In today's rapidly changing world, according to our guest, Alex Budak, we have two choices:
We can bury our heads in the sand and ignore the changes
We can use our agency to leverage, shape, and steer that change
In this episode, we dive into the concept of taking the second path and becoming a changemaker, discussing everything from the importance of mindset and leadership to taking action and serving others. We explore the challenges and misconceptions that people face when identifying themselves as leaders and share valuable insights on building relationships, practicing empathy, and embracing both service and strength in leadership, so that you can become a changemaker regardless of your current title.
Resources:
Our Leadership Book Club, featuring Alex's book: Becoming a Changemaker
About Alex:
Alex is a UC Berkeley faculty member, social entrepreneur, author, and speaker. He helps people from all walks of life become changemakers and create impact anywhere.
At UC Berkeley, Budak teaches his wildly-popular course “Becoming a Changemaker,” directs the Berkeley Haas Global Access Program, and teaches and leads Berkeley Executive Education programs.
His book, Becoming a Changemaker (Hachette, 2022), has been endorsed by Nobel Prize winners, Olympic athletes, and most meaningful of all—his former students who are using these ideas to change the world.
A social entrepreneur at heart, Budak co-founded StartSomeGood, which has helped more than 1,200 changemakers in 50 countries raise millions of dollars to launch and scale new change initiatives.
A graduate of UCLA and Georgetown University, Budak has given lectures and keynotes around the world from Cambodia to Ukraine to the Arctic Circle. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his two favorite changemakers: his wife, Rebecca, and their toddler son.
Transcript
While it's not perfect, we offer this transcription by Castmagic for those who prefer to read or who are hearing impaired.
Teri Schmidt:
Welcome, Alex, to the strong leaders serve podcast. Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule. I am so excited to talk to you more about becoming a changemaker.
Alex Budak:
No. It's my pleasure. Thanks for having me, Teri.
Teri Schmidt:
Yeah. So let's jump right in. I'd love to hear a little bit about your journey and kind of the pivotal points and that journey that got you to what you're doing today.
Alex Budak:
Well, I guess I'd go back to undergraduate, whereas became really passionate about educational Quality, especially public education, got involved with a number of sort of movements. That was kind of my introduction to to change. So I was sort of inspired by that. I decided to go out to graduate school to Washington DC. I studied public policy. But I think within, like, the 1st week or so, I realized that post policy wasn't quite the right fit for me. I met amazing people, amazing friends, amazing colleagues. But in many ways, their perspective on change, I realize it's very different from mine.
Alex Budak:
Many of them still to this day work for Big government agencies, World Bank, IMF, Department of Labor. And it's wonderful. There's a role for that. But I think as I look back, growing up in the Silicon Valley Bay Area, I've always had this sort of entrepreneurial streak in me. So I decided to take a little time off from graduate school and go live and work in India. I was in Omnibod. And I think there was really the turning point for me. So I did some work with, local grassroots organization.
Alex Budak:
They work with girls from the local community, using sport as a tool to teach healthy habits and leadership. And that's where my perspective on change really changed. Where I Finally saw by people that, you know, change didn't just come from these big institutions, but also from these grassroots. So I come to learn and see the name of changemakers, and that's where we became really dedicated to realizing these changemakers all around the world. Perhaps too many barriers getting away, not enough resources, and that became really the red thread that's connected the the rest of my career since.
Teri Schmidt:
Yeah. And let's let's talk a little bit about your career since what you're doing today, what you were doing before you what you're doing today, for those of our listeners who don't know you as well yet.
Alex Budak:
Sharon, I wear a number of hats. My favorite hat, I have to say, is is that of being a dad, which just happened a couple ago. But in the sort of professional sense, I've worked in the head of a social entrepreneur. So it's someone who launches a business and sort of uses the tools of entrepreneurship to affect social change. So I cofounded and led an organization called Start Some Good, which again tried to empower changemakers, grassroots changemakers all around the world. I I see myself as a social entrepreneur. It's a hat that fits me, but I also recognize that not everyone can or should be a social entrepreneur. We don't all have that risk tolerance or that access Capital and barriers to getting started.
Alex Budak:
And so I was thinking about, you know, change doesn't just require the social entrepreneur, that sort of A leader that we tend to put up on a pedestal, I think, not in a good way. We tend to put them up on a pedestal and sense everything much more broadly about who can affect change And bringing a much more inclusive lens to that. Mhmm. Through some fortunate circumstances, I think if we're honest, there's a lot of luck in In all of our careers and in life. So some good luck brought me to UC Berkeley, to the Haas School of Business, and into a Fortuitous meeting where I was talking with the assistant dean, sort of the person that oversees all the curriculum at the school, and there's something in me that just really wanted to teach. I'm in atypical of Accu Teen, but I don't have a PhD. I've never actually studied business, but here I was at the business school. And I made a pitch for this idea of a class called becoming a changemaker.
Alex Budak:
And I really expected them to say no because for all too many reasons, it didn't make sense. It's not a traditional business class and not a traditional business Faculty member. Mhmm. But they said, sounds interesting. Alright. Show me a syllabus, and we'll go from there. And so I literally leaped out of my seat. I walked out his office, closed the door, Had to Google how to create a syllabus because I've never actually thought before.
Alex Budak:
I didn't actually know what I was doing. You know, I'm an educator, but I never taught in a formal class. And so that became sort of the catalyst for this really wonderful new set of hats that have stepped into these new identities. So, you know, at my core, I think I'm an educator. So it makes me come alive, Teaching and and nurturing people. So I teach everywhere from entry level freshmen of 18 years old to undergraduates to MBAs to graduate students of the school health and also to executives. And so you have this great pleasure to teach a wide range of people and all of this lens of how can I help them Become better humans, become better leaders, and how can I help them make an impact wherever they are? And that's really what sort of drives me today.
Teri Schmidt:
Yeah. I love that story because it's it's almost a story that, you know, demonstrates what you talk about in the book in terms of everyone being a changemaker and in terms of micro leadership, in terms of taking risks, taking action. You did that when you We're in there and thought, yeah. How about this idea? Yeah. Even though maybe, like you said, you weren't the typical college professor, You still felt that you needed to take that risk and propose that idea. What do you think led to that?
Alex Budak:
Well, I think there's 2 things. The first is that I think as changemakers, you gotta fall in love with an idea with something. And perhaps many of your listeners have a lot of ideas, and they kinda come and go. But sometimes there's an idea that just, like, really sticks with you, something you really believe in, whether that's social justice, your passion Digital transformations or AI or whatever it is that you're really passionate about. It just kinda sticks with you. And so I think you have to pay attention to that. And for me, Really informed by all of my experiences from the sort of grassroots work to the work in India to my social entrepreneur work. It was all about changemakers and seeing this Latent potential in everyone, believing that everyone can be a changemaker, that everyone has this voice they need to bring out.
Alex Budak:
So I'm just so driven by that. I think that's the first thing.
Teri Schmidt:
Yeah.
Alex Budak:
And the second thing is also just protecting the downside of a risk. Not all risks are equal. And so it'd be a much different pitch if I said something like, Let me teach this class, or I'm leaving Berkeley. Probably have a very I did. But I sort of realized, look. I'll make this pitch. The worst thing that happens Is maybe I get laughed at or this guy does, who does he think he is thinking he could be a professor at Berkeley? You know, that that's the worst thing that that could happen.
Teri Schmidt:
And
Alex Budak:
so the way that you realize, okay, Oh, that's something I'm really passionate about. The upside seems really clear. The downside, save for some personal embarrassment or shame, isn't that bad. Seems Seems like it's worth going for. I think that's maybe not as quite as thoughtful as I am now about it. But, I mean, that's sort of the calculus that I did. So, yeah, let's let's go for it.
Teri Schmidt:
I love that. The falling in love with the change that you wanna see happen, and then, again, minimizing the risk, particularly for the other person or at least having a great perspective on what the risk is for yourself and what the worst thing that could happen is. Yeah. I'm sorry. Wonderful. Well, thank you. I one more thing about your journey before we move on. Has there been a mistake that you've made As a changemaker that you've learned from, I'd love to hear about that and kind of what it taught you about change.
Alex Budak:
Oh, so many. We could do a few hours here in this podcast. Zoom hits whatever is the limit. It has so many so much of what I do have been informed by my mistakes, by my setbacks, and that's become Core part of my teaching. So, you know, just to pull in reach into the hat and pull out one of many. You know, one of the first things that I learned in my early days of coleading start some good Is I was this young, driven, passionate social entrepreneur. And in the early stage of a start up, you're working 24 7. I'm not private, but I was.
Alex Budak:
So, you know, I'd be sending emails to my team at 2 AM, 3 AM. I would, you know, say good night to my then girlfriend and that wife, and then I'd just work for 5 hours. And, again, not super healthy, but I was doing it. And what I realized is that we had a bunch of people on the team. Some of whom were interns paid, but not that well paid or kind of entry level folks. And they would see me, the sort of cofounder, sending these emails at 2 AM, 3 AM, and they thought they had to respond. They thought they had to be sort of on their computer at all hours of the day. And after I received a couple emails with them, I had kind of strange hours.
Alex Budak:
It felt like a gut punch because I realized I do not wanna be that kind of leader. I never ever ever told these people, hey. Stay up till 3 AM for this job. We're working part time. But I also never told them not to. And so they observed my behaviors as a leader, and they emulated that. And that's what realized that your organization is gonna have a culture whether you define it or not. In this case, we had to find a culture on sort of workaholism all around the clock, not doing self renewal.
Alex Budak:
And I was ashamed of that, honestly, but that's where I realized, look. I need to consciously tell them. Look. I'm 24. I'm working hard on this. This is my baby. I'm gonna be sending emails at 3 AM. You do not need to respond to that.
Alex Budak:
Yeah. Mhmm. But to be conscious about that and tell them the values that we live in. Otherwise, they'll just observe what I do and and copy that.
Teri Schmidt:
Yeah. And, yeah, and the vacuum that's created when Clear expectations aren't set. Sometimes people just follow what the model is, and that's a great lesson that you learned in terms of setting those clear expectations, and modeling what you wanted them to do as well. Well, thank you for sharing that. I know sometimes sharing mistakes isn't The easiest thing to do, but I I appreciate that. Switching gears a little bit. You know, with with the book titled Becoming a Changemaker, I know because I read it and we've discussed it that it's not just for idealists. It's not just for people who are constantly looking for a way to make the world better, you know, every minute of every day.
Teri Schmidt:
But I'm guessing there probably are some leaders out there who may be in corporations, who are, you know, maybe reacting negatively to the title because they're like, you know what? I just wanna get my tasks done so that I can survive the next layoff. So in the introduction, having that In my mind, my interest was piqued by what you said when you said, and I'm just gonna quote you back to yourself if you don't mind. Given the pace and scale of change today, we have 2 choices, to bury our heads or to use our agency to actively leverage, shape, and steer it to create new opportunities for ourselves, our communities, and our worlds. So I'm hearing there, you know, change is gonna happen. We can either bury our heads, or we can do something about it, and in some way shape it. What factors in your experience do you think lead individuals to choose one of those 2 options?
Alex Budak:
Mhmm. Well, I I think first, we should take a a step back and to say that change is really hard and change can feel really scary. And the resistance to change It's actually really rational. You know, there's the classic work done by Samuelson and Zeckhauser, behavioral economists. They proved that there's something called the status quo bias. People tend to prefer sort of what we already have the way things are. And so we should remind ourselves that when change feels scary, it's not a problem with us. That's actually sort of How we're naturally built.
Alex Budak:
But then that comes into conflict with the world in which we're living. The world will never move More slow than it is right now. It's only getting faster and faster. And then on top of that, layer on shocks. Now just think about the COVID Crisis that happened a couple of years ago, and that changed everything. And companies, organizations at that point had no choice but to change, no choice but to Shift and move because quite a bit if they didn't, they might no longer exist. Mhmm. So I think first is getting that sort of Comfort with it that change can feel scary.
Alex Budak:
It can feel like something we don't wanna engage with. But in many ways, we don't really have that choice. So instead, what we do have is sort of the agency and how we respond. And Victor Frankl says that between stimulus and response, there's a space. In that space, we find our agency to make a choice. And so That's why I think about it. You can't stop the change happening around us. But can you sort of think about, okay.
Alex Budak:
Maybe I'm someone who's naturally really reactive to change. I'm gonna bury my head in the sand. Totally fine. That's how you normally are. But is it actually serving you at this point?
Teri Schmidt:
Mhmm. And I
Alex Budak:
think as we start building some of our change Muscles, we can start a bit smaller. We don't have to go big. You don't have to go from like, okay. I'm gonna leave my job, move to a farm, and, like, You know, there is a role for that level of change, and that feels right. But there's also a role for small change. One of the things I teach in my class is the idea of micro change. So I challenge my students, my executives to start practicing little bits of change every day, every week. An example of some of the challenges.
Alex Budak:
Challenge yourself that every day for a week, you eat dinner foods for breakfast and breakfast food for dinner, or take a different route walking or driving to work Each day, let your child or spouse choose your Spotify playlist, all the music that you listen to for a whole week. Or the one that, like, really bothers people, really freaks them out is switch sides of the bed with your partner, with your spouse. Right? All these tiny little changes. It sounds silly.
Teri Schmidt:
Yeah.
Alex Budak:
But the idea here is that before you go into, like, huge, huge changes, it's like a muscle. So practice them with some lighter resistance. The more we can produce a little bit to change, realize we can adapt to it probably better than we think, it gives us more of that confidence to deal with The change, exotic shocks, which are gonna be part of our life going forward.
Teri Schmidt:
Mhmm. Mhmm. That's interesting. And I'm curious if you have stories of leaders, executives that have gone through those exercises of doing the micro changes and then Talked back to you about how that has impacted their ability to deal with the bigger change. Have you had any instances of that where someone's come back to you and said, This exercise really helped the small exercise helped me in this big change I had to go through.
Alex Budak:
Yeah. And you hear it a lot from sort of the more, like, mid level executive Folks who get it's very normal if you sort of work your way up in a company. You get kind of comfortable. Not everyone. We tend to get kind of comfortable with the the status quo. And I've noticed that especially in writing this book, I've had the chance to speak to a lot of companies, especially sort of more traditional companies. And there's a lot of people who sort of hit this Plateau, this sort of status quo, and they found themselves somewhat comfortable. And so in giving these challenges to people, some Sometimes I hear back from them after a week, but usually it's more like a month or a couple of months.
Alex Budak:
But they realize that they sort of built that confidence to then make some bigger changes. In a couple of examples as I'm leaving the company, you know, which is which is okay. But in another, it was someone who said, look. I do these small changes. I always realized that I wasn't being the leader, the manager that I wanted to be. She managed a team of 4 people. She wasn't the manager she wanted to be, but she sort of felt like, well, I don't have time to think about it. Just kind of how it is.
Alex Budak:
Like, it's not terrible. It's just not great. And she said that sort of reflecting back on doing some of those smaller changes gave her the confidence to make smaller changes in her own leadership. She didn't, like, transform her leadership overnight, but she started doing a couple different things, getting feedback, and then iterating from there. And I think if she's on the trajectory and then get on the trajectory she was on a few months ago when we talked, totally different leader, but really through many small steps.
Teri Schmidt:
Right. Right. Yeah. I I love that story because it's you know, I think sometimes we like you said, she saw a change that she wanted to make, but but she just kept putting it off because she was probably trying to get through her day again, survive the next round of layoffs, and Just making getting those reps in with change, you know, so that you can develop that confidence and and feel more comfortable. That's excellent. I see leaders sometimes and maybe I'm seeing this in the wrong way, so please feel free to say that. But I kinda see leaders on a continuum of, you know, The buried their heads in the sand, like, total change resistance to those leaders who are leading through change. Maybe it's not a change that they came up with, but they're able to lead their team through it.
Teri Schmidt:
And then on the far end of the spectrum, more those leaders who are initiating change. I'm curious kind of your perspective on that spectrum. And then, also, Do you think there are different skill sets needed for each of those points on that spectrum?
Alex Budak:
Yeah. If I could just sort of push on the a little bit. I think beyond that at the top, there's also the folks who just like change for change's sake. Sometimes we think about, like, entrepreneurs with Shiny objects and drunk that they're just like, let's have a new digital strategy. Let's have a new policy here. And these kind of are always changing things. Yeah. And so yeah.
Alex Budak:
I think you can think of them, like, never wanted to change, like, Changing everything even when it's working. So, yeah, in terms of, like, the skills we need as we layer down on top of that. In in my class in the book, I write a lot about vision. And I think vision gets a bad rap. We sort of think about vision as something that only the CEO, only executive director has. But I really thinking about it as something that we each have and that each of us can sort of use our eyes to see things in a new way from our own perspective, That vision, whether that's a status quo that needs to be challenged or a system that's unjust needs to be disrupted, but then we all have this chance to play vision. Now to be clear, someone who's a CEO will have more power, more traditional agency to affect change throughout, but we can still see those Thanks. And so I think it's important that sort of a middle manager, someone that feels more affected by change than being change, that they don't feel like their vision doesn't actually matter.
Alex Budak:
Because oftentimes, in working with big organizations, I tend to work more with sort of the c suite than other folks, but there's a lot of blind spots. And we like to pretend that there's not. But as you move higher than an organization, you tend to sort of lose track of things, kind of closer to the customer on the ground, the front lines. So there's big opportunities for someone who's, like, in kind of in that middle of change or feel like change is being given to you. You're sort of implementing change. You have to get other people on board, But I still think there's a role to shape that. Now, again, recognize power dynamics, but sometimes your decision and your ability to see things and articulate that back up can be super powerful. So I think There's a role there to not just be the kind of conduit of change, but actually someone who's a change agent, a change maker that's helping to shape that change.
Teri Schmidt:
Yeah. And it there's so many tools in your book, particularly the canvas that, you know, if you do have those Your eyes open to what needs to be changed even if you're just walking yourself through the changemaker canvas and thinking, okay. Let me go through each of these elements and be prepared and really get clear on what I think that change needs to be in my mind. Then when you have the opportunity, you know, and and you Feel that that change is just being done to you. You can see how that vision aligns with the greater vision or maybe doesn't align, but you need to speak up because the greater vision Maybe is going in a direction that you don't feel that it should go based on your knowledge of what's actually going on on the ground.
Alex Budak:
Yeah. Yes. Exactly. I see you referenced a tool called the changemaker canvas. It's a tool that it's been used, I think, 10,000 downloads so far. So using a lot of different there's a lot of different spaces. And I built it because I've literally never talked to someone who said change is easy. Change is hard.
Alex Budak:
It doesn't matter how many times you've done it. It doesn't matter how many people you manage, How confident you are with change. Change is always hard, and we always feel scared by it. And so inspired by tools like the business model canvas, the lean canvas, I decided to put together a Cool, which helps people sort of take change from this obtuse scary overwhelming concept and actually break it down into smaller Steps. And it kind of flows in a very logical way. And so I think what you're referencing is that we begin by really understanding that vision. And so in that, I break it down into 3 parts. I really think it's so important to start with the why.
Alex Budak:
You know, out of all the changes you could be leading, why are you leading This change, it's the the classic Simon Sinek work. But I think it's really powerful even beyond that. This idea of there are a lot of things that our companies, our organizations, and our world need to have changed. Why this specific thing? Why do you care about it? And I think as changemakers, it's important to bring our own self, Our own lived experience into it. Why do you care about this change? Mhmm. Then the second is that vision. And I thought that vision is painting a picture of the future that's so compelling The people can't help but wanna be part of it with you. So can you paint that picture? You know, one sentence, what's that vision of the world that you're creating? What will it look like when this change takes hold? And then the 1 block of the canvas which is maybe the most challenging is just called the change.
Alex Budak:
And that's where I challenge you to write in 1 single simple sentence What that changes that you're leading? This is where so many corporate change efforts fall apart when they have their 18 page memos and their 42 parts of change. No. Like, what's that one sentence of the change that you're creating? Now there's plenty of time to get into the details, implementation plans, the hows. But, like, in one sentence, what's the core? What's the essence of the change that you're trying to lead? And I think if you can begin there by grounding it in your why, Being able to paint a picture of that vision of what's possible and be able to articulate a clear compelling change in one sentence, you're off to a really good start With beginning to make change, something that feels a little bit less obscure, a little less overwhelming, and a little bit more manageable.
Teri Schmidt:
Yeah. And and that you can communicate too. So if you are in those situations where that vision, that change that you wanna make doesn't necessarily directly align with the The way that your organization is headed, you're able to speak to it and and hopefully influence as well.
Alex Budak:
Hugely important to have that influence because it doesn't matter if you have the right change strategy, if you have everything in place. You know, changemaking is a team sport. You've gotta bring people along. And so being able to communicate, get other people excited and engaged and delegate to them, crucial if you're gonna lead any type of change.
Teri Schmidt:
Yeah. Definitely. Well, speaking about the changemaker canvas, as you know, we just had one of our book club meetings focused on becoming a changemaker. And so some of The participants submitted questions for you, and one of the questions was just expressing how comprehensive the changemaker canvas is. And wondering if, you know, if you need to modify it because you have time constraints or in some way, you You just feel like you can't get through it all. Although it does fit on 1 page, so you you should be able to get through it all. But if you need to modify it for some reason, Are there components of it that you think are most important to hit?
Alex Budak:
So as I was researching the book, I have this quote that I love, which is attributed to Albert Einstein. Oh, it turns out that he probably never said it like so many good Einstein quotes. So we don't know if he actually said this, but I think it's a great quote regardless. And Einstein says or whomever says, but maybe Einstein Says I had an hour to solve a problem. I spent 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about the solution. Mhmm. And so, you know, Fair point. There's a lot of aspects to this changemaker canvas, but it is time worth spending.
Alex Budak:
That if you're gonna lead changing, spend hours working on that change. And so spending that time upfront to get clear on what you're doing, why you're doing it, how the pieces fit together, it's time that It's sort of an idea of, like, James Clear atomic habits, like small little investments here, pay off really big down the line with competitive interest. And so a challenge to you would be to say, if you feel like you don't have time to fill out this canvas, you probably don't have time to lead change. So take a little time, however long it means. You know, take it in multiple sections. Do 5 minutes a day for 2 weeks, whatever it takes. But take the time to fill this out. Because what we find in working with all kinds of changemakers across industries is that the canvas helps shift change from a strategic question to an execution challenge.
Alex Budak:
They've done the strategic work. And then instead of thinking, oh, I'm feeling so wrong. How do I get started? You didn't know how to get started, then you just gotta do it. And so I think it's time well spent. So it feels overwhelming. I see you for that. But sit with that. You know, spend a little more time on the front end, Really understanding the problem, understanding your change, and then that will actually free up time for you down the road.
Teri Schmidt:
Yeah. I love that. You know, you're kinda Speaking my language there because when I was in corporate, I led a team in our training department that encouraged people to really collect data to see what the need really was in the 1st place to make sure that training was the right solution to address that need or if something else needed to happen. And so often, people don't wanna spend time on the front end. They just wanna get to the implementation, but then you end up with a whole lot of time wasted and not gain the impact that you wanna have. So I hear you, and I completely agree that, you know, take those 55 minutes upfront, not literally, but maybe literally, to get the 5 minutes at work so that it really makes an impact. But I'd love for you to talk to us a little bit about your changemaker equation because I think there's a lot that we could go into there, but I'd love to Just get that out there because I think it is so powerful, and it only has 4 parts really, but 4 very important parts. So could you tell us a little bit about the changemaker equation?
Alex Budak:
Yeah. I'm not a mathematician. There's plenty of brilliant mathematicians at Berkeley and won Nobel prizes. That is not me. I only have 1 single equation, and it's a very simple one. So simply what I say is that your impact as a changemaker is equal to your changemaker mindset, your changemaker leadership. We'll define those in a second. Your mindset and leadership, put in parentheses, so the sum of those.
Alex Budak:
Mindset and leadership multiplied by your action. And the big lesson here is that it's not enough Just have the right mindset or the right leadership skills that if you don't take any action, you won't have any impact. It doesn't take a Nobel Prize winning mathematician to know that any number, even a big number multiplied by 0, the result is still 0. So if you Just sit on your hands. You never take any action. You can never have any impact. And so that's a way of thinking about how we bring all 3 aspects of our changemaker abilities Into our work to have an impact. So from mindset.
Alex Budak:
And I talk about that as the way you see yourself and the world around you, your role in shaping it. I'm inspired by the words of poet Amanda Gorman in her poem, the hill we climb. She has 3 final lines. I think beautifully summed up this idea of a changemaker mindset. She says, for there is always light if we're brave enough to see it, if we're brave enough to be it. So we think tomorrow can be better than today, We can see things that others may not see quite yet, but also the courage it takes to stand up and say, hey. You know? This is something I believe, and maybe I don't even know exactly what the answer is, but I have that Courage to try to do something about it. So that's a sort of shorthand for thinking about our mindset.
Alex Budak:
Then our leadership is other focused. The changemaking is a team sport, like I said. So how are you bringing others into the change? How are you able to influence without authority? How are you able to bring others, to delegate, to get others Excited about your change. That's your leadership skills. You know? Doing work through and with others. And then action is, Okay. You know, getting your hands dirty, rolling up your sleeves, and actually starting the work and recognizing, of course, that it can feel really Carrie, really overwhelming. And so there's tools we can learn from fields across the board, many different disciplines about sort of how do you take those Really challenging but crucial first steps of action.
Alex Budak:
And so then when you add up your mute mindset and your leadership, you multiply it by your action, then you see that's that's your impact A changemaker.
Teri Schmidt:
So rich, but so simple, and it it feels actionable that you can focus on those 3 elements and really make a great impact. And thank you. Always love something that's easy to remember and easy to act on.
Alex Budak:
Yeah.
Teri Schmidt:
If we dig into leadership in particular, I know you talk a lot about micro leadership. And I'm curious What led you to come up with it, and what would you say the benefit is of seeing leadership not as a position or a single act, but as a continuous mindset to serve others.
Alex Budak:
Driven by this belief that each of us have this incredible potential to lead change. So we all have this voice. Whether we've tapped into it or not, we have this voice Change and also recognizing working I have the privilege and the pleasure of working with really diverse groups of people from, again, undergraduates to senior executives, 1st generation students. And I see the many ways that we tell ourselves these stories. We can't be leaders. Mhmm. And I think it's exacerbated by the way we Teach leadership. We talk about leadership in companies and universities and business schools, and this idea of glorifying the lone individual.
Alex Budak:
You know, the Steve Jobs, the Eleanor Roosevelt, the Nelson Mandela. There's a place for that once in a generation heroic type of leadership. But for myself, for so many of my students, for so many of the executives I work with, They look at that leadership and they say, you know, it's inspiring. It's important. But that's just not who I am. You know, I'm an introvert. I'm not that charismatic. I'm not that brave.
Alex Budak:
And we started telling ourselves the stories we can't be leaders. But what I've seen in all of my work from my work as a social entrepreneur to work as an educator, Doing my role as a dad, you know, seeing that leadership isn't about a title. It's about giving ourselves that permission to step up and act. But still it feels really intimidating. My favorite questions to begin classes with, being the semester to ask people, if the word leader didn't exist, What were we to use instead? Mhmm. The word leader itself has become so wrapped up. It's too polarized. And for Gender bias for class bias, racial bias.
Alex Budak:
There's just all kinds of things wrapped into it that so many people who are leaders don't see themselves as leaders Because of the connotations of what it means to be a leader, what we think it means to be a leader. And so I wanna throw that away and say, okay. Imagine we could start from scratch. Would we have that definition of leader? I don't think we would. Instead, I think we'd have something much more like a network relation.
Teri Schmidt:
Mhmm. Mhmm. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. And, you know, I Had a professor who taught a, class on women's leadership, and she starts off her semester every You're with an exercise with, you know, brilliant women who are in her class. They're very high performers, and she always asks, okay. How many of you see yourself as leaders? And she said about 20% of the hands go up of these, you know, just amazing people.
Teri Schmidt:
And I think if we could all understand Leadership more in the vein that you explain it in terms of micro leadership. I'd I would love to see the positive change that could happen in our families, in our communities, in our workplaces.
Alex Budak:
Right. Because these women are leaders. They just for a reason, that title doesn't Speak to them, but they are. It doesn't change their behaviors that they have. And so let's find a ways that give people that sort of reinforcement that you are that you are practicing leadership. Yeah. What makes what makes possible.
Teri Schmidt:
Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. Well, I know part of that micro leadership you talk about is investing in relationships so that you can influence and kind of have that lateral leadership. Can you talk more about ways that perspective changemakers can develop some of those skills that are needed for that influence in lateral leadership.
Alex Budak:
Well, I think so often we feel this pressure just like go go go all the time. Like, get things done. But sort of like that question about, you know, if I don't have enough time to do the change maker canvas, how do you have enough time to lead change? I think that's sort of same idea. If you don't have time to get to know people that you work with, How we have the time to lead them.
Teri Schmidt:
Mhmm.
Alex Budak:
So I think it's so important to spend that time upfront investing in those relationships. You know, it's not, like, sort of a Influence trick or a hack. Like, there's no quick way to just, like, become buddies or become, like, a totally understanding someone. But, you know, practicing tools of empathy, I need to ask really good questions, investing in that relationship over time. We find that oftentimes in settings that people will be willing to kind of go along with you as a Changemaker. Not necessarily because they believe in your idea. I mean, hopefully, they do. Mhmm.
Alex Budak:
But sometimes they believe in you as a person.
Teri Schmidt:
Mhmm.
Alex Budak:
I think about the example of a friend of mine who was running a race to raise money for a rare disease that affected one of his loved ones. And he asked me to support him. And in a second, I said yes. Of course. Happily. But if you're asking why I supported him, it wasn't because of the cause. I mean, it's a noble cause. It's a fine cause.
Alex Budak:
But if I had a rank, it wouldn't be in my top 100 causes. Mhmm. Because Just, you know, it's not something that had affected one of my loved ones. The reason I supported him was because of our friendship, because of our relationship, because I believed in him. So he could have asked me to support him for 1 of A 1,000 causes. I would have said yes. Now that's on the friendship. It's not about exploiting a friendship but rather it's embodiment of this idea of, like, really getting to know someone, investing in relationship.
Alex Budak:
And the more you know them, the more able you'd be able to lead them. Yeah. Empathy here is also key because if you try to lead someone, it's not one size fits all. Can you understand where they're coming from? You know, are they a new parent who's just trying to keep their head above water at home and here you are trying to ask them to take on a huge new change effort? They might be excited, but just not have the space. Mhmm. Maybe it's new to the company, and they're really eager to prove themselves, and they wanna take on that challenge. You know, your ask of them, your influence of those people should be very different. And I think it's important to recognize where people are by using that empathy to build that relationship, And then you'll be much more effective in your influence from there.
Teri Schmidt:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely agree on that. One of the skills that you talked about, the asking really good questions, Do you have any either from your personal experience or just from what you've learned from other people about how to get better at doing that?
Alex Budak:
Mhmm. By by practice. So there's a phrase I love from the journalist Kate Murray. She says that everyone is interesting if you ask them the right questions. So if someone seems dull or uninteresting, it's on you because you didn't ask the right questions. And so, you know, like I said, I'm a dad, and so I like Thinking about things sometimes from the perspective of my almost 3 year old, which is just having that curiosity of why. Like, right now, he's just mesmerized this idea that, like, you can turn a water faucet on and water Out of it and then you turn it off and it stops. Right? It's amazing for a 2, 3 year old.
Alex Budak:
You have that same curiosity about people to try to understand things. I think even when you disagree with them or see things very differently, can you shift from, like, a defensive posture to just, like, a short curiosity? Like, Wow. You see things so differently for me. I wanna understand why that could be.
Teri Schmidt:
Mhmm.
Alex Budak:
Then another question I love is from the design school, Design thinking methodology. This idea of how might we. I really love that question because it's might, which Which I think is a much more inviting question than, like, should or, you know, like, let's do this right now. It's sort of exploration kind of invites in different perspectives. And also the idea of we Instead of, like, how are you gonna do this? It's sort of bringing yourself on that same level, like, showing you're in it together. And so I think that's a the powerful question as well. Yeah.
Teri Schmidt:
Very powerful. So I'm curious what strong leaders serve means to you.
Alex Budak:
Mhmm. I love this because in a lot of my leadership teaching, I like to explore these polarities of leadership. One of the things I talk about is this idea of confidence without attitude. The idea that the best leaders are confident, yes, But also super humble. And that it's not that you're somewhere in between or, like, a little bit confident and a little bit humble, but you're actually both of those things. And that humility actually takes great confidence. And so I see the title as a bit of that polarity as well. That I think sometimes we think of service as weakness or as like I'm And I'll say, never ending.
Alex Budak:
I'm just sort of, like, taking whatever you want. I'm here to serve you. Or strength being something that's just ideal, but that is maybe just completely Individually based. And so I I look at it as sort of embracing that polarity of sort of service, which I believe is at the core of all great leadership of Seeing how can I make you better? How can I help you grow? But it also takes a strength. You know, I think back to a time where I was a middle manager Where sometimes I would get a lot of pressure from the higher ups to sort of be like, hey. Just focus on the bottom line results. Like, don't stop developing your people so much. Right? Just sort of get things done.
Alex Budak:
And it took a lot of strength for me to push back and say, yeah. I hear you. And I hear you that we could get things done maybe quicker in some way if I just did it myself or told exactly what to do. I'm doing it for the long term. You know, I'm really trying to serve them so that we can serve the team. And it took a lot of strength to do that. And so I hope that people take away from this This idea that service is core to leadership, but that sometimes it's actually a great strength rather than a a weakness.
Teri Schmidt:
Mhmm. Mhmm. Very well said. Well and very aligned with our definition of leadership as well. We say that leadership is courageously using your talents to make a way for others to courageously use
Alex Budak:
Theirs. Mhmm.
Teri Schmidt:
So I I love what you said there. Well, if people want to keep in touch with you, where is the best place for them to go?
Alex Budak:
Reach out on LinkedIn. You know, send a message. Let me know that you listened to this this episode and would love to hear from you there. I hope it resonates. So LinkedIn is a great place 5 minutes where I share ideas and thoughts on leadership and changemaking. And then also welcome to check out my website, which is alexbudak.com, and you can find becoming a changemaker on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, local bookstores, and wherever else you buy books.
Teri Schmidt:
Oh, excellent. Well, and I highly encourage that everyone gets the book and and goes to your website as well because you do have a lot Free resources there. They can get the changemaker canvas, look through that, and and start leading change right from where they are. So thank you so much, Alex, for your time today, for the incredible work that you do day in and day out, and just for inspiring so many people around you in the way that you were meant to.
Alex Budak:
Oh, thank you, Teri. Thanks for this a really fun conversation and for all the work that you do as well. I enjoyed it.
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