0:00

Dave Stahoviac here, host

0:03

of the Coaching for Leaders

0:05

podcast. I work with a

0:07

lot of high achievers and

0:09

they tend to set the

0:11

bar really high for themselves.

0:13

As one of my mentors

0:15

once told me, any strength,

0:17

if overused, often becomes

0:20

a liability. Sometimes our

0:22

desire to achieve a lot

0:25

can actually stop us from

0:27

starting or something I see a

0:29

lot. to keep from continuing

0:31

when we run into obstacles. That's

0:34

why I'm sharing this conversation

0:36

today with Brooks Bradford. He's

0:38

leading a super successful organization

0:40

that, as you'll hear, is really

0:42

busy. And we discuss what he did

0:45

through our academy to help motivate

0:47

people and himself towards an

0:49

important vision. By the way,

0:51

if you're considering the Coaching for

0:54

Leaders Academy, applications close this Friday,

0:56

March 14th. More details about that

0:58

at the end. Now, here's our

1:00

chat. I'm talking with Brooks Bradford

1:02

today. He is the president of

1:05

Hydrokinetics. He's also an alum of

1:07

the Coaching for Leaders Academy. Brooks,

1:09

so good to be talking with

1:12

you. It is always a pleasure to talk

1:14

with you, Dave. I know people have

1:16

heard of the oil and gas industry,

1:19

especially folks in Texas like you are,

1:21

of course, but I think probably a

1:23

lot of folks aren't familiar with the

1:25

kind of work your organization would do.

1:27

Could you share a bit about what

1:30

is hydrokinetics and what's the kind of work

1:32

you all do? Absolutely. So we are an

1:34

oil gas service company. We have

1:36

a patented process for cleaning

1:38

process lines, so downstream. not drilling

1:40

or midstream, but it's at the end,

1:43

end of the road where they're actually

1:45

making plastic. And when these facilities

1:47

have an upset, that's when we come in,

1:49

and that can be in our backyard here

1:51

in Houston, or it could be in Thailand

1:54

or anywhere else in the world. So

1:56

we're very responsive, and we're just kind of

1:58

one of the one of the pieces.

2:00

of the oil and gas industry on

2:02

the petrochemical side and makes for every

2:04

day is an exciting day. So you

2:06

never know what's going to pop up.

2:08

I can only imagine. And I know

2:10

one of the things you all think

2:13

about as an organization is how do

2:15

you clean really well so the minimized

2:17

downtime for people? So it helps with

2:19

efficiency, the environmental stuff, all of that.

2:21

That's what your firm's really dedicated

2:23

to doing, right? Right. Yeah. So we're there

2:25

to speed up the process. Production where they

2:28

make money. And we want to

2:30

cut down that downtime and

2:32

the environmental impact, the water

2:34

usage, the fuel that's used.

2:36

So we have a very efficient

2:39

process. We can do multiple miles

2:41

of cleaning all in one go.

2:43

And so our clients are typically

2:45

downtime sensitive. So they want

2:48

to get the job done and done

2:50

safely. So that's kind of where we

2:52

fit in. and there's a lot of

2:55

the industry has normal shutdowns where

2:57

every year every two years they

2:59

have long durations where the whole

3:01

plant goes down. We typically don't

3:03

have that luxury. Most of our

3:06

calls are they had a freeze, they

3:08

had a power outage and they're down

3:10

and so we'll have to mobilize really

3:12

anywhere in the world at a

3:14

moment's notice. So it's interesting.

3:16

I can only imagine a lot of leadership

3:19

challenges come up and you and I

3:21

have talked about some of them in

3:23

the past in the academy and that's

3:25

part of what led you to seeking

3:27

out the podcast and in fact the

3:29

leadership role you have is not the

3:31

only place you lead right? How did you

3:34

come across the podcast? So I had

3:36

I'm also heavily involved in the

3:38

Houston Livestock Show and Radio which

3:40

is a 35,000. her volunteer organization.

3:42

So a great, great organization down

3:44

here in Houston, given over $600

3:46

million in scholarships to the youth

3:48

of Texas. I could probably

3:50

dedicate another hour just to talking about

3:53

that. And part of that program

3:55

is they started a leadership development

3:57

program and Mel Underhill and her

4:00

team. phenomenal and I was part of

4:02

the inaugural class. And as I went through

4:04

it, you know, I kind of got the

4:06

bug and be like, you know, I need

4:08

to probably spend a little more time on

4:10

this and personal development, you know, in

4:12

a mid-sized business like ours, we're jumping

4:14

from fire to fire and we rarely

4:17

take the time out to really look

4:19

at leadership and get better. And so I

4:21

kind of took that time to figure out

4:23

what is the next step. And part

4:26

of that I started asking around,

4:28

looking around for different I'm still

4:30

a very much a face-to-face person that

4:32

I want to meet our customers in

4:34

the field where they're at. So

4:36

I have a lot of windshield time.

4:39

You don't realize how big Texas is

4:41

and so you start driving. And so

4:43

started listening to different podcasts and then

4:45

kind of got hooked on coaching for

4:48

leaders and then started hearing about

4:50

the academy and I was like,

4:52

well, I might start looking into

4:54

that, but honestly just had healthy

4:56

skepticism about it because I didn't

4:58

think that I would fit to me

5:01

it was it felt like it was

5:03

going to be a bunch of large

5:05

company managers that would look at an

5:07

oil and gas service company and be

5:09

like yeah we don't have those problems.

5:12

So yeah so it was

5:14

interesting we had those conversations

5:16

early but I was really pleased you

5:18

know once they got into the economy

5:21

that it was nothing like my fears.

5:23

We had a really good diverse group in

5:25

our in our cohort so kudos to

5:27

you and your team for. kind of

5:30

picking the right people and it was a

5:32

blast. I'm so glad and you know

5:34

it's always interesting as our relationships build

5:36

through the process of learning like what

5:38

were people thinking and feeling and concerned

5:40

about early on and in the spirit

5:43

of that what did you hope to

5:45

get out of the academy? You mentioned

5:47

with the rodeo like kind of getting

5:49

that bug of starting to think

5:52

about leadership development. What were

5:54

you hoping to take away from this? So

5:56

at that time and now I wear... many

5:58

different hats. So I have my normal

6:00

work, you know, hydrokinetics

6:02

had, were dealing with

6:05

multinational clients and different levels

6:07

of workforce. And then on

6:09

the rodeo side, I'm dealing with

6:12

a, I had a committee of

6:14

475 volunteers. So it was a

6:16

different group, different motivations,

6:19

and trying to balance that

6:21

and balance life and figure out how

6:23

do I lead a group of volunteers,

6:25

how do I lead a group of

6:27

guys in the field? And Also, how

6:29

do I get better? And so, kind

6:31

of went in with a blank slate

6:33

going, what areas do I want to

6:36

focus on? And that's where, as we

6:38

got started, I kind of was able

6:40

to refine those. And then also, there

6:42

was some course correction as we went

6:44

through that what my initial product was

6:47

on day 10, by the end of

6:49

it, was a very different product. I

6:51

was pretty excited about that. Yeah, great.

6:53

And as we start the academy, of

6:56

course, we spend... a lot of time

6:58

doing assessment conversation team building with our

7:00

cohort and one of the things that

7:03

we do early on is to articulate

7:05

a vision for each one of us

7:07

and then zero in on three focus

7:10

areas three things that for each person

7:12

each leader is really important for

7:14

us to move forward on as you

7:16

did that Brooks what did you decide

7:18

that you wanted to zero in and

7:21

really focus on to do better? So yeah

7:23

so the three that ended up

7:25

being my focus areas were kind

7:27

of task management delegation then kind of

7:29

team alignment on the vision and goal

7:31

and then the last one that kind of

7:33

came up as we went through was kind

7:36

of a personal branding and there

7:38

was a I'm an engineer by heart

7:40

not a big social media guy or

7:42

big type A personality but realized

7:44

that you know need to be active

7:46

and LinkedIn was my first kind of

7:48

attack on that to be active on

7:51

there interact interact with our customers and

7:53

tell our story. And it kind of

7:55

pushed me to get doing that because I'd

7:57

never really spent time or focused

7:59

on it. you decide to do, I

8:01

mean, specifically with that, the personal

8:03

branding in LinkedIn, I remember us

8:06

talking about that, what action did

8:08

you take? And how'd that go?

8:10

Yeah, so I just, part of

8:12

it was initial, just short interactions.

8:14

Part of it was the, to

8:16

have the five-minute task, and early

8:18

it was just reading articles, industry-related

8:20

articles, and then kind of

8:22

blossom from there to interaction with

8:24

folks. I've made some posts, and one

8:26

thing I learned is just start.

8:29

you're not going to have a

8:31

perfect polished application. So got out

8:33

there just started having some

8:35

interaction, making some posts on

8:37

things that were interesting, on kind

8:39

of bringing it back to the

8:42

podcast piece is there has been

8:44

times where the subject has been

8:46

not related to our industry

8:48

at all. And there are some major

8:50

areas that, you know, that collide in

8:52

that I'm like, I have these aha moments.

8:54

And that's when it's... pretty

8:57

interesting, pretty cool to see and

8:59

dive down deeper. You know, a

9:01

good example was a recent episode

9:03

on standing up for yourself

9:05

and listening to that and one of

9:07

the items was, you know, she was

9:09

telling a story about how I'm not

9:11

saying something in the doctor's office,

9:13

but for us in our industry we

9:15

have stop work authority. We're around

9:17

heavy equipment, chemicals, high pressures, high

9:20

temperatures and we want to empower

9:22

our entire team to say something.

9:24

And they see that exact same scenario

9:27

of, you know, why I'm the little

9:29

man on the crew or maybe they're

9:31

right, I'm wrong, but you

9:33

have to empower these folks

9:35

in the field. And it's

9:37

really interesting to see some

9:39

of these cross-pollination of ideas, especially

9:42

in the oil and gas industry,

9:44

which at times could be stuck

9:46

in the 80s. Yeah, and it

9:48

was really, I remember seeing that

9:50

post and you, I was thinking about

9:52

this. commitment you took on for

9:54

personal branding and the tactically like getting more

9:57

active on LinkedIn you took something heard on

9:59

the podcast you framed it around the oil

10:01

and gas industry. You wrote up this beautiful

10:03

post and lessons and and it is really

10:05

like What a great way to put those

10:07

things together and you you mentioned something big

10:09

a moment ago that I'd love to come

10:11

back to because you said like the key

10:13

is starting and You and I had this conversation

10:16

I don't know it was maybe like

10:18

90 days in on the academy of

10:20

like I know you were a little

10:22

skeptical of like the process and just

10:24

the invitation to just start with small

10:26

actions five minutes a day is our

10:28

picketing in the academy like just start

10:31

small one thing a day next day

10:33

one thing consistency over intensity that

10:35

seemed awkward at the picketing

10:37

for you didn't it very much so

10:39

i i was i was highly skeptical

10:41

that small actions would make a difference

10:44

and early on the hardest part was

10:46

narrowing down to something very small

10:48

It was, you know, here's the

10:50

area that I want to attack,

10:52

but you had to break it

10:54

down into much, much smaller

10:56

pieces because what you wanted

10:59

to do was probably going

11:01

to take an hour a day. And

11:03

I'm now a flag waiver for it.

11:05

It is something I look at every

11:07

couple months on, hey, what am

11:09

I going to do now? What is a

11:12

small action? But it's a small

11:14

action. I will be the first to

11:16

say I was wrong. probably the

11:18

biggest kind of high level takeaway

11:20

I had was just get started

11:22

make it a manageable expectation

11:24

and just kind of push through it. I

11:26

appreciate you saying that because I think

11:29

that I shouldn't say I think we all fall

11:31

into as I know I do

11:33

like we get bombarded with so

11:35

much information books, podcasts, YouTube, LinkedIn

11:37

like so many things a lot

11:39

of us see professionally as far

11:41

as professional development ideas every day

11:43

and it is It's really hard just

11:45

to start and you'll appreciate this,

11:47

Brooks. I mean, the thing that

11:49

I'm doing most as in leading

11:51

our academy conversations is trying to

11:54

get people to do less, actually,

11:56

like zero in on one thing,

11:58

let's start here, one thing. time,

12:00

the support from our partners

12:02

and our community and our

12:04

cohort, and just starting that

12:06

consistency, and once you start doing that,

12:08

and I love that you're still doing that,

12:10

then you're like, okay, I can do that,

12:13

I can do five minutes, I don't have

12:15

to spend three hours today trying to make

12:17

time to do something, and you get a

12:19

bit of traction with it. Absolutely, and

12:21

I'm, I moved on to the peer

12:24

momentum group now in very similar

12:26

deal, is the initial activity I

12:28

wanted was too big. And we kind of

12:30

talked through it and narrowed it

12:32

down to something that is absolutely

12:34

manageable. And with everything else going

12:36

on and calendars and everything else,

12:38

it has to be small to

12:40

make the consistency happen and been

12:43

really proud of it. And it's now

12:45

a recurring task on my calendar, one

12:47

that is new that I adopted because of

12:49

the academy, you know, and that task

12:51

management delegation piece was just kind of

12:53

like, how do I put my hands

12:56

around what is going on? and how

12:58

to wife prioritize and was looking at

13:00

options and that came out of it as well.

13:02

Yeah, and that was one of

13:05

the other focus areas, right? That

13:07

delegation, that task management. When you

13:09

think about that today versus when

13:11

you started the academy, what's different

13:13

about how you approach that now?

13:15

You know, I was very kind of scatter

13:17

all over the place and there wasn't

13:19

much focus time. It would be shiny

13:22

object to shiny object kind of deal.

13:24

Now it is, I need to get

13:26

this done, you know, I'm seeing,

13:28

I'm reprioritizing between a, you know, at

13:31

least weekly, sometimes daily on what

13:33

needs to happen, and there's much

13:35

more intentionality in kind of

13:37

focus on what needs to

13:39

happen, or what does it need to

13:42

happen, or also the delegation

13:44

piece. So that's been, you know, that

13:46

was really interesting kind of

13:48

moment to figure out, is

13:50

this not, whereas before it was

13:53

everything was flowing. at equal

13:55

priorities. And so then, you know,

13:57

at times there would be stagnation.

13:59

or just things wouldn't get done.

14:01

But now it's, there's a clear order

14:04

and much cleaner operation, which I like.

14:06

But yeah, that was, that was a big

14:08

one, especially kind of during that season

14:10

of life when I had a lot,

14:12

lots throwing at me. Yeah, indeed. You

14:15

were navigating a lot of personal stuff

14:17

too and personal transitions. As you have

14:19

done that, both on the personal

14:21

branding side through LinkedIn and

14:23

social media and also that

14:25

the delegation, the time management,

14:27

it's helped out you. How is that

14:29

helped out the team and the

14:32

organization? Yeah, it's brought stability.

14:34

And one of the other point was

14:36

on team alignment on kind

14:39

of vision and really it was

14:41

repeating that and making sure people

14:43

heard it. And, you know, it's brought,

14:45

gave people some ownership to

14:48

understand where they can pick up

14:50

some slack or take the lead on

14:52

a project. But I think the one

14:54

big, you know, moment that I had

14:57

was, you know, you keep repeating. kind

14:59

of the vision and the plan. And

15:01

sometimes it feels like it's just falling

15:03

on deaf ears. And there was this

15:05

moment, you know, a few weeks into

15:07

that that I had one of my

15:09

managers come to me and said, hey,

15:11

you know, you've been talking about this

15:13

and I did X, Y, and Z

15:15

because you had been saying that is

15:17

that good. I was like, absolutely, it's

15:20

good. Like, keep moving. That's exactly

15:22

what we want. And it kind of gave

15:25

me the refresh that, okay, this is. this

15:27

is working, it's not just words that are

15:29

being said in a meeting. So I've kind

15:31

of taken that to heart too, is going

15:33

to have to say it, email it, get it,

15:35

you know, where people see it enough and

15:37

understand it. And I've been mentoring a

15:40

couple other folks and that was one of

15:42

the lines we had kind of last week

15:44

is don't give up, keep reiterating

15:46

your vision of the future for

15:48

this organization, they will listen. And

15:50

even when it doesn't seem like they

15:53

are, they're listening and you'll get there,

15:55

and you'll get there. That was a big

15:57

one and it's just empowering our management.

15:59

team, that they can step up, they

16:02

can make decisions, and I was

16:04

excited to see that. Super cool. As

16:06

you were saying that I was thinking

16:08

to one of the times Patrick

16:10

Lincioni was on the show, he made

16:12

the point that a lot of

16:14

leadership, especially at the executive level, is

16:17

about being the chief reminding officer,

16:19

right? Like reminding people, what's important,

16:21

reminding people of the vision, doing

16:24

that consistently, doing to notice that.

16:26

and then do things with it.

16:28

Super cool. Brooks, I often ask

16:30

people what they've changed their minds

16:33

on. You know, you and I

16:35

have known each other just a

16:37

little over a year now, going

16:40

through this process, going through the

16:42

academy, working with all the colleagues

16:44

that we had in our cohort,

16:46

six of us, who did you change your

16:49

mind on? You know, it kind of

16:51

touched on it a little bit, but

16:53

I came in fairly skeptical about the

16:55

small tasks in the vision that

16:57

just a daily. small piece could

17:00

make such a difference and I

17:02

was somewhat vocal about that. But

17:04

it does, you know, it works.

17:07

I still continue it now and

17:09

not on as as strict regular

17:11

basis, but every month or so

17:13

there's kind of a new small

17:16

vision, if you will, on what I'm

17:18

going to do. And, you know, I was

17:20

wrong on it. There's no doubt.

17:22

And now I've, you know, I've

17:24

actually been talking to my wife

17:26

about the same thing on she. you know,

17:28

just working on some stuff for work. And

17:30

I was like, hey, try this. And she

17:33

had the healthy skepticism as I did. So

17:35

I'm trying to be evangelical about it, but

17:37

that was the one big takeaway is, yeah,

17:39

I had some, the big points and kind

17:41

of changed how I operated. But in the

17:44

back of my head, it's, you know, it's

17:46

just consistency and small little

17:48

steps. It doesn't, it doesn't have to

17:50

be perfect. That was something I strongly with

17:52

you is if you're going to put a

17:55

product out there, it out there, it better,

17:57

it better be. dead on, but I realize

18:00

that's wishful thinking in most

18:02

cases. You know, get something out

18:04

there, start, get some momentum, and

18:06

you'll learn as you go. Brooks, I

18:08

so appreciate the privilege you've allowed

18:10

me and us in our community

18:12

to support you and your team

18:14

and your team and your organization,

18:16

and thank you so much for

18:18

sharing your experience with me and with

18:20

us. I so appreciate it. Yeah. Thank

18:23

you for having me. It's been a

18:25

great ride, a great program, and I've

18:27

been excited to be part of it.

18:29

see what's going on and add things

18:31

as I go. So it's been a

18:33

great community and good for idea sharing

18:35

and we realize that, you know, nobody

18:37

has this dead on and everybody is

18:39

working on something and it's been fun

18:42

to be in a group that kind

18:44

of sees that and is all trying

18:46

to get better. Oh man, yeah, we're

18:48

all learning together on this, this leadership

18:50

thing, aren't we, every single week? Yeah.

18:52

Thanks so much for, for being a

18:54

part of this and contributing. Thank you.

18:57

I was thinking about what Brooks

18:59

said about keeping moving well after

19:01

the academy. That's one of the

19:03

hardest things about leadership development, I think

19:05

at least, is that you can attend

19:08

a workshop or read a book or

19:10

listen to a podcast episode and come

19:12

across a strategy or an idea that's

19:15

super useful. And then a week later,

19:17

you forgot about it. Or maybe even

19:19

worse, you're still thinking about it

19:21

and now you've got that guilty

19:23

feeling about... What you're not doing

19:25

is just kind of adding to the

19:27

list. It's one of the reasons our

19:29

key objective in the academy is movement,

19:32

not just today or tomorrow,

19:34

but movement that's sustainable. Trying

19:37

to move mountains on any

19:39

given day isn't sustainable. What is,

19:41

is developing consistent systems

19:43

that get you started one

19:45

step at a time with peer support

19:48

and accountability. That's so people

19:50

know where the organization is going.

19:52

and doing better at avoiding escalations

19:54

and increasing capacity and delivering on

19:57

time. All of those things ultimately

19:59

come... down To

20:27

apply, visit Coaching for leaders.com/academy

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now through this Friday, March

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14th. Many of us get

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to the point in our careers

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where it's important to change

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our behaviors. Often, it's at the

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inflection points. made.