Dr. Warren Reed: What do leaders like Steve Jobs, who famously obsessed over every detail, have in common with a Harley-Davidson roaring down an open road? It sounds like a strange question, but the answer might hold a key to unlocking your own next level of performance. Today, we're diving into Delatorro McNeal's 'Shift into a Higher Gear,' a book that uses the powerful metaphor of motorcycle riding to teach profound lessons about personal and professional growth. And I'm thrilled to have leadership enthusiast Maura here to help us unpack it.

Maura: It's great to be here, Warren. I have to admit, when I first heard the premise, I was intrigued. The connection isn't obvious, but the best insights often come from unexpected places.

Dr. Warren Reed: Exactly. And that's what we're going to do. Today we'll dive deep into this from two perspectives. First, we'll explore why the smallest, most consistent changes—the 1% shifts—often have the biggest impact, challenging the 'go big or go home' myth.

Maura: Which is a huge part of the leadership narrative we're all fed.

Dr. Warren Reed: It is. Then, we'll discuss a powerful, practical strategy for moving forward even when you're terrified, a concept the book calls 'Consistent Imperfect Action.'

Maura: I'm already hooked. That sounds like the secret sauce for anyone trying to make a real change.

Dr. Warren Reed: It really is. So, Maura, let's start with that first idea, which feels so counterintuitive in our culture of massive disruption. The book argues that you don't need a massive overhaul to get a massive result. You just need a small shift.

Maura: It’s a compelling argument because it feels more achievable. We're bombarded with stories of radical transformation, but the reality for most of us is incremental. So how does the book frame this?

Dr. Warren Reed: Well, the author, Delatorro McNeal, gets very personal with it. He tells this incredibly relatable story about his own struggle with weight management. For years, he was a busy traveling speaker, living out of hotels, eating on the go. His weight would fluctuate wildly, going up and down by 40 pounds.

Maura: I think many people, especially professionals with demanding schedules, can understand that cycle.

Dr. Warren Reed: Absolutely. And his initial reaction was to blame his circumstances. He'd say, "It's the travel, I can't maintain a routine." He was making excuses. But then he had an epiphany. He realized the problem wasn't the travel; it was his mindset. So, instead of planning some huge, life-altering diet or workout regimen that he knew he couldn't sustain, he decided to make tiny shifts.

Maura: The 1% changes.

Dr. Warren Reed: Precisely. He didn't ban himself from restaurants. He just started choosing the grilled chicken salad instead of the burger. He didn't force himself to go to the gym for an hour every day. He started with a 15-minute workout in his hotel room. These were small, almost unnoticeable changes. But he did them consistently.

Maura: And the outcome?

Dr. Warren Reed: Sustainable success. He reached his ideal weight and, more importantly, he maintained it. The book connects this to the Pareto Principle, the 80/20 rule. He realized that 20% of his choices were driving 80% of his negative results. By making small shifts in that critical 20%, he transformed the entire outcome without turning his life upside down.

Maura: That's a powerful personal example, and it makes me think about organizational leadership. We see companies attempt these huge, painful reorganizations that often fail because they're too disruptive and the culture rejects them. But what if the most effective leadership is about identifying that 'magic 20%' of activities, as the book says, and applying a 1% improvement there?

Dr. Warren Reed: A fascinating parallel. So, less about the big town hall meeting announcing a massive new direction...

Maura: And more about the quiet, consistent work of refining a core process. It feels more like the way George Washington managed the Continental Army during the Revolution. He wasn't winning with one brilliant, decisive victory. He was often retreating, regrouping. His genius was in persistence—in making a thousand small, tactical decisions that, compounded over years, kept the cause alive against a vastly superior force. It was a war won by inches, by 1% shifts, not by a single glorious leap.

Dr. Warren Reed: That's a brilliant connection. It’s leadership as evolution, not revolution. It’s about the cumulative power of small, sustained efforts. You're not looking for the one-time miracle; you're building the engine of momentum, one tiny gear shift at a time.

Maura: And it empowers people. Telling your team, "We need to improve by 1% this week," is concrete and achievable. Telling them, "We need to reinvent the entire industry," can be paralyzing.

Dr. Warren Reed: Which is the perfect word, 'paralyzing.' Because making any shift, big or small, requires you to overcome a very powerful force.

Maura: Fear.

Dr. Warren Reed: Exactly. I love that connection to Washington. That persistence in the face of overwhelming odds is the perfect bridge to our second idea. Because making those shifts, even small ones, requires you to overcome something powerful: fear. And the book's antidote for fear isn't courage, it's action.

Maura: I’m really interested in this because fear is such a primal emotion. It’s not something you can just rationalize away. So what’s the strategy?

Dr. Warren Reed: The book calls it 'Consistent Imperfect Action,' or CIA. The core idea is that fear and faith are two warriors battling inside you, and the one you feed is the one that wins. Fear feeds on inaction and analysis paralysis. Faith feeds on action, no matter how small or flawed.

Maura: So it’s not about waiting until you feel brave. It’s about acting your way into bravery.

Dr. Warren Reed: You've got it. And again, the author uses a powerful story from his own life. Before he was a globally recognized speaker, he had a stable, full-time job at a university. But his dream was to be a speaker. He was terrified to leave the security of a steady paycheck and benefits to chase this dream. The fear was telling him all the 'facts': you might fail, you'll run out of money, you're not good enough.

Maura: The classic inner monologue of anyone considering a major life change.

Dr. Warren Reed: Right. But instead of waiting for the fear to go away, he started taking Consistent Imperfect Action. He joined Toastmasters to practice. He offered to speak for free at local clubs. He started building his network one person at a time. He was taking small, messy, imperfect steps forward, and each step starved his fear and fed his faith.

Maura: He was building evidence for himself that he could do it.

Dr. Warren Reed: That's the key. And 15 years later, he has a global career. He didn't take one giant leap; he built a bridge to his dream, one imperfect plank at a time. The book uses a great pop-culture analogy from The Karate Kid Part III. Daniel is injured and terrified to face his opponent, and his mentor, Mr. Miyagi, tells him, "It's OK to lose to opponent. Must not lose to fear."

Maura: That's it, right there. The real battle is internal. This whole concept of 'Consistent Imperfect Action' is the heart of the matter for any leader or creator. I'm fascinated by the phrase 'Imperfect Action,' especially when I think of someone like Steve Jobs, a notorious perfectionist.

Dr. Warren Reed: That's a great tension to explore. How do you reconcile the two?

Maura: Well, I think maybe we misinterpret his story. Yes, he was obsessed with the final product. But the first Apple computer was built in a garage with his friend Steve Wozniak. It was the absolute definition of imperfect action. It was a wooden box with a circuit board. The perfectionism came later, in the refinement, in the relentless iteration.

Dr. Warren Reed: So the initial leap was pure CIA.

Maura: It had to be. It's about having the faith to launch version 1.0, knowing that version 2.0 and 3.0 will be better. The fear of being judged for an imperfect start is what paralyzes so many potential innovators and leaders. They want to present a flawless masterpiece from day one, but that's not how anything great is ever built. Even Ruth Bader Ginsburg didn't overturn gender discrimination with a single, sweeping ruling. She did it case by case, chipping away at the legal precedent with consistent, imperfect, but relentless action.

Dr. Warren Reed: So, whether you're building a tech empire, a legal legacy, or a speaking career, the starting principle is the same. You have to be willing to show up and be messy. You have to choose action over the illusion of safety.

Maura: You have to choose the ride over staying parked.

Dr. Warren Reed: I think that's the perfect way to bring it all together. It seems we have two powerful gears we can shift into, based on this book. First, the small, 1% shift that builds incredible, sustainable momentum over time. It’s the quiet engine of progress.

Maura: The evolutionary gear. It’s about getting better, not just bigger.

Dr. Warren Reed: And second, the gear of 'Consistent Imperfect Action' that gets you moving when fear is screaming at you to stay parked. That's the gear that starts the whole journey.

Maura: It's the ignition. Without it, the 1% shifts can't even happen. You're just a beautiful machine sitting still.

Dr. Warren Reed: So, as we wrap up, what's the one thing you'd want our listeners, especially those focused on their own leadership journey, to take away from this conversation?

Maura: I think it comes down to a very practical diagnosis. The book talks about how excuses are like a motorcycle's kickstand. When the kickstand is down, the engine can roar, you can look the part, but you're not going anywhere. It's a safety feature that, when left engaged, becomes a prison.

Dr. Warren Reed: A powerful image.

Maura: So my question for everyone listening, and for myself, is this: What is the one excuse you're leaning on right now? The one "I can't because..." that's acting as your kickstand? And once you've identified it, what is the one small, imperfect action you can take today to kick it up and just start rolling? It doesn't have to be graceful. It just has to be forward.

Dr. Warren Reed: Kick up the stand. A perfect, actionable thought to end on. Maura, thank you so much for this insightful conversation.

Maura: Thank you, Warren. It was a pleasure to ride along.