productive. You can measure it. You can report on it, and you can tell your boss you acted. But if the root cause is still there, the symptom comes back or it shows up somewhere else wearing a different name. The hardest discipline and leadership isn't working harder. It's pausing long enough to ask, am I fixing the right thing? Because effort applied to the wrong problem isn't diligence, it's waste. And most leaders figure that out about six months and two budget cycles too late. Looking back on how I managed my problem solving, I exercised some poor judgment. And now from the home office in Atlanta, Georgia, the top five signs you're solving the wrong problem. Number five, you redesigned the org chart. The problem was the product. Number four, you retrained the team three times. It was never the team. Number three, you replaced the manager. Same results, new scapegoat. Number two, you launched a task force to study the problem. The task force is now the problem. That's not irony, that's Tuesday. And the number one sign, you're solving the wrong problem. Everyone in the room agreed on the solution, but nobody could name the problem. But the PowerPoint, it was beautiful. That last one sounded a little familiar, but here's the full story. What if the thing that you're about to fix isn't the thing that's broken? That was the question I didn't know to ask until a chariot race answered it for me. Coca-Cola made a massive move. They acquired two competitive companies, Glasso, which included vitamin water and smartwater, and fuse beverages. On paper, fantastic. The incoming water and juice brands were complementary to the existing hydration portfolio. But acquisitions don't just bring brands, they bring people and plans and agendas. Each acquired company came with its own sales team and their own playbook. My role focused on legacy brands like Coca-Cola, Sprite, and Diet Coke. But the new teams didn't coordinate with me, and they didn't have to. They had exciting incentives, expense accounts, and the shine of being the new thing. They whined and dyed the baller. They booked every available meeting slot and they tied up market visits. And slowly they squeezed me out. The baller became enamored with the shiny new penny and lost sight of the ball. Legacy brand execution began to slip and total sales stagnated. I dug into the numbers and found the disconnect. The newly acquired brands contributed only 10% of the baller's total revenue. The legacy brands that I represented accounted for 90%. But the baller's attention was going to the 10. My first instinct was to fight fire with fire. Double down. Get back in the game with more attractive incentives, fancier dinners, and bigger premiums to win the baller's attention back. Compete harder. Out hustle the teams the way I have always out hustled the competition. I wasn't entirely comfortable with this approach, but I believed that there had to be a solution somewhere. I just didn't know where. So I prayed. Not a strategy meeting, not a consultant, a prayer. I asked God for wisdom to meet the challenge and identify a game-changing solution. Then it happened. Inspiration from the most unlikely source. A movie. The 1959 Academy Award-winning Ben Hur. There's a scene where Judah Ben Hur is watching a chariot race practice. A team of four horses pulls the chariot toward a curve. And Ben Hur says that the chariot will never make the turn. He's right. The horses run straight off the track. And when he was asked how he knew, Ben Hur explains. He said the horses are strong and fast, but they aren't positioned to leverage their individual strengths. They're running as individuals, not as a single unit. Ben Hur rearranges the horses, placing the slower, steadier horse on the inside to anchor the turns, and the faster horses on the outside. And then he races the chariot around the track in record time. The parallel hit me like a lightning bolt. I've been about to solve the wrong problem. The problem wasn't that the new teams were stealing attention. The problem was that everyone was running separately, strong and fast, but not positioned. Individuals, not as a unit. What if we worked together and everyone achieved their goals? What if I harnessed the team, positioned them by strength, and we ran as one? None of the new team members reported to me. I had no authority, only influence. I invited 15 brand Ebala representatives to a first of its kind brand partner summit. The objective? Build trust, open communication, facilitate collaboration, and eliminate internal competition. We started with horseback riding in the Smoky Mountains, connecting outside the office. Over dinner, we shared roles and responsibilities. The next morning, I opened with the Ben Her clip and asked the team to consider how we could begin to run as one. Participants started making connections immediately. They reviewed each other's plans, priorities, and business updates. And by the end, the brand partners concluded that their initiatives needed to be integrated into one comprehensive monthly sales plan. One document, one set of priorities, one team. The sales plan eliminated internal competition, improved collaboration, and ensured that everyone met their business plan. We ran as one. The brand partner summit and sales plan were deemed best practices and adopted by other parts of the company. I was one phone call away from competing harder, more dinners, more incentives, more hustle. It would have felt productive. It would have looked decisive, and it would have solved absolutely nothing. Because the problem was never the competition. The problem was disunity. I almost poured every ounce of energy into polishing the outside of a cup that was broken on the inside. The only reason I didn't is because I stopped long enough to pray, and God answered with a chariot race from 1959. Most leaders I know go to church on Sunday and show up on Monday like they've never heard a word of it. I was one of them. The Discipled Leader Apprenticeship exists to close that gap. One-on-one discipleship that shapes how you actually lead, not just what you do. If you're tired of living two separate lives, visit PrestonFord.com. Hey everybody, welcome to Jerry Caldwell. Jerry Caldwell's in the house on PCUbe. Jerry, welcome to PCUbe. Glad you're here.
SPEAKER_00Thanks, Preston. So glad to be here.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Hey, uh, real quick, I want to, I normally don't do introductions, but I want to make a quick connection between the two of us. Uh number one, if you're a NASCAR fan, you're going to love hearing from Jerry and his thoughts today and some of the things that he's uh worked through from a decision-making process and then also root cause and uh uh the the uh symptom piece that we've kind of been talking about. But he and I both serve on the CLC, the now Christian Leadership Concepts Organization on the national board. And that's where I met Jerry. And uh he's got a wonderful background. And so instead of me giving the 20-minute introduction to you, if you take it from here and share a little bit with our audience about who you are and what you're doing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, happy to. Thanks again for letting me join you. Um so originally from the North Carolina area, but been in Tennessee for for almost 30 years now, came to college here, uh, began working at Bristol Motor Speedway with the intentions of it being a short-time thing. Like I was gonna intern here, I was a finance major in college, I was going into banking, um, uh, came on during an internship and just loved it. I loved the people, I loved the organization, I loved the energy around the events that we were putting on. Um, and started in corporate sales, uh, became vice president of sales here and then um general manager and president that's awesome for a several year career and also married and have six kids and um, you know, a a uh really fun life. I've been very blessed.
SPEAKER_01Well, you you have, and so I'm so excited about today. And I know in the leadership role that you're in, I know that you make important decisions with teams and uh you're put on the the uh in the hot seat sometimes to do some things to make decisions on. I'm sure those are hard, so you've got a lot of experience, and I know that our audience will benefit certainly from what you have to share with us today. So why don't we just jump into the questions real quick if you're okay with that? Um so why don't we go with this first one? It says, when did you realize that you were solving the wrong problem? When did you first realize that? So imagine a time where you were in a situation and you went, uh-oh, we may not have solved or figured out what the right the uh right problem is, and you were solving the wrong one. Tell me a little bit about that.
SPEAKER_00You know, as I I uh reflected on that question, um I kept coming back to inside work, really. Um, when I was solving the wrong problem was really when I had myself in the wrong spot, I believe, uh, from a headspace standpoint. Uh the the first one that came to mind for me as I thought about that was really when I uh moved into the role as general manager of Bristol Motor Speedway, and we had come through uh a trying time. Uh, it was 2010. The sport of NASCAR was seeing a shift, a transition. The country had seen a shift and transition. You're coming out of 2008, 2009, when really we were shifting, I believe, as a as a society on um some manufacturing jobs and what those looked like. And it was impacting a certain audience that happened to align with that NASCAR audience. So we were seeing some challenging times for our race fans. At the same time, here personally, Jeff Byrd, um, who was my mentor, my father-in-law, uh, and was general manager of Bristol Motor Speedway, had tragically passed away from a from uh from cancer. Uh, I had moved into an interim role as general manager and then full-time role as general manager, and then trying to get my arms around all that. I um, you know, we had a lot of pressure because we were seeing sales decline some. Uh, and it was really, again, a shift in in society, but also a shift in the way we consume entertainment. Uh, we were moving from this uh historic approach of people went to every baseball game in the city that they lived in. People went to the same races. They would go to eight to ten races a year because they were NASCAR fans. Because you couldn't consume the sport the same way that you can today, it wasn't readily available all the time everywhere, uh, on the radio, on a podcast, on on internet, uh, social media, and so forth. So we were seeing a shift. But at the time, what you have a tendency to do, I believe, and I I've I learned personally, was you really just try to work harder. You you double down, you make more calls, you work longer hours, uh, you try to push the people more. Uh, we have to work harder to sell more tickets in our in our case. And while there is some truth to making sure that you're putting in the effort that you need to and um and doubling down, uh that that can be okay as long as you're trying to uh solve the right problem.
SPEAKER_01And so you you said there was some internal moving or shifting going on during that time frame, and you you were and that kind of alludes to a little bit about the opening that I have, and I talk about how I was trying to focus on one thing and realized it was something else. Uh, but tell me about that, where that internal shift happened to you that took you into this new leadership position, realizing the circumstances you're involved in and that hard work may not have been the answer, but we need to we do need to work hard, certainly. Uh, but tell me a little bit about that. What was going on there?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I I think it was um there were some different dynamics going on with me. Some was I needed to get comfortable in my own position. I needed to get comfortable with the position that I had assumed um and make sure that I was uh caring about our team as a whole and not just trying to drive the team harder and ask more questions and push. And I think those things can lead to micromanagement, uh, which is not scalable, and other things. And that's what was going on with me. Again, I really think this was back in 2010. I think it was more internal for me. I think I was um not a hundred percent confident in the position I was moved into. Um that took some time, it naturally does, but uh I probably was doubling down my effort a little bit on let's work harder, let's drive harder, let's stay here longer, let's get in earlier uh instead of pulling the team together and saying, hey, we're all in this together. Yeah. Uh let's identify what's in front of us. Let's make sure that we've locked arms and we're all pulling in the same direction.
SPEAKER_01What was the team's response as you dealt with the symptoms on that and you drove harder with them? How how did they react to you?
SPEAKER_00Um you know, I I at the time, not well. You know, I think they knew that wasn't the right. Everyone's trying to do the best they can with what they have, but I think they realized that it wasn't the right path. Um that everyone wanted the same thing. Um we at that time, for a period though, just weren't communicating around it. We had all kind of locked our heads down and and were driving forward in our own directions uh with what we felt like was the right thing and it wasn't.
SPEAKER_01And then so tell me about if we talk about root causes, you had this internal, and I keep digging a little bit on this, Jerry. So help me uh and forgive me if I'm I'm trying to peel back a couple of layers on the onion a little bit here. Yeah, no. Um, but was there do you remember a tipping point for you as you moved from that uh symptom that you were focused on versus the root cause and say, hey, maybe I need to lead differently? Do you remember that at all? Uh that that moment or that that I guess period at all?
SPEAKER_00You know, I think it was a process. I don't know that there was one aha moment for me. Um I think it uh probably came to light more in um I have found that I think it's important we seek wise counsel. We we seek wise counsel outside of, you know, as it relates to a work environment. I think you need to find that outside the team you're leading. You need to be able to have a trusted advisor uh or multiple friends that you can just talk through some things with. And I think that's where that came from.
SPEAKER_01That's good.
SPEAKER_00That came from some wise counsel from presidents and general managers at other racetracks that I had befriended that were putting their arm around me and and mentoring me and saying it's okay. Like, all right, let's let's back up. You're you're good, you're in the right spot. Uh, having friends say you're exactly where God wants you to be. You're you're in the spot you're supposed to be in. Now rest in that and operate out of your strengths and not out of your weaknesses. Oh, that's so good. And so I think that's that's probably where I found uh if I reflect back on that, the shift wasn't an immediate thing, it was a gradual thing, but it really came from friends, friends and and wise counsel pointing me in a in the right direction.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's absolute gold. And then uh on the other side of all that, tell me about how your team responded then once you went through that process, that transformation of your approach, the wise counsel you received. What was the difference in them?
SPEAKER_00Um the the difference was um really having my back um and saying to me, we're with you. You know, we that this isn't a uh push against us, this is a pull together. And um, you know, it uh as I reflect back on that again, it wasn't an immediate thing, it was an overtime thing. But as we had more conversations, as we understood the challenges in front of us together, yeah, and it wasn't me in my office looking at a spreadsheet thinking, okay, what do I need to do for this person and that person to get them moving? We got in a room, we looked at the spreadsheets together. Yeah. And we said, what are the what are the solutions? And um uh I think you find that in a in the group. You have to have a strong team that you trust uh and rely on and that you can all pull together. That's great.
SPEAKER_01Great advice. So if you're listening today and you just heard Jerry talk a little bit about that process he went through, what I heard was it didn't happen overnight. It took time. He got into his role, he set aside the imposter syndrome where people encouraged him to say, hey, you earned the right to be here. And now you have to lead differently, think about people differently, collaborate with them, and then move forward together and build that trust. And uh, fantastic example. So thank you for talking about the symptoms and focusing on that and then going actually at the root cause. And you work through that personally, then it shows up. And that's one of those things I talk about all the time is the form versus function, form before function. And uh, that's an excellent demonstration of that. A few other questions I just want to dive into. Um, so talking about again this root cause versus symptoms, have you ever fixed something or your team maybe that the problem just showed up somewhere else? It's kind of like a whack-a-mole, you popped it down and it popped up somewhere else.
SPEAKER_00Um, yeah, I I think we all have have those things that come up. And and sometimes that um can be tied to making sure we have people in the right spots on the bus. You know, if we're all on this bus going in the right in the same direction and we have clarity uh with mission and we have our kind. Of ground rules of how we're going to operate together. Um then there are times, uh I think of of your question, there are times where we've tried to solve a problem and realize that maybe we just have the person that's in the wrong seat. Um, you know, we're trying to solve something here. And uh I have a saying that I stole from somewhere else. I don't remember. Uh it's kind of from an Einstein quote that I've probably modified, but it's sometimes we're asking a fish to climb a tree, and the fish is really good at swimming, but they're not great at climbing the tree. So let's make sure we have people in their strengths, in their positions of strength, and allow them to operate in that and not asking the fish to climb the tree.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um that's good.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And so you're but you're not whacking people on the bus, right? So we're not doing that whack a person on the bus. Um, that's a great uh thing. I love how that thought has permeated uh the business culture from Jim Collins' good to great and the right people on the bus. It's so, so true. And I think if you shuffle people around and not solve the problem, but you're trying to move them to other roles and get that fish to do something they weren't meant to do, uh, that does and can can create all kinds of problems. Um in your industry, uh, you're in the entertainment industry, you're in the racing industry, right? And so uh I I know you've seen a lot of things, but what's the most expensive band-aid that you've ever seen in your business?
SPEAKER_00Um hiring the wrong person. Um, you know, I think uh again, it's someone else's quote, but we use it um, you know, hire slow and and exit quickly. Um it is so important to make sure we're hiring the right folks and bringing them on the team and uh that they understand who we are and the way that we're gonna operate, that we we know that there are uh what we do is important, uh, but making sure that we're doing it the right way is the most important and that we're caring for others. Uh, we have not often but occasionally uh had the wrong person join the team and and not bought into that culture. And it can be really disruptive. And it's it's cost us um not only that position, but there have been times where it'll cost you other folks uh in the process. So I think anytime that's um our our people are our greatest asset. Um and you know, especially for us being in the entertainment and sports business, we put on events. We want to have fun, we want to do it in an excellent manner, we want to exceed people's expectations. Um, but we do that with a team. And yeah, we have these big expensive facilities that are that are hard to keep up. And, you know, Bristol Motor Speedway is one of the largest facilities in the country, in the world. And uh, but it is only effective and special because of the people that help put on these events. So yeah, uh, that's always going to be our most important spot.
SPEAKER_01That's so true. Sometimes in organizations, you want to hire maybe what you consider exciting best talent uh to bring in, but they may not be a cultural fit, and then it's more disruptive than anything else. And that could be considered a band-aid because you're trying to fill something. Uh, and then I love your saying, it's you said uh hire slowly, exit quickly, something to that effect.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Uh Coca-Cola, we were hire quickly, exit slowly. And so it created an interesting culture as you go through that. Uh the the Fortune 500 type stuff. So very, very and we've been there as well.
SPEAKER_00I think a lot of folks can get there, especially when you're, I mean, we're a we're a uh relationship company. So it's hard to uh it's hard to pull that trigger and get folks to move on and uh let them go pursue what God has designed for them to do. Yeah, sure.
SPEAKER_01Hey, when your team is stuck, what's the first question that you ask them as you're sitting and and you're having these collaborative meetings, uh, you're looking at spreadsheets together and they're stuck and you uh don't want to be the one that gives all the answers. I always tell people that if I'm the smartest person in the room, we're all in trouble. That's right. So uh, how do you get them unstuck? What question would you ask them?
SPEAKER_00You know, um I think first the what I would do is try to shut my mouth. And, you know, the the two ears and one mouth and use them in proportion. Like, let's listen. Uh sometimes it takes a little time for folks that are in the room to feel comfortable speaking up, especially when it's calling out a problem. A lot of people don't like to point out problems, some people do, most people don't. Um, so I I think it's that. And then I like digging kind of what you were doing earlier. Let's peel back some more levels of that onion. Uh okay, but then what? And uh most importantly, and it's it's how you let off, are we solving the right problem? We're we're focused over here. We're focused on this. Is that really where we need to be focused? Yeah. Or um do we need to pull back and ask ourselves, are we solving the right problem? And is it is it the right problem for our business? Uh sometimes um, you know, it's how do we do this thing better? I think we have found at Speedway Motorsports and in Bristol over the years, we need to sometimes ask ourselves, are we even doing the right thing? Is this something we need to stop doing? Uh are we putting too much effort into something that we don't need to be putting the effort into anymore?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, so good. So that problem definition early on is so important. And then figuring out root causes versus the symptoms makes a big difference. Whether it's people or projects, uh, anything that you're dealing with. And I loved your team approach that you have uh gone through the process and leadership and grew and making things better around that. So uh I love the formation versus function piece that that uh you're sharing today. So really good. Uh Jerry, before I let you go, any any other advice around this uh problem solving, decision-making thing that we're talking about today? Anything else that you want to leave with our listeners?
SPEAKER_00You know, I was um I have been blessed in my career to work with some amazing people. And I was I was moved into this role by the founder of our company, Bruton Smith, um, who is a legend, was a legend in in business and um kind of that classic story of um from very poor to self-made billionaire. And when he moved me into the role of general manager, he he gave me a list of some things. He said, I want to give you some advice. He came up, flew up to Bristol from he lived in Charlotte, flew up to Bristol and announced to the team I was moving into that role, but took me to lunch and he said, I want you to do a few things. And uh one of those things, number one on that list was uh a version of basically, he said, you've got to you have to feed yourself first mentally and physically. You have to take care of yourself. So you have to lead this team with positivity, you've got to come in with some energy, and and you're going to set the tone for everyone else. So you need to make sure that you're doing something to feed yourself positive every day. And whether that's listening to podcasts, spending time in the word, whatever it is for individuals, I think my advice would be make sure that you're feeding yourself positive things if you want, you know, what goes in is going to come out. And as the leader, you really need to embrace that and know that you got to take care of yourself first and make sure you're in the right mental space. And then number two on his list of several other things was have fun. Um enjoy what you're doing. He would uh he would come sit in my office during our events, our NASCAR events, and it never failed when I would come in and hang out and talk to him for a while. I'd say, Okay, I need fruit and I'm gonna run to this meeting, I'll be back. And he would say, All right, go have fun.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00And I think it was uh it is such a good reminder that life's short and um we can get really serious about business and what we're doing, but we need to take time to enjoy the ride.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, thank you for that. Uh, I do things I uh just back at you on this. Uh, love the analogy and the thought about taking care of ourselves. It's kind of like being on a plane. If you experience a decrease in altitude, those masks come out, they say, put it on yourself first and then the person next to you. Uh that's the same with the kind of idea I think you're expressing here is that we need to be able to do this. We set the tone, don't we? And that tone, if you're walking into it with enthusiasm, passion, and to have fun, uh, people, that's very attractive. People want to be part of that, right? They and they will perform better in an environment where they can express themselves and their talents, skills, and abilities in a fun way and enjoy what they're doing. It makes all the difference in the world. Jerry, you've been a blessing and an awesome guest today. Lots of nuggets of wisdom today, talking about decision making and problem solving and your perspective uh from your view at Bristol Motor Speedway, your experience, the industry you're in. So thank you so much. And thanks for your faith too, and thanks for serving faithfully on CLC as well. We appreciate your participation in that and your leadership. Jerry, great to have you on PCUbe. Thanks so much. Thanks so much. Jerry, thank you. But here's what keeps coming back to me as I listen to you. We're all tempted to fix the visible thing, the loud thing, the thing on the dashboard. Jesus had something to say about that, and he wasn't gentle about it. Do you want to see someone call out surface level fixes? Read Matthew 23. The Pharisees were the most respected religious leaders in Israel. They followed every rule, they tithed, they prayed publicly, they wore the right clothes and said the right things. From the outside, they looked like the gold standard of faith. Jesus wasn't impressed. Matthew 23, 25 through 26 says, You buff the surface of your cups and bowls so that they sparkle in the sun, while the insides are maggoty with your greed and gluttony. Stupid Pharisee, scour the insides, and then the gleaming surface will mean something. You buff the surface. That's the phrase that should haunt every leader. Jesus wasn't done. He hit them with an image that's hard to forget. You're like manicured grave plots, clip grass and the flowers bright, but six feet down, it's all rotting bones and worm-eating flesh. People look at you and think you're saints, but beneath the skin, you're total frauds. Manicured grave plots, grass clipped, flowers bright, six feet down, decay. That's what happens in organizations too. The dashboard looks healthy, the metrics are on target, and the re-org chart clean. But underneath the culture's toxic, the trust is gone, and the real problem is festering because nobody wants to dig six feet down. The Pharisees spent their entire lives perfecting the symptom, the outside of the cup, the surface of the grave. And Jesus said the same thing over and over. You're fixing the wrong thing. Scour the insides, and then the gleamy surface will mean something. That's the leadership principle embedded in this passage. Stop polishing what people can see and start addressing what they can't. Fix the root, and the surface takes care of itself. I almost made the Pharisees' mistake with the glasso and fuse teams. My instinct was to polish the outside of the cup, compete harder, look busier, win back the baller's attention with shiny things. God redirected me through a prayer and a chariot race. But the principle is the same one Jesus laid out 2,000 years ago. The outside doesn't matter if the inside is broken. Run the diagnostic on what's underneath. And remember what Jesus said? Scour the insides, and then the gleaming surface will mean something. Stop buffing the cup and start scouring it. So what do you do with all of this? Three things. I wish that somebody had said them to me before I almost launched a counterattack against teammates who should have been running beside me. Number one, the first solution that comes to mind is usually treating the symptom. When the numbers dropped, my gut said compete harder, more incentives, bigger dinners. That felt decisive because it was immediate and visible. But immediate invisible is exactly what symptoms are. I learned to treat my first instinct like my first draft. Useful for getting started, almost never the final answer. When something breaks, fix what you can see, then keep digging. Number two, the answer rarely comes from where you're looking. I was staring at spreadsheets, competitive data, and baller meeting schedules. The answer came from a 1959 movie about a chariot race. When I stopped forcing a solution and prayed for wisdom, God answered from a direction that I never would have planned. If you've been grinding on the same problem with the same inputs, step back. The insight you need might not live in your data. It might live in a conversation, a story, or a prayer that you haven't prayed yet. And number three, unity solves more problems than effort. I could have outworked every new sales rep on the team, outspent them, outtraveled them, out-hustled them, and it wouldn't have moved the needle. Four strong horses running in four different directions will never make the turn. One team positioned by strength and running together will break records. When results stall, don't ask who needs to work harder. Ask who needs to work together. Before you make that next call, stop. Take a breath. Define what you're actually dealing with. Because the first step of every sound decision is getting the problem right. Scour the insides. The gleaming surface will follow. That's arc three. Four episodes, four tensions about the decisions that define you. What happens when there's no clear right answer? What it costs when every option has a downside. What it takes to be the one that makes the call, and what goes wrong when the call is aimed at the wrong target. Clarity, trade-offs, responsibility, and diagnosis. The four walls of every decision a leader will ever face. But here's the thing about decisions. They don't happen in a vacuum. They happen with people. Messy, complicated, not who you would have chosen, people. Arc 4 is about people and relationships. And it starts with a tension every leader feels, but few will admit. What do you do when the team you have isn't the one that you wanted? See you there. Well, that's a wrap. Thanks for spending part of your day with me, and I know your time is valuable and your to-do list is long. If this was helpful, share it with someone else who needs it. Like it, comment, leave a review. It helps more people find the show, and quite honestly, it makes me feel like I'm not just talking myself in here. And if today's tension hit home, maybe a little too close to home, and if you're tired of being one person on Sunday and someone else on Monday, check out the Disciple Leader Apprenticeship at Preston4.com. Ten weeks, one hour a week, one conversation at a time, no slides, no lectures, just real talk. And find me on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Instagram. Peace out, be rock star.