Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Colson Steber. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Colson, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s talk legacy – what sort of legacy do you hope to build?
Who is a person that had a really big impact on you who is not your parent? What did they do? What do you feel?
The vast majority of answers to this impact question revolve around someone you felt safe being yourself around and who helped you to awaken your confidence in doing something new or having an experience that you will always remember.
A leader who created an emotionally safe system to grow confidence. Colson brings joy and abundance into life through relentless intentional action.
I hope that I am not that person for many many people, but I hope that systems and teams that I built inspire and grow individuals as leaders in a manner that they carry that forward and make an impact on others. Confidence is a skill that grows. When you have confidence, you gain clarity. This is also why my companies name is Qlarity Access.
Colson, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
My personal mantra is relentless intentional action. I uniquely enjoy leading teams to build confidence and bring new clarity to decisions. I live in Bradenton, FL with my wife and 3 kids (10, 8 and 5). I am an optimizer of systems and have done the same four things for my daily morning routine for over 4 years.
Qlarity Access uses our Xperience Qlarity Formula to conduct a strategic marketing research process that develops new confidence, bringing clarity to key business decisions.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
That my way of seeing the world is not others. Perceptions are drastically different person to person. Feedback comes in the forms of actions, usually indirect. I have been so clear on vision on the greater good that I would simply assume we were in it together if we were on a team. I would not do a good job meeting the other person where they were and then in the interest of pushing forward would be overly forceful. Or much more subtly, I would simply not get all the information because it would be withheld because I had not slowed down to be sure others felt safe and had represented their thoughts on something.
A lot more focus on the basics by me around showing up on time, doing what I say, asking questions first, and pausing to include all perspectives changed me. It was easy to look at me as a privileged kid with an ego that was overly aggressive in business. People do not come right out and tell you that. You have to be willing to learn about what kind of leader you aspire to be and to examine whether that is the response that you inspire in others. Realizing how to have my own integrity intact of how I showed up really representing the leader I wanted to become and that this was on me to do and not anyone else, is a big lesson to learn. It is a journey I am now on forever.
How do you keep your team’s morale high?
Leaders and Managers have to provide a structure and direction, a clear set of commitments and boundaries. If you have that underperforming person that you ‘believe’ in but are keeping them around, it is likely because you know you are not fulfilling your own part of the relationship and so you keep rationalizing that you see potential and capability while building up frustration and spending more and more time training.
Stop the cycle! There are plenty of great resources for clarity to leadership and management commitments. Do them. Set a clear outcome, specify responsibility, agree how it will be measured, check in regularly to solve obstacles that arise, be caring and listen closely in every interaction