Write the Vision and Make It Plain: How Clarity, Humility, and Consistency Close the Series (Part 5 of 5)

Brenda Battle (00:00)
come to appreciate it and lean on it and desire it because most people aren't putting it out that way. And when there's somebody who is people want it because people want to be authentic. And for whatever reasons in their head, they don't feel like they can be. But when there's somebody who is been authentic, they actually appreciate it.

Terry Baylor (00:00)
Mm-hmm

Ralph Owens (00:12)
Mm-hmm.

Hmm.

Brenda Battle (00:21)
So thank you for giving back to me what I gave to you because that's how I taught many lessons in the environments and tables that I sat at. Just simply by saying it the way it is and trying to help people get it and hear it, just like you just explained to me that you heard what I was saying. Thank you for that. Thank you.

Terry Baylor (00:25)
Aw yeah.

Yes.

Ralph Owens (00:38)
Yeah.

Terry Baylor (00:43)
that's my pleasure. My pleasure. My pleasure.

So Ralph, you got anything on that? I don't know. know you, know, Ralph asked those. We call them the Jedi questions.

Ralph Owens (00:54)
No, no, I'm just I'm just enjoying the conversation. I'm just enjoying the conversation.

Brenda Battle (00:59)
Hi, Phil.

Terry Baylor (00:59)
So, Brenda, we've

enjoyed this and we're coming to a close. I said just a few more questions. So if you could pass on one piece of wisdom to emerging leaders, what would it be?

Brenda Battle (01:05)
Yes.

It would, it would be to be humble. What I learned that in humility, you can help so many people because if you're humble, you do things like you give your team credit for the work that they do and you let them shine because when they shine, everybody shines. You treat people fairly. You sponsor people. You, I mean, all these things that are built up into

Terry Baylor (01:30)
Mmm.

Mmm.

Brenda Battle (01:42)
Like how I was blessed to lead was built in humility first. Me humbling myself as a leader, being blessed to be in a position to bring forward other folks and to help and advocate for other folks. I would say be humble. Humility is not easy sometimes because you're confronted with all kinds of arrogance and all of that, but be humble, be consistent.

and be trusted. Let me be trustworthy because I'm going to tell you something.

Being trustworthy is not easy in these environments, but the unicorn that we talked about is the person who comes across as trustworthy and consistent. I'm telling you. So I would advise people to do that. Try that and then let the Lord help you.

Terry Baylor (02:22)
Hmm

Sure, sure. So what I hear in that, and we understand, right, everything in life is a negotiation. And that's gonna just dig in a little bit. How did you go about negotiating those ⁓ partnerships? ⁓ Because there's sometimes you gotta be willing to concede certain things or you gotta, so how, just at a high level, how does, what was your philosophy in?

Ralph Owens (02:40)
That's good.

Brenda Battle (02:57)
Yeah.

Yes!

Ralph Owens (03:02)
Mm-hmm.

Terry Baylor (03:07)
in those rooms, right? Because there's always some, you know, some, well, one of the things we say, there's an exchange of value, right? And so how did you go about establishing that?

Brenda Battle (03:14)
Yeah. Yeah.

I tried to listen to people.

Terry Baylor (03:20)
Mmm.

Brenda Battle (03:21)
You know, that's the first thing. Try to listen to people, try to hear what they're saying. You know how you've been repeating back to me what you heard, both of you, what you heard me say? When I listen to people, I practice that too, repeating back to them what I heard them say so that they knew that I listened to them, that I heard them. I mean, you just didn't say words that came in this ear and went out the other ear. I heard what you said. And even if your opinion differs from me, I heard what you said. So let's unpack.

the perspectives and views and get to maybe a place where we can agree on some things. And that builds trust. And so my navigation was, and I hate to sound like a drum that keeps beating, but my navigation was consistency. I consistently listened. consistently, consistently like, like spoke back what I heard. I consistently

Ralph Owens (03:55)
Mm-hmm.

Brenda Battle (04:17)
Okay, balance, okay, I get your views. Okay, so let's talk about them. Let's find a place at least where in your views and in my views, we can come to a place of agreement, to where we really wanna get to. And it's those kinds of things, those tools. When I started my career as a man, when I first became a manager in my career, a long time ago, somebody told me to read this book, God as CEO, Jesus as leader, something like that. And it didn't matter whether you were religious or not.

Ralph Owens (04:26)
Hmm. Hmm.

Terry Baylor (04:40)
Mm-hmm, I remember that.

Brenda Battle (04:43)
Those are basic principles on dealing with people and dealing with folks in relationships. I've told every leader to read that book since then, because they're basic principles of leadership. They're basic principles of relationship. And so for me, I navigate through relationships.

Terry Baylor (04:51)
Hmm.

Brenda Battle (05:09)
to be best friends with anybody or they don't have to be my closest colleague, but we have a relationship and let's balance where we're trying to get through that relationship. And it's a respectful relationship. I respect you. You respect me. Nobody's an, don't intend harm. I'm going to assume you don't. I'm going to assume the best. I'm always going to assume the best. And we're going to get to a place where we can get to where we both need to go.

Terry Baylor (05:15)
Mmm.

Ralph Owens (05:31)
Mm.

Brenda Battle (05:38)
That's how I balanced and navigated those things. Through relationship, through respect, through consistency, through being trustworthy, through being honest. You know, that's how you do it. To me, that's how you do it. And I have strong relationships with colleagues. Some of them I didn't trust, but they could trust me.

Terry Baylor (06:02)
That's right there. That's tweetable right there. I didn't

Ralph Owens (06:06)
Absolutely.

Terry Baylor (06:07)
trust them, but they can trust me.

Brenda Battle (06:09)
I'm

Ralph Owens (06:11)
Brent,

I just want to highlight something you said I think is so powerful for everybody who's listening. You talked about in conflict management, finding a common place of agreement. Can you talk about how powerful that is when you're in conflict and how that can lead to a positive outcome?

Brenda Battle (06:20)
Yes. Yes.

Yeah, yeah, because when you do that, acknowledge, first of all, you give the person like the benefit of them and their disposition. Look, you can have your disposition. The discussion is not about an individual's like basic premise for which it's not about that, it's about getting to an end result. And so,

getting to a common ground is to get us there, not to change your belief system. I'm not trying to change your belief system. Now, for some people, I wish your belief system would change, but if I'm not gonna change it, I'm smart enough to realize your belief system isn't gonna change. So I'm not gonna try to change your belief system, but there's aspects even in your system that are part of your humanness. And let's get there to get to the common ground, to get to where we need to get.

Ralph Owens (07:01)
Mm-hmm.

Hmm. Hmm.

Terry Baylor (07:08)
Mm. ⁓

Hmm.

Brenda Battle (07:26)
to do to get the outcome we're trying to get. That's powerful.

Ralph Owens (07:31)
man, I hope people really catch that. my God. That is so powerful. Wow. Wow, wow, wow.

Brenda Battle (07:34)
It's so powerful.

And it's powerful in execution. I kid you not. If it's clear at that table that the desire is to get to a common ground, people will go with you. They will go with you. Regardless of where, yeah, exactly. They'll go with you.

Terry Baylor (07:50)
Mmm. Mmm. Mmm.

Ralph Owens (07:51)
Hmm. Hmm. Hmm.

That's so important. So important.

Terry Baylor (08:00)
⁓ So what I hear, they don't want to be pushed or pulled.

Ralph Owens (08:04)
They want to be led.

Brenda Battle (08:06)
They don't really

push the pull. They wanna be respected and regarded. That's what I want to. But we gotta get somewhere. And wearing your views allows you to get there and wearing my views allows us to get there.

Ralph Owens (08:11)
Mm-hmm. Yes.

Yes.

Terry Baylor (08:16)
Mmm.

Ralph Owens (08:22)
Hmm.

Terry Baylor (08:23)
So, Ralph, you want, cause I got a question off of that right there. Do you, got something you want to dig into more on that? Okay. So now, and we haven't dealt with this quite, quite, and I guess so directly.

Ralph Owens (08:29)
I'm good.

Terry Baylor (08:39)
getting to the goal, right? Getting to the win, getting to the accomplishment. ⁓ Just how to, what's your methodology there, right? Well, Ralph and I both had a boss one time and ⁓ we call her the Michael Jordan of finishing. Cause she just finished. Now you may not like all the methods.

Brenda Battle (09:00)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah,

yeah, yeah.

Terry Baylor (09:09)
But

she finished, how did you, cause you don't get to where you, you don't get the accolades and just all the wonderful things that have been said about you on finishing and the human being that you are. How did you balance, I'll just call it the Michael Jordan mentality with, don't know, who's someone considered as a nice kind ball.

Brenda Battle (09:26)
Yeah. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Terry Baylor (09:37)
player right they most people play with Mike they said man I hated playing with that guy we got six rings but man it was it was it was torture

Brenda Battle (09:47)
my God. You know, so I believe in writing my vision down.

Ralph Owens (09:53)
Mmm.

Terry Baylor (09:53)
you

Brenda Battle (09:54)
So to get getting to the end goal had to be in that vision. So I wrote everything down. Like I wrote plans. I still do when I retire, I will tell you, I wrote the plan for how I'm going to like navigate, not having anything to do during the day. Like, like I wrote a plan, like, okay, on Monday, I'm going to go to the library on Tuesday. I'm going to go to the museum. I'm going to get a dog.

Ralph Owens (10:13)
Hmm.

Terry Baylor (10:14)
Mmm.

Brenda Battle (10:20)
I literally wrote the plan down and my boss before I left, was just looking at my thing and I was like, was telling him I wrote the plan and I had a whole plan for the first two months out of retirement. I wrote, I've always written down where I'm trying to get to. That's a plan. You write the plan down and you follow the strategy and then you let the human side of you navigate the relationship. But the plan is written.

Ralph Owens (10:29)
You

Terry Baylor (10:36)
Mmm.

Mmm.

Ralph Owens (10:47)
Mm.

Yeah. Yeah. That's good.

Brenda Battle (10:49)
I know where I got to go. Okay. And I got

to be in relationship with you to get there. I'm a collaborator. I'm a coalition builder. The one thing that I've been blessed to be all my life as a coalition builder. I know how to build coalitions and relationships, but I also am a strategist and a planner. And so I always wrote it down. I will write down for the rest of my life, write the vision and make it plain, put it on paper. Y'all.

Ralph Owens (11:11)
Hmm. Hmm.

Terry Baylor (11:12)
Mmm.

Mmmmm.

Ralph Owens (11:16)
Yes,

yes, yes, that's good.

Brenda Battle (11:20)
That's what I always practice that every, every, every day in every way, no matter what I'm doing, I always practice that even in my retirement, I would practice that.

Ralph Owens (11:30)
Can I ask you, I'm sorry, can I ask you a question about something Terry touched on? So he talked about being a strong finisher, a strong executor, right? You don't make it to places that you've made it to without being a strong executor. But in Terry's example, like with Michael Jordan, they did used to say, I hate it playing with the guy, you know? So there's something to be said about being.

Brenda Battle (11:51)
Yes.

Some people hated playing with me. Believe me, I had some doctors who woo,

woo. Oh, I had some doctors who, who would be mad at me. In the end, we were fine. But boy, on the way, some of them were mad at me.

Ralph Owens (12:05)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. How did you navigate being a strong executor, but at the same time, maintaining healthy relationships?

Brenda Battle (12:18)
I knew where I needed to get to. I knew the goal that we had to get to. And look, I was a pediatric nurse when I first started my career. We had to get those baby shots and it hurt and they cried, but they were better after. And that is how I always thought about it. You might not like it. It might be painful, but when we get to the end, we're going to all be okay. I kept that in my head.

Ralph Owens (12:20)
Mm.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm.

Terry Baylor (12:30)
Mmm. Mmm.

Ralph Owens (12:36)
Got it. Got it.

Terry Baylor (12:36)
Mmm, this go hurt now, but you could.

Ralph Owens (12:39)
Yeah.

Yeah, that's good. That's

good. That is good. Wow. Wow.

Brenda Battle (12:49)
thing

I kept is, look, I'm not trying to make you mad for the sake of making you mad. You might get mad about the process and what we have to do. I get that. But when we get there, we're gonna both be pleased. It might change with how you're doing it now, change what you're doing, upset the apple cart for a little bit. But when we get there, it's gonna be better for all. And so that was the premise for me. I knew my intentions were never to hurt people. Never my intentions to hurt people. And because of that,

Ralph Owens (12:54)
Mm-hmm.

Brenda Battle (13:18)
The pain that we went through getting there was just something we had to go through to get there. It doesn't mean it wasn't painful for me too. Cause having you be mad at me was painful for me, but oh well, we'll be better in the backside.

Ralph Owens (13:26)
Mm. Mm.

Terry Baylor (13:27)
you.

Ralph Owens (13:30)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What I hear in that there's always a price to pay to execute it. Yeah. That's good. That's good. Thank you for that.

Brenda Battle (13:35)
He's a praise to Ray. Yes. Yeah. That's another

part that you just can't be afraid of. will listen. I would tell people you can say almost everything you want to say. Just how you say it is what matters. But you can't just like, I was skilled at, telling people what I thought and them getting it.

Ralph Owens (13:50)
Mm.

Brenda Battle (14:04)
but not saying it with a rough tone.

Ralph Owens (14:06)
yes. That's so good.

Terry Baylor (14:06)
Mmm.

Brenda Battle (14:10)
I don't have to like break you down to get to have you understand what I'm saying to you. But I have to make sure you understand what I'm saying to you, even when you made me mad.

Terry Baylor (14:11)
So.

Ralph Owens (14:13)
Mm-hmm.

Terry Baylor (14:27)
So, right.

Brenda Battle (14:27)
I'm break you down. I'm not trying to do that.

My intention is not to hurt anybody.

that and if you know that, yeah. No, I was just gonna say if you know that in your heart, then people know it too. Even if they get hurt, they know that's not your intention because again, it's your consistency. You're not trying to hurt people.

Ralph Owens (14:35)
Good.

Terry Baylor (14:35)
So Brenda, how much? No, I'm sorry, go ahead, go ahead, go ahead, I'm sorry.

So, so Brenda on that, how much would you say of your, and I'm gonna dig a little bit here, of your core of who you are as a person, your upbringing, your parents, we haven't hit on that, right? Because people have to have to say, are her parents, right? How would you say that foundation? Because I'm honestly, when I'm hearing you, I got so many thoughts that are going on. I'm like, I know where that came

Brenda Battle (15:06)
Yes. Yeeees. Yeeees.

yeah.

You see my daddy,

I learned this, I know it.

Terry Baylor (15:20)
I did exactly, cause I'd be running through

the church and he wouldn't yell at you like the deacons. I'm running, I'm full speed bro. And I see it, I hear it. So just kind of maybe dig into that a little bit.

Brenda Battle (15:26)
No. No.

Ralph Owens (15:28)
You

Brenda Battle (15:34)
No.

Yeah, listen,

my father, your father, your mother, all these folks are great clouds of witnesses. They showed us how to behave. And I'm going to tell you, I learned so much from them in this environment. I saw my father, this gentle giant who was strong as he could be.

handle people in relationship in such a way that made everybody know how important they were and everybody feel good about themselves even if they were in trouble. I learned that by watching them. I would ask my father as I grew up in, I progressed in my career, I would ask him questions about it. Now my father was, I mean, he was a pastor.

He had some businesses early on, but he wasn't this educated man. But I would ask him because I wanted the perspective from him as a man of God on how to navigate things. And I navigate. I'm so proud. I remember the day when I realized that I navigate the way he navigated. That was a blessing.

Terry Baylor (16:51)
Mmm. Wow.

Ralph Owens (16:52)
That's beautiful.

Yeah. wow. That's awesome. That's so awesome. Yes.

Brenda Battle (16:56)
Yes. Yes.

Terry Baylor (16:58)
Yes, yes,

I told Ralph this story, Brenda, and then this is my last down the memory lane story. I said, I remember the first time I really met Brenda when I came into Acknowledgement. I think I know that person. And so I was a late bloomer, right? I got into this group called En-Roads. It was for kids who achieved. I said, don't, Ralph, said, I don't remember if I was violent told.

Brenda Battle (17:05)
Yeah

Hmm.

Yes.

Terry Baylor (17:28)
But I found myself, I found myself doing an impromptu speech. That was the first time I met Brenda. I was, I think I was a freshman in college.

Brenda Battle (17:32)
Yes!

Yes.

We knew from whence you came. Yes.

Terry Baylor (17:40)
Yes. And that moment for me,

and I'm glad that moment happened because although I'd been in the group for a little while, that was the moment I realized I can do this. Right. Again, everyone in this group, were, they were achievers from the beginning. was, didn't get, didn't honestly, I just wanted to play baseball for a living. Right. I've very, I just, got to make great sense so I can play baseball, but

Brenda Battle (17:56)
Yes.

Terry Baylor (18:09)
Being in that group and then that moment speaking and seeing how folks responded and the questions I received, I realized there's no difference between them and me other than application. I just need to apply myself. And that started for me again, you know, I, little did I know, you know, some, gosh, how long was that? That was 94, 95, some 20 years, 30 years later.

Brenda Battle (18:23)
There we go. There we go.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Terry Baylor (18:39)
you'd be such a major part of my life. I had had no idea I would be in healthcare, right? I'd had no idea I'd be leading my own healthcare IT company. Now I had no idea, ⁓ but I just, thank you for again, being in a position, cause you were giving then, right? We were all college students, high school students, and you were, so your work was happening then. You know, I don't know how.

Brenda Battle (18:44)
Yeah.

yeah awesome

Yeah. Yeah.

Yes. And it hadn't even been put

together in my head that all of this was stacking up. It just all stacked up. Yeah, it's awesome. I love

Terry Baylor (19:11)
Wow,

it is, it is. So with that being said, how can our listeners begin stepping into their next this week? What would you say to start to get to your next, your next level? What would you encourage them to do to something they can do anecdotally to start today?

Brenda Battle (19:24)
yeah. yeah.

Yeah.

So ⁓ my last story to get to your answer. I was talking to a young man yesterday who lived in Chicago, went to school in Chicago. We met him somewhere, came to church with us, and we just developed a relationship. He graduated. He went to Tulsa, got a job, came in kind of as a project manager role, and now is a director.

And he had to do an individual development plan. And he reached out to me and said, Hey, would you read just out of the blue? haven't talked to him over a year. He says, would you read my individual development plan? And so I read it and we went through it. And yesterday we were talking and he said, look, I always desire to move up in my career and I'd be in a room in the rooms and I wouldn't speak up. wouldn't say anything.

Then occasion, I was sitting and I was talking to the VP of strategy and said, I wanted to elevate. This was a year or so ago before he became a director. I wanted to get elevated to this role. And she said, you're going to have to be able to answer the question of where you want to be in three years or where you're going to be in five years. He says, and so I wrote it down.

Terry Baylor (20:41)
Mm-hmm.

Brenda Battle (20:42)
My

advice would be for someone who wants to move to the next level, write your vision about the next level down. You're going to need to know what it is you want to do. And if you don't know, start up some conversations with people to see what some of the options are. But you're going to have to be able to, with clarity, say what you want to do and what you want to be and what that next level is. So start working on it. Write it down.

Terry Baylor (20:49)
Mmm.

Ralph Owens (21:00)
Mm-hmm.

Awesome.

Awesome. Awesome. Beautiful. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Thank you so much. Yes. Yes.

Brenda Battle (21:12)
This was so good. It was so worth the makeup.

Terry Baylor (21:20)
Yes, yes, yes. And I will say you look astonishing. You look great. It's so good to see you again. So good to see you again. And Brenda, you know, from the bottom of my heart, I love you much, man. I'll let Shamika know you said hello and man, thank you. Yeah, I was talking about it all morning. She was like, I know you, son. said.

Ralph Owens (21:25)
Beautiful. Yes. Yes.

Brenda Battle (21:26)
you're great. You're so sweet. Same here.

Love you much. Please tell our lover.

Thank you guys for

doing this. This is so important. What you're doing. This is God inspired work. Keep it up. mean, I'm so proud of you. Thank you for doing this. It's so needed. Is there a way for me to let like my network? There are some folks like, know my mentees and other folks who would love to get this podcast and hear these things. Is there a way to do that?

Ralph Owens (21:55)
Thank you so much.

Absolutely. Absolutely. We'll send you all the information. Absolutely.

Brenda Battle (22:10)
Could you please tell me that so I can share it? mean, like

all of your podcasts, cause they're going to want to know they want a consistent platform.

Ralph Owens (22:18)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, we do. put together a website. It contains all of our podcasts, all the videos, and then just our regular podcast channel itself has all the audios going all the way back to the beginning.

Brenda Battle (22:23)
Okay.

my God. Okay. Please send me cause I want to look. Thank you guys. Thank you for the privilege. Appreciate it. All right. ⁓ I love you guys too. All right.

Ralph Owens (22:32)
Absolutely. Absolutely. We appreciate you. Thank you so much.

Terry Baylor (22:35)
Thank you Brenda. Awesome. Awesome.

God bless you. We love you. Alrighty. Bye bye.