Welcome visionaries, creators, innovators, leaders, entrepreneurs, and growth seekers of all types to the passion-struck high-pass.

I am John Miles, a peak performance coach, multi-industry CEO, Navy Veteran, and entrepreneur on a mission to make passion-go-viral for millions worldwide.

In each week, I do so by sharing an inspirational message and interviewing high achievers from all walks of life to unlock their secrets and lessons to become a passion-struck.

The purpose of our show is to serve you the listener by giving you tips, past, and activities to achieve peak performance and pursue passion-driven life you've always aspired to have.

Now, let the journey begin.

Hi, I'm John Miles, and welcome to momentum Friday, an episode 41 of the passion-struck podcast.

I recently heard from a long-term friend and one of the best leaders I have ever worked for, Chase Kubinsky, who asked me if I could do some episodes on two very important topics he thinks are not being addressed enough, and that is humility and diplomacy.

So I've decided I'm going to do a series on these, and they will be coming out over the next few weeks.

I've heard out today's episode with a quote, and one of my favorite from Winston Churchill, who said, diplomacy is the art of pulling people to go to hell in such a way that they ask for directions.

And I think that is such a great lead in for today's discussion on the art of diplomacy.

And I'm going to start out with a short story for you.

Many people who graduate from the Naval Academy, I was taught leadership skills and also this burning desire to take on the world, and that served me so well as I was both in my military career, and then as I started my civilian career.

I will never forget this interview that I had with Bridget Morale Curran, who at that time was a consultant with the search firm Horne Fairy, and they had been hired to do executive assessments with all the senior leadership team in the IT group at Loweshoven Primate.

And I remember our discussion like it was yesterday, because at the end she gave me one of the most important lessons I had ever had at that point in time.

She said, John, what got you here isn't going to get you where you want to go.

And it took me years to understand what she was trying to tell me, which was that I needed to hone my skills and art of diplomacy, because diplomacy is one of the most important skills that we can have as leaders at any level.

But when I often would think about a diplomat, what comes to my head immediately is someone who works in an embassy or a politician or a world leader. But what I've learned over time, and what I think, Chase Kaczybenski wanted you to hear about today, is that diplomacy is also vital to your career and to the relationships that you have in your life.

See diplomacy as it's defined is the art of advancing an idea or cause without unnecessarily inflaming passion or creating a catastrophe.

And how often have you seen the latter happen, both in your personal life and in your career, it happens all the time.

So this really gets down to understanding the different facets of human nature, what can undermine an agreement so conflict and not doing these with either grace, humility or or site.

And that's diplomats do everything that they can preserve the relationship so that when they have a topic that means the most to them, they have that groundwork put in place so that when the time comes, the diplomats idea becomes their idea.

And that is at the heart of what diplomacy is all about.

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