Creating An Unbreakable Company Culture with Ron Reich | #115

Unlock the secrets to transformative leadership and team development as we journey with Ron Reich, a luminary in the field of leadership coaching. This episode promises to shift your focus from chasing results to taking impactful actions, a move that Ron assures will pave the way for both personal and organizational triumphs. We delve into the power of open communication and how it propels businesses forward, while also acknowledging the profound effect of personal connections within your team. Ron's experiences from HR to top-tier coaching bring to light the nuances of hiring and the essence of nurturing a vibrant company culture.

Discover the ongoing adventure of leadership growth that defies the myth of "one-and-done" training sessions. In our engaging conversation, we dissect the importance of continuous development across all levels of an organization, from the newest recruit to the seasoned executive. Ron and I share strategies to keep motivation high and illuminate why truly knowing your team members is integral to long-lasting success. Through personal stories and insights, we confront the fallacy that a single workshop can instantaneously mold leaders or salespeople, emphasizing instead the journey of consistent growth and relationship-building.

In the ever-evolving landscape of business, mission and vision statements stand as the lighthouses guiding company purpose. This episode explores the critical role these statements play, with a nod to Patrick Lencioni's wisdom in "The Advantage," and the significance of external facilitators in circumventing leadership blind spots. Moreover, we discuss the symbiotic relationship between accountability and autonomy, setting high standards without the pitfalls of micromanagement, and the irreplaceable value of personal interaction even in the age of AI. So tune in, as we unpack these leadership insights and more, to ignite a cultural revolution in your organization that involves everyone from the top down.

Ron Reich Links:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ron.reich.334
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leadership_rlb
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ron-reich-7809829/

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:14

All right, everyone welcome to a new episode of the Evolving Business Minds podcast. If you are a business owner that wants to grow your team or maybe you already have a team of people in your business but you want to improve your company's culture then this episode's for you. Our guest today has over 28 years of experience in leadership, management, development, supervision, training, executive coaching, as well as team building and communication skills. I want to welcome Ron Reich to the show.

Speaker 2: 0:42

Thank you, andy, nice to be here, as always.

Speaker 1: 0:44

Yeah, I'm excited to have you on today. I dug into quite a bit of your stuff, you know, after we connected. So before we get into it, why don't you go ahead and take a few minutes and just let everyone know you know, give them an overview of what you do and how they can connect with you?

Speaker 2: 0:59

Sure, andy, I have worked in leadership training and development for over 30 years, mostly in leadership development, management development, executive coaching exactly what you were saying and over the years it's evolved also into coaching, along with the organizational development piece which is culture development and it just things along those lines, and truly I feel so unbelievably blessed because I love what I do and we don't know each other at all and I hope this comes across as proud and confident because, that's how I mean it.

Speaker 2: 1:42

I'm good at what I do and I love helping other people. You know, as far as connecting with people, probably the easiest way to do it is very simply through my LinkedIn page.

Speaker 1: 1:53

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:54

And it is, you know, ron Reich, r-e-i-c-h. The name of my company is RLV Training and Development, and the one thing in which I believe so strongly, andy, and it's what I'm hoping you and I can do, and I'm very confident we will in our time together now is just chat, and that's what I believe in, you know. If anybody out there, you know, wants to just chat about gee I'd like to learn more about this Gee I wonder if there's something that could, you know, could help me, we can talk about it, and I promise it's not going to be. Oh, you know, there's a charge for no, this is a, it's a sales call. It's not going to be a sales call, I promise.

Speaker 1: 2:36

Well, I mean, like I said, I prepared for this episode because I think one of the things a lot of business owners struggle with is scaling their teams and creating good company culture and hiring. There's just so many aspects of bringing on employees to a business and the fact that you have, you know, leadership and management experience. I've got quite a few things. I think it's going to be impactful or questions, at least for you. That I should. That I think will be impactful for everyone listening. Should, uh, that I think will be impactful for the everyone listening. Um, so how did you get started on your path to leadership training, Like?

Speaker 2: 3:11

what prompted this for you? It's it's an interesting story. It's it's rather long and I'll make it succinct. Uh, when I, when I began my career all those years ago, I was in human resources and worked for a bank and back in the mid 80s, the banking industry everybody was swallowing everybody else, a bunch of different mergers, and the executive vice president of the bank where I worked left, started a consulting firm and he asked a couple of us to come with him and we did. We stayed there for about five years or so, for a number of different reasons, decided to close the doors.

Speaker 2: 3:49

At that point in time I was going through a divorce and it just. I had nowhere to turn. I mean, I moved back in with my mom and dad and where I'm going with the whole thing out of nowhere, I got a telephone call from a guy in Dallas, texas I'm in Whippany, new Jersey who said I've got an opportunity with Toshiba. It's the exact opposite of what you are. You're looking for somebody who has strong training, some HR. You've got a lot of HR, some training. You need to get them to flip their competencies. I went in and I talked with them. They hired me and, andy, I have never looked back since.

Speaker 2: 4:29

And it is like I said, I am just so fortunate and just so thrilled with the way things have turned out.

Speaker 1: 4:36

Yeah, that's awesome. It's interesting right how life kind of opens doors for you, and you know a lot of people, myself included at times when I feel like I'm I have a specific plan that I'm going towards, and then things change directions, kind of unknowingly to me, but it happens right. Like it's just interesting how that happens. And now look at where you're at, you know, look at what you're doing now from something that you didn't expect to get a call for.

Speaker 2: 5:05

Well, and you know what it's it's. It's interesting because it's something that for me here is applicable, I hope, to the audience. Something else in which I believe very strongly and it's a mantra by which I live, is very simply Ron, stay out of the results business, Don't worry about results. Results will come.

Speaker 2: 5:26

Your job, ron, speak for myself here. Just keep doing the next right thing. Just keep doing the next right thing. The results will follow as they're supposed to. If I get hung up on, I've got to close this deal. We need to hit this number of you know in revenue this year, and if we don't, it's like man.

Speaker 2: 5:48

That's just that screams trouble to me Just keep doing the next right thing, Keep doing the next right thing and then when the results come, whatever those results are, I deal with that Right and it's just an ever it's like a cycle, and it's like a cycle.

Speaker 1: 6:20

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Speaker 2: 7:16

That's exactly right.

Speaker 1: 7:18

Yeah, it's easy to get caught up in the numbers game and like, oh, I need to do this this quarter, but really you can. You can say all of those things right, and there are activities to get there, but I think a lot of people lose focus along the way of just uh and creating an exceptional product or service, because that does draw people in. So so I want to dive in a little bit into, you know, hiring employees. What do you think some of the common mistakes business owners make when making their first hire?

Speaker 2: 7:49

I think one of the biggest mistakes people make is number one. They don't know what they're looking for, and you've got to identify that very, very, very clearly. What are the competencies I want in order to in order for this position not the person itself or himself herself in order for this position to contribute to the organization? What do I need? What are the competencies?

Speaker 1: 8:19

And to take it just a step further too, so many people it's just been my experience don't know how to interview well, so, yeah, I think the DISC profile in my experience gives you a really good indicator of just job fit, based on personality and then understanding how to work with people, but I didn't really think about it in a way that there might be an issue using it when you're hiring. So, um, what do you? You know what is the difference between a manager and a leader, and do you think it's important for business owners to shift their thinking from being a manager to being a leader for their team?

Speaker 2: 8:59

one of the one of the things, one of the quotes I like that ties into this directly, is managers do the right things. No, no, no, sorry, sorry, sorry. It's the other way around. Managers do things right, leaders do the right things. Okay, and you know, leaders need to lead the way, leaders need to lead the way. Leaders need to create the vision. Leaders need to take people to places they haven't been before. Shift to a leadership mindset. The better off everybody will be, the better off everybody will be, because every single person in the organization is a leader of some sort. I don't care where they fall, I don't care how small or how big the organization is.

Speaker 1: 9:58

Yeah, I agree. How would someone who feels like they're not a leader learn that skill? Well, first, do you believe it's a skill? Are they inherently born with it? And if they're not, can you develop that?

Speaker 2: 10:17

I truly believe it's both. I really do. I believe people are born with some natural capabilities, absolutely, some of which includes, you know, there is some leadership capabilities, some leadership competencies, and it can be developed Absolutely. These are learned skills. If they weren't, I wouldn't be in business, right, and I mean, it's as simple as that. It's not like well, andy, you've been a just you know, for argument's sake here, you've been a great salesperson, so now we're going to make you the manager. Just go out there and manage, you'll do fine, you're a born leader, andy.

Speaker 1: 10:55

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 10:56

It's not going to work that way. Yeah, you'll have some inherent traits and capabilities. There's also some skills that people need to learn about, and need to learn about extremely well to be most effective.

Speaker 1: 11:11

Right, yeah, I think. What's your thoughts on business leaders these days? Do you think that a large majority of people are lacking leadership? Do you think more people are more aware of it in training?

Speaker 2: 11:24

I know it's kind of a loaded question but my direct experience has been that most leaders are not aware of their own blind spots, and I think they're also. I think the mindset that I have seen a lot of is that you know, if I'm the leader up here is that I don't need the training. They need the training. Yeah, it's just so. It's interesting, it's sad to a certain extent when I get people coming to me Ron, this is great, this training is fabulous. We're getting so much out of this, except the people up top need it. The people up top need it. The people up top need it. And that's where it all goes back to. Everybody needs to be a leader. Everybody needs to realize there is room for improvement, and I mean again, speaking for myself, I am going to be a work in progress until I take my last breath, or at least I hope so.

Speaker 1: 12:22

I love that you just said or at least I hope so. I love that you just said that because I think a lot of people get in this mindset whether it's training for leadership or just fixing things in their business that they're going to do it and they're going to achieve a finish line and then that's it. So they're going to do the training for management or leadership and then, oh, I'm a leader now and I don't have to work on it anymore, where what you just said is it's it's a continuing, it's continuing education and it's continuing to try to improve yourself and it'll never be perfect. Uh, but it's just one of those things where you will get better with time If you practice.

Speaker 2: 12:56

It's. It's not the exact same thing, except that it's. It's close enough. With a quick story. When I first started with Toshiba all those years ago, I was doing a lot of sales training. And I'm in Boston, I'm doing a sales training class and I got a telephone call from the sales manager of one of the reps who was attending the class. He calls me. Hey, ron, is Tom going to? Tom gonna make it? And I was like you're kidding me, right, he goes. No, is he gonna make it? And I was like vince, I don't know like make it through the class no, no, I'm sorry, is he gonna make it essentially?

Speaker 2: 13:37

is he gonna be successful? Will he be a successful rep? It's like I have no idea. I've known for two days. Right, it's going to be more up to you whether or not he's successful or not. Yes, well, through a class. My point is simply oh, they went through training class now. They're salespeople now. Or they went through management training. They're managers now.

Speaker 1: 14:00

Uh, no right, it's constant. What you just said actually leads into my next question, and I think about this a lot because we've had team members over the years. I've had employees um, I hate using the term employee. I like a team member because it is a collaborative effort where a lot of times, I think, just as a side tangent, I think a lot of business owners get in this mindset of calling people their employee and it almost feels like they have some form of ownership over them, and I don't like that.

Speaker 2: 14:31

Nor do I, andy, I agree.

Speaker 1: 14:33

What are some ways you can set up your team members for long-term success in your business? So if you're a business owner, you're hiring people. What are some ways you can set them up for a long-term success?

Speaker 2: 14:45

One of the best ways, of which I'm aware, very, very simply get to know them. Yeah, and I'm dead serious when I say that Get to know them professionally, get to know them personally. What are you looking to do? What are your goals? What are your aspirations? How's your family? What's the latest? What's going on with your mother-in-law and Andy? The other key thing here is this is also one of the things that needs to be consistent. It's not a one and done. I think a lot of times leaders or managers look at it that way is that if you, just for argument's sake, you know, you come on board and I talk to you after two, three months, whatever it is. So, andy, how are things going, what are your goals and what would you like to do? Okay, I talked to him about that.

Speaker 2: 15:35

Yeah it's three years later. You know, whatever it might be, it's like no, because things change, people change, circumstances change, and that's why it's so critical to maintain those solid relationships.

Speaker 1: 15:50

Yep, and I think a lot of big companies correct me if I'm wrong, but my experience with larger companies is that they do that with a one-year review. Right, your one-year review is where they check in. Now you may have on a lower tier level, like a direct supervisor, build those relationships with you if they're good. But I agree it's something I think, checking with people all the time we have currently we've got four employees and it's something we try to implement just throughout the week, or before weekends or around holidays, like we're just checking in how, like, how are you guys doing? What are you doing for the weekend? Are you having fun with family? Stuff like that.

Speaker 2: 16:33

The better you know people, the more effectively you work with them, and the research backs that up. It's just so clear. And yeah, I mean, I don't know what else to say about that and I think a lot of times a lot of companies just fall down in that area, where it is.

Speaker 2: 16:53

It can go back to again. It's like oh, Andy the employee, no, it's Andy, and I'm just taking this out of the air. It's Andy the husband, it's Andy the brother, it's Andy the guy who loves to ski, it's whatever it might be it's Andy the accountant over there.

Speaker 1: 17:16

That's funny, something I've struggled with in the past and I know a lot of business owners do. But how can you keep team members motivated and excited about their job when sometimes the job task or their job gets monotonous, right, but there's a job that they're hired to do? So how do you keep them motivated and excited about their job? You know, day after day, month over month, a year over year.

Speaker 2: 17:46

I'm going to go back to what we were just talking about, and I think this is where the conversations need to take place on a regular basis. Okay, you've been doing this for a year now. How are you enjoying it? You know, on a scale of one to 10, how content are you? And just you know, where would you like to go, what are some of your other interests? And if the company is big enough, you know, would you consider, you know, perhaps working in this other area, or maybe you would want to go on what I like to call an informational interview and just say, hey, go talk to the people in marketing, find out more about what they do.

Speaker 2: 18:27

Go talk to the people in digital, you know, whatever, Just you know all of these different things, and there's a again I like to link things together Is that constantly improving, constantly improving? One of the ways I do that is that I am a voracious reader, and when it comes to this topic, about helping people to grow, helping people to develop, one of the best books that I've read on this topic is called Promotions Are so Yesterday, and it's written by Julie Van Guglione, something like that.

Speaker 2: 19:11

If anybody's interested. Just Google Promotions Are. So Yesterday, and what I found important was that everybody needs to read the book. The managers need to read the book, and so do the employees, and once that's done, you can really start to talk about where might you want to go, what do you know? What are your interests? She's got in there a lot of really good assessments and exercises that help everybody involved to learn about. Okay, this is where you may want to go. Next, you don't want to get promoted? Fine, nothing wrong with that. Let's see where we can go. You want to interact more with other people? Again, whatever it might be, it's an excellent resource.

Speaker 1: 19:56

Okay, yeah, that sounds great. I'd have to check that out too. It sounds interesting. Sounds great. I'd have to check that out too. It sounds interesting. So this one, I think, is also another. It's probably going to tie into most of what we're talking about, right, but what do you think are some ways business leaders can create an unbreakable company culture?

Speaker 2: 20:16

Develop a very strong vision, mission statement. Develop values that everybody, everybody knows and cares about and lives.

Speaker 1: 20:30

And.

Speaker 2: 20:30

I'm serious when I say that, because I think that is one of the that has been my experience where, just so often, companies just start to, they'll drift from where they started and they become rudderless and without a vision, without a mission to refer to. It's like how do you make decisions? What do you base your decisions? Like well, what seems right, or how revenue is at the time, you know whatever it might be, and it's like, man, that's, that's crazy.

Speaker 1: 21:02

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 21:03

Again, this is where I did this. It was, it was, it was a lot of fun and it's still ongoing A small food company here in New Jersey. They contacted me. We need management training. Okay, so we're, you know, I was talking to a couple of the, a couple of the senior leaders, and they were telling me what's going on. We're family owned, we've been around for a while and things have sort of drifted a little bit. So we need to get people back, you know, back in line, and get them doing what we need them to do.

Speaker 1: 21:34

I was like OK, yeah, you're right, you do need management training.

Speaker 2: 21:37

There's not a doubt in my mind, except, before we do any of that, we need to come up with a mission for the organization. We need to come up with a formal culture for the organization, and it's at that point in time the senior leaders need to go through the training and then we will cascade it down and I give them a lot of credit because they've taken the time, they devoted the energy and their resources to it and it's making a difference do you get pushback sometimes like that, like when you are telling them what they need to do from a, from a leadership standpoint, before you go in and train the employees, do people have that like block that it's just the employee's fault, that?

Speaker 2: 22:20

sometimes some, sometimes I will get pushback and it goes back to again andy, for me at least, I I believe this. Establishing the relationships up front, yeah, and and just letting, letting people know it's like I'm not going to come, I'm not going to walk into your organization guns blasting, I'm going to walk into your organization asking a lot of questions before we do anything, because how can I make any recommendations until I know about you, until I know about the organization?

Speaker 2: 22:53

what you're hoping to achieve. You know where were you, where are you now? Where do you want to go? Where do you want to go in the gaps, and just all of these different things.

Speaker 1: 23:04

Yeah, you know. Back to the mission and vision statement. What's your thought process Like? How do you, how do you break that down for yourself? Or when you're helping businesses, how do you help them determine the vision? How do you help them determine their mission?

Speaker 2: 23:19

Yeah, I'm going to go back to one of the best books I've ever read, and this again goes into the organizational development work rather than the formal training. The book I always ask people to read before we start any mission and or vision work is called the Advantage. It's written by Patrick Lencioni. He's written a bunch of different books. Most of them are fables. This one is not. Although it's not boring, it's not. It's a really good book and what he just talks about is that most, actually every organization in the United States is smart. He said I believe that Every organization has smart people working within it. He said I believe that every organization has smart people working within it. He said the problem is most of these organizations are unhealthy, meaning that there's politics, people are rowing in different directions, they're pulling each.

Speaker 1: 24:20

I need this. No, I need this.

Speaker 2: 24:21

Boss, we should be doing this. And again, there's just so much inconsistency and it's from that that you start to develop the vision and the mission and it boils down to essentially what is the reason this company exists and it really is. What's the reason we exist? This organization allows customers to fill in the blank. This organization wants to treat its employees fill in the blank. And there's much more to it, of course. And again, andy, I'm not trying to be self-serving here by any stretch of the imagination. This is where it's critical to have an outside facilitator come in and help.

Speaker 2: 25:10

And the reason I say that I worked with an art gallery in Manhattan a number of years ago. We did some training, it went really well, we had a lot of fun and so forth. Chief Operating Officer was one of the people in the class and we got to talking about vision and mission and all these different things. And I said to him he said I'd like to have you work with us on this. I was like, okay, read the book, let's talk about it. Great, yeah. Actually, my family and I were flying to Colorado over the weekend. We're going to be there for the next four days. Whatever it is, I'll read it on the plane, and you know I followed up with him afterwards.

Speaker 1: 25:49

Crickets.

Speaker 2: 25:50

So I called my contact, my direct contact at the agency. I was talking to her and I was like I'm not hearing back from him and I think I know what's happened. And she was laughing and she said yeah, I think you're probably right, Tell me. I said he read the book and he loved it. Yep, he tried to do it on his own, Yep, and it turned out to be a disaster?

Speaker 1: 26:14

Yep is it's. A lot of times it's difficult for people to see their own blind spots and so, whether it's a leader or just an individual at a company, a lot of times somebody from the outside looking in can point out things that we don't see. And I've had to learn that the hard way over the last few years, where, you know, we've ended up hiring consultants and people to come in and help with different things, because, you know, I get too stuck in my own head or I'm just too stubborn to like see the things I'm missing, and even if I'm open to it, sometimes I just I miss them. You know I miss certain things that somebody else will notice.

Speaker 2: 26:57

That's right, that's exactly right. You know and it's you know. It's not malicious, it's not intentional on the leader's part by any stretch. Sometimes it is yes.

Speaker 1: 27:07

Oh yeah, sometimes for me it's just me being stubborn, like oh no, I can do this on my own, and then I quickly realize that I can't.

Speaker 2: 27:14

That's exactly it, and I think that's also, though, another critical, critical piece to any leader being successful, in that you can't do this alone. Nobody can do this alone. It's, it's impossible, and I mean I've been, I've been learning, I mean I've known this for years and years and years, and you know, I mean I don't know how I hope it's relevant I had my knee replaced 13 days ago.

Speaker 1: 27:45

Oh wow, and you're already here doing a podcast, because usually that's a pretty long recovery.

Speaker 2: 27:49

Oh, I'm up and about, I'm walking the walk and see. One of the reasons, though, is that you know the surgeon I hired, if you will. I did my research. I knew what I was looking for. He's got an incredible reputation, so I went into the surgery very, very confident. Everybody on his team, everybody beforehand. This is what you can expect before the surgery, Ron. This is what we need you to do beforehand. This is what's going to happen day of. This is what you're going to need to do post-op. These are your responsibilities, and I can't do this alone. I need to depend. I needed to depend upon him. I'm depending upon the physical therapists. I'm depending upon my wife, who has been an absolute godsend throughout this, because, in the beginning, I couldn't do anything on my own right and I'm the same way you are, nick, or just you know with you know.

Speaker 2: 28:50

You know I heard you use I am so stubborn where it's like I can do it, I can get my socks on and I was like, no, you can't run. I was like I know I can't, I just want to be able to do it right until you try to bend your leg and you realize, yeah, not happening. That's not going to work.

Speaker 1: 29:06

Yeah. So one of the next questions I have for you we've kind of already touched on it, but I'm more looking for you know. So what are signs of bad company culture and how can you turn it around and, kind of using the framework that the leader has now already recognized some of these skills and what they need to do, how do you get your team on board to turn that bad company culture around?

Speaker 2: 29:34

Toxic company culture is just when you are starting to hear inconsistencies throughout the day. You know where it is, just like no, this isn't a priority. This is the highest priority. No, this is our top priority. No, they said we should do it. This is what they make us do, and I always listen for. I'm always listening for the we. I'm hoping to hear the we, which indicates a team and a more cohesive team. When I'm hearing the they's and those sorts of things, that becomes a problem as far as turning it around. A big part of it is, at least in my experience, and something in which I believe get everybody involved.

Speaker 2: 30:24

Get everybody involved. Go all the way down to the people on the floor and just talk to them about what do you think the culture is here? What would you like it to be? How important is culture to you? And once they're involved in it, then it's not a mandate coming from down on high. They're involved in the process, so they own it as much as anybody.

Speaker 1: 30:51

And you're talking about one-on-one conversations with people, right?

Speaker 2: 30:54

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yeah. I think one of the other big things, too, is that and this is what I talk to, I talk with the leaders about this at that food company is that if you're going to undertake this sort of change, you need to be ready to lose people within the organization at all different levels. It's going to happen because not everybody will buy into it.

Speaker 2: 31:19

And it happened and they were okay with it, and just realizing is that and that needs to be part of the expectation that's set for the entire company. Like folks, listen, we're going to make some big changes here, and here they are. This is what's going to be going on, and if you're not comfortable with this, it's it's. It's pick one. It's either come with us on this new journey or you're going to need to find another place to work.

Speaker 1: 31:47

Yeah, it's a but. That's a good thing, right, because sometimes you have people who maybe didn't start out as I don't want to sound too negative, but let's just say a toxic person in the workplace. You know, there are there's a lot of toxic people inside of workplace that starts to kind of corrupt the rest of the team, sometimes, um, very quickly, yeah. So I think what you're explaining is like it's okay to lose some people, because usually the people who are leaving are the ones that weren't going to, uh, help uphold the company culture that you want to have.

Speaker 2: 32:23

Exactly, that's exactly it. The people who are going to walk out are probably the people that you want to have walk out, and so be it. You might lose a couple of good people too, and again so be it. These are the tough decisions that the leaders need to make and the consequences that they need to be willing to accept.

Speaker 1: 32:45

Yeah, Something else this is. This is actually something I have personally struggled with at times, because I don't want to be one of those guys that micromanages our team. But how do you create high standards in your business and hold your team accountable to maintain those standards without being like that boss that everybody hates or the micromanager?

Speaker 2: 33:10

I think, for me, I think you just used a couple of the key words, Andy. Number one setting the standards, setting the expectations. This is what I need done. This is what I need done. And if the person is highly capable and highly motivated, that's where any good leader just needs to hear here it is, take it, run with it, let's follow up. And this is the key for me at least. Let's follow up a week from today. Let's follow up a week from today, just as a quick follow-up, that's all. And then, just you know what's the progress, what's going on, what are the roadblocks? Are there any roadblocks where I need to help you?

Speaker 2: 33:53

And then the key is and not for you, andy, yourself, for any leader, though stay the heck out of it, leave them alone, let them do their thing. And again, this is where the leader needs to know his or her employees really, really well. Maybe the person needs some coaching, maybe they're not ready to just, you know, to have a project just handed to them. Here let me guide you a little bit. This is how I've done it in the past. This is what you might want to try, and as the person gets better, the leader naturally just starts to back off, back off and again let the person fly on their own eventually.

Speaker 1: 34:38

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 34:39

You know, and I mean there's a, there's a. I'm a big, big believer in Stephen Covey's work and the seven habits of highly effective people, and one of the quotes he uses in the course and I love this is just very simply, you cannot hold people accountable for results if you supervise their methods, and I love that.

Speaker 2: 35:03

And again, you know it is just like go for it. Go for it as long as I, the leader, am confident and you're confident, the work will get done the way we need it right no, I do love that because it is easy right to start you know you're used to doing something a certain way.

Speaker 1: 35:22

Now you train somebody else to do it and they may have a slightly different approach that still achieves the same outcome. But a lot of times uh, you know myself included, right we get stubborn and go no, I want it done this way, and it's, it's hard, you know, stepping back and just letting people do their thing. So so I ask uh, I'm asking every guest this, but I don't know how familiar you are with ai and the emerging AI and everything that's coming on. But what are your thoughts on AI and how do you think it has affected business owners and entrepreneurs currently and how do you think it will affect them in the future?

Speaker 2: 36:01

I love it. I mean, it clearly is the future. Used properly and that's the key used properly, it can be a tremendous resource. It's still it's. There still is no substitute for the sitting down and having a direct conversation, just like you and I are having right now with people. There's just no substitute for that. The people aspect of business is never going to go away. You know, the AI information absolutely can speed things up, can help with processes and everything else. People are still involved. Else People are still involved and that's the reason the leadership aspects, no matter where we go with AI, are still going to be critical.

Speaker 1: 36:52

Yeah, I love your answer. I get different answers from other people. There's some people that love it, some people hate it, some people don't really know much about it.

Speaker 1: 37:02

Still, I mean, they know of it but don't use it yeah I personally I mean, our team uses it to brainstorm a lot of stuff. You know, I'm very I struggle when I'm looking at a blank page and I'm trying to come up with an outline or some sort of whatever project I'm working on, right, but it's. It's one of those things where I can put prompts in and it just gets, even if it's not what I'm going to use. It just helps me work through the process a bit and it's been super helpful. Yeah, and it allows our team to put out a lot more content. I mean, we've we had put things on a break, on a pause for a while, but now that we're producing content again, it really speeds up our output.

Speaker 2: 37:44

Yeah, yeah, absolutely, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 37:48

So I've got one final question for you before we wrap this up, but I like to leave all listeners with a actionable item. So if you could leave the listeners with one actionable item that would have a positive impact on them today. What would it be and why?

Speaker 2: 38:09

impact on them today. What would it be and why? The actionable item Adam for me, Andy, I'm sorry, no worries.

Speaker 2: 38:20

Get to know yourself extraordinarily well. Get to know yourself on an incredibly, incredibly deep level. Go back to the disc instrument. If you can take the disc, learn about your personality, learn about your strengths, learn about your limitations. Learn about how other people may perceive you, what your work habits are like. Think about how well you listen to people, how well do you give feedback. My point simply is the better you know yourself, the more effectively you will work with other people yep, I love that and I want to throw something in uh, about the disc it is.

Speaker 1: 38:59

It changes over time. Um, when I first took the disc, years and years ago it was I was like a high D, I was a DI. So high D, I'm very like I want to get to the point, you know, I don't waste a lot of time and then I was very, you know, social. But after being in real estate for a number of years, I had been retaking the disc every I don't know I probably it uh three or four times over the course of those years and, uh, I've noticed that it had changed from a di to a d, c, where it was more detailed, like high, you know, high d. Still, that was always the dominant feature. But the c was more paying attention to the details.

Speaker 1: 39:40

But I was in contracts all the time and, looking at you know, if I wasn't a c then I was gonna probably have some problems. I need to hire someone to do my contracts if I was not that good at them. But well, I love that. It's been a great episode. Thank you for being here today, you know, and taking the time, and I think this is just one of those valuable conversations for business owners to listen to, because I think hiring people and building a team has been one of the biggest struggles that we've gone through with running a business. It's the key to growing and it's also one of the most difficult things to pull off.

Speaker 2: 40:18

Well, that's right.

Speaker 1: 40:20

So thank you again for being here.

Speaker 2: 40:22

Andy, it's my pleasure. Thank you for having me Absolutely.

Speaker 1: 40:26

And then I want to thank all of you guys for listening here. Andy, it's my pleasure. Thank you for having me Absolutely. And then I want to thank all of you guys for listening today. If you enjoyed the show, I felt like it provided you value. I'd love to hear in the comments what stuck out the most to you from today's episode. So we'll see you on the next one. Thanks for watching.