By Steve “The Doctor” Meek | Talk To Th3 Doc Podcast | Fulcrum Group
Podcast Doc-umentary – Episode 115
In Episode 115 of Talk To Th3 Doc, I sat down with Zane Dodd, psychologist and performance coach, to unpack how high-performance psychology applies not just to elite athletes, but to everyday leaders in business. We talked about emotional intelligence, intrinsic motivation, and the role of self-awareness in building high-performing teams.
I have played pickup basketball against and with Dr. Dodd, so basketball always comes to mind. Especially as a Dennis Johnson fan in the 80s. I came to like Larry Bird as an intrinsically motivated player. His quote “Don’t let winning make you soft. Don’t let losing make you quit. Don’t let your teammates down in any situation” says it all to me.
And when it comes to leadership—or technology—that little nudge toward continual improvement often makes the difference between surviving and scaling.
The Business Case for High Performance Psychology
Zane and I discussed the reality that 70% of employees report feeling disengaged (Gallup, 2023). For SMB executives in DFW, disengagement isn’t just a people problem—it’s a bottom-line issue. Disengagement costs U.S. businesses $550 billion a year in lost productivity.
Leaders who make the time to also focus on emotional intelligence, situational awareness, and feedback loops give their organizations a fighting chance. As Zane put it, “Feedback is vital for self-awareness.” Without that mirror, leaders operate blind.
Where Fulcrum Fits In: Leadership and Technology Alignment
At The Fulcrum Group, we see the same pattern in technology. Businesses often run on assumptions until a system outage, cyber incident, or compliance audit forces the truth into the open. Just as Zane recommends reflection and feedback for leaders, we recommend metrics and baselines for IT systems through our STARpower framework.
- Alignment with Vision and Strategy – We ensure every IT managed services move ties back to business goals, avoiding “random acts of IT.”
- Baseline and Current State Assessment – Using our Lifecycle Insights and network documentation tools, we capture where you are today before planning where to go.
- Target State Definition – We help define what “better” looks like—whether that’s higher uptime, smoother compliance, or smarter automation.
- Incremental Change – Like coaching habits in people, we build IT maturity through small, measurable steps. Sometimes, we have to help be a change agent, helping drive security awareness programs, or bringing to light the importance of training your team for AI, to get AI. Changes are more graceful when following a normal order of things.
The crossover is clear: leadership and technology both improve through continuous awareness and intentional action.
Why Innovation Matters in Scaling Firms
One of the themes I’ve noticed while explaining and coaching leaders across North Texas is that innovation can be a force multiplier or, a lack of it can bring your organization down. Zane emphasized intrinsic motivation as fuel for performance. In technology, innovation fuels motivation too—it gives employees tools they want to work with, reduces daily friction, and builds resilience. I have seen too many instances of the disgruntled employee look, with the slow computer, the application that requires extra steps or a workaround, or, using an older tool when they had much better at a prior employer.
Here’s what happens when IT is aligned with strategy:
- Cyber risks shrink while confidence grows.
- Managers get back hours a week through automation.
- Technology investments stop being a cost center and start driving predictable growth.
That’s how scaling happens—you don’t just run faster, you remove the friction that slows you down. When the day-to-day doesn’t grind you down, you have more energy to collaborate, communicate, share, engage, listen and participate.
A Fulcrum Perspective
At Fulcrum, we’ve built our managed IT services around these principles for over 20 years in the DFW market. Our STARpower IT framework is designed to keep leaders focused on growth, not firefighting. We answer the phone, we act as an extension of your leadership team, and we connect the dots between business strategy and IT delivery.
Like Zane, we believe leadership is about awareness and alignment. In our world, that means aligning IT investments with compliance, risk management, and business objectives—whether you’re a manufacturer, nonprofit, or municipality.
My Prescription for Leaders
Just as Zane challenged leaders to invest in continual self-awareness, my similar technology prescription is this:
👉 Don’t believe IT is “just keeping the lights on”.
Jim Collins famously said, “Good is the enemy of great.” Anytime someone tells me their IT is “fine”, his quote comes to mind. For the first ten years in IT, I thought what are they hiding. Then I realized that it isn’t that they are hiding something, they just don’t know what they don’t know. It’s our job to help educate and inform. If your technology is there to help enable business success, then not investigating if there are better ways means you stay stuck in the same ole same ole.
Schedule your technology checkup at the link to the side. Review your baselines. Ask hard questions. Then, make the small adjustments that prevent bigger problems down the road.
Watch & Listen
📺 Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/S0nFlg0bJbg
🎧 Listen on your favorite platform: https://pod.link/1807560282
