Brandon Allen

Ep 263- 3 Ways Leaders Build Trust

Ways for leaders to build trust with their teams.

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At New Work Revolution, we believe that the key to creating great experiences for your clients is to start with creating great experiences with your teams. Trust is a foundational element for leaders to start this process for their teams.

There are a lot of things that go into building a great culture to work in. As a leader, you may wonder what’s in it for you? When you build trust, you create opportunity for team members to work in an empowered manner.

When you build trust, you have team members who work together and are supportive of each other and the leadership.

The main thing that you get as a leader when you build trust is team members who will listen and follow your lead because they have confidence in what you say and what you do.

That is true power.

Check out this week’s podcast by clicking the player above and please rate the show and subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher.

Who You Were Created to Be

Entrepreneurs:
When you understand yourself and the game that you are playing in, you learn how to manuever inside of that game to create something in a way that is unique to you and powerful for the world around you. Don’t get caught up in the conventional wisdom of conformity. That’s the game that everyone wants you to play because it’s comfortable for them.
The only problem is you weren’t placed here for the sake of other people’s comfort. You were placed here to be a catalyst for change.

Ep 262- Hiring A Team Players Interview Rick Crossland

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What would your business or team look like if all of your team were A players?  Maybe some of you already have that. (You don’t have to brag about it, it’s unbecoming) An A team player is a team member who is able to produce at a much greater level than other team members.  Since this is one of the main things that come up in coaching, I thought I would bring in an outside voice, Rick Crossland, who literally wrote the book on A teamers.

Some of the highlights from this week’s podcast:

  • Why pushing for A teamers is so important
  • How to build a culture that drives this
  • How to interview to get the right people on your team

Among other things.

Enjoy the interview and don’t hesitate to reach out with questions.  Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts here.

PS… Rate the show and share it as well!  Don’t keep it a secret.

 

Ep 261- Creating a Growth Environment for Your Team

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My favorite thing about working with so many business owners is that they are fun to be around. You are inspiring. You have a drive to make a difference.  You like to grow and learn new things. This desire for growth can be a good thing for your team and it can be a source of frustration for the people on your team who aren’t ready for the level of growth that you are at.

Creating a growth environment for your team starts with a basic understanding of who your team is and where they are currently at. Some of your team members are growth oriented and some of them are more concerned with safety and security.  Your job as a leader is to work between these to types of people to provide what they need to help bring them along. This is a big job for sure.

This week’s podcast is about how to create a safe environment in your business that sets the table for growth to happen. Listen to this week’s show by clicking the player above or subscribing in Apple Podcasts.

PS…If you like the show, give me a rating as well!

Ep 260- Book Review: The Body Keeps the Score

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Most business owners that I know are big time value creators that are driven to make a difference.  That drive that pushes them to unbelievable heights doesn’t always come from a great place.  Being an entrepreneur can be a lonely endeavor.  Most people don’t understand you and that starts with your own family and friends. This is why it’s so important to take care of your mental health and why I am talking this week about the book The Body Keeps the Score.

After spending the last two years working through my own trauma, as well as witnessing far too many past friends take their own life, I wanted to offer you a small piece of hope that you are not alone and that there are people that care about you.

This is a new format that I am bringing to the podcast where I go back and share books that I have recently read.  Let me know what you think.

To subscribe and review the show, visit Apple Podcasts and make it happen.

 

Ep 259- What is Your Identity?

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“The problem with self-identity is not just a problem for the young. It is a problem all the time. Perhaps the problem. It should haunt old age, and when it no longer does it should tell you that you are dead.” ~ Norman Maclean

Is there a more difficult thing for human beings than the process of discovering who you are?  The only thing more difficult than that is embracing who you are and being it once you figure out who you are.  Now take that same process and apply it to your business.  This process is not for the faint of heart.  Today’s question is, what is your identity?

My own coaching process with my coach has forced me to do some further introspection. I had to call people and ask them about how I show up.  The process evoked some fear but what came out of that was a list of five traits that come into a room when I do.  Those traits are: Connection, Brilliance, Wit, Integrity and Stand.  I am not sure I would have guessed all of those so I found the exercise to be incredibly helpful.

Getting clearer on my personal identity has helped me to shape my businesses’ identity.  The most unique thing about my business is the guy who owns it.  I would suspect that this is true about you as well.

Check out this week’s episode by clicking the player above.  Subscribe in iTunes and make sure you rate the show!

 

Ep 258- Everybody Delivers an Experience

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The first principle that we discussed with Total Experience Design, TXD, is that “Everyone Delivers an Experience Whether They Know it or Not.”  When somebody lets you down, it’s easy to make assumptions about people and their intentions.  What if people want to do a good job, why don’t they?

Hanlon’s Razor states: “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity or simple oversight.”

You screw up. I screw up.  We all do.  The key is to create awareness for team members on how their behavior impacts other people.  This may seem really simple to you but society has created a buffer that separates human beings from consequences.  Because of that, leadership is required to create awareness of the big picture. Communicating the experience and how everyone plays a role in that can be a powerful experience for a team’s understanding around how they all fit together.

I dive a little deeper in this week’s podcast and give you three ways to lead this concept for your teams.  You can listen to the episode by clicking the player above or you can boost my street cred with Apple by subscribing in iTunes. Also, if you like the show, rate it and share it.  Thank you.  You’re the best.

 

 

Ep 257- The Key Ingredient to Success

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Follow the success of high achievers and you see that they are committed to the things that they are working on and trying to accomplish.

100% committed.

When it comes to success, this week’s podcast addresses three things that business owners engage in that are good things but get taken too far and get in the way of success.  In addition to that, I give you a few questions to ask yourself if you feel like you are stuck and not making the progress that you would like to be making.

Check out this week’s episode by clicking the player above or subscribe in iTunes.  If you enjoyed the episode, rate the show and share it with friends.

Ep 256- Positioning Your Leadership

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As your business grows, it’s easy to lose sight of intention in certain areas of your business.  Leadership is one of those areas. Just because you started a business, doesn’t mean that your role as a leader is completely understood by your team. In the same token, just because you promoted another person to leadership in your company doesn’t mean that others will follow them.

Total Experience Design done right is about position leadership with intention because leadership drives, or derails, the experience.  Great leadership happens when supreme clarity is present.

This week’s podcast outlines six steps to getting positioning right in your business.  These are all simple things that you can do immediately.

You can listen to the episode by clicking the player above or by subscribing in iTunes.  If you enjoy the show, please rate it on iTunes and share it on social media.

Until next time!

Want to read the episode? Here’s the Transcript:

 

Speaker 1: Hey everybody. This is Brandon Allen from the New Work Revolution podcast. You’re on new work revolution.com I don’t want to get the faint. I don’t want you to pass out. This is back to back episodes two weeks in a row. It’s like the old days. You know what I’m saying I want you guys to get nostalgic and

Speaker 2: get excited for back to back podcast. So I want to talk today about leadership. I know that’s shocking because we talk about growing businesses through growing leaders. That’s what we do at New Work Revolution. So to talk about leadership, probably not shocking, but I want to talk about positioning today specifically, and I run into a lot of situations where we don’t, as leaders either position ourselves well in a leadership role or we don’t position others that we want to entrust in leadership to get the relationship of leadership off to a good start. And it’s easy to allow a role that we have. Whether that be our own leadership or someone else’s leadership to kind of evolve into the business. But if you know our process of total experience design, total experience design is all about how do we create a business by design versus one by default.

Speaker 2: And we want to be conscious creators of every experience that exists within our business. And the way we position leadership is a part of that experience. Because again, we can have an experience unfold, but likely it will be an experience that we don’t necessarily enjoy and isn’t as powerful as it could be if we were more intentional about how we positioned that particular process. And so what I don’t want to do as a leaders, I don’t want to put either myself because as, as a, as a business grows, as my position changes, how I lead is going to be different. And I see this all the time, particularly with professional business owners who I do a lot of work with. A professional business owner at some point in time comes to the realization that if they’re going to be a high level CEO for their company, they can’t be immersed in the day to day.

Speaker 2: My new HSA and the, and the, uh, hands on the ground client work that they’ve always been doing. They have to evolve their role into more of a CEO role. And the more we become a CEO, the more hands off it becomes. But the more hands off that we get, guess what Our team thinks, man, what does this person doing What is the leader now doing They used to do all these things to create value. Now they’re really not doing these things. So now I start to get the assumption that maybe this person isn’t working as hard as they used to, or maybe they don’t care about the business like they used to. And so all of these sorts of, uh, uh, expectations and, and, and bad assumptions come up from a team. And when we don’t position ourselves appropriately with authority. But what happens when we don’t transfer authority to other people as well is it’s very common.

Speaker 2: Look, as we grow and expand and our business as we scale, we’re going to look for other leaders to be ambassadors for the mission, the vision, the values, the experience we’re trying to create, the objectives we’re trying to accomplish. And so we’re going to have this process that we are trying to create for people that we want to be basically present in all the different aspects of the business. We want everyone to be an ambassador for what we’re doing and, and, and to be really excited about that. And when they’re not excited about that, it’s because we haven’t positioned people to really be an ambassador for this. And so being an ambassador is all about upholding the standard. But the problem is, is when we don’t transfer authority to other people, no one wants to follow them. No one wants to follow them. No one’s excited about that.

Speaker 2: No one’s really leaning into that leader because in fact, they see that leader as it as an annoyance or an inconvenience likewell who died and made you a leader. And so that’s the kind of thing that we want to avoid because really if we’re going to do leadership powerfully, we’re going to do it with clarity. And so doing it with clarity means that, uh, we’re going to position this with intention for the good of the organization as a whole and the standards that the organization is built upon. If we slide other people into a leadership role that takes away from the experience, that lacks clarity, people are not clear on that. So I want you to, I just wanted to give you some context on what we’re talking about when we’re talking about positioning. And this is some things that we can do to position people well.

Speaker 2: Number one, we want to clearly define leadership roles. Your role as a leader should be clearly defined. So if you own a company, and I know a lot of you listening to this are, uh, owners of companies clearly define your role. If you have a spouse that works with you, clearly define their role, clearly defined every leadership role in the business. And look, why do I say this It’s because number one, I talked to leaders every day who don’t have this clearly defined and number two, I’m asked to coach other leaders that work in organizations who I ask them if they have a clearly defined role and they don’t have it either and unfortunately it’s more common than not. So clearly defined a role that takes some time to sit down and think this through, but again, it’s about doing the hard work up front to make everyone’s job easier later.

Speaker 2: This is easier for the leader. It’s easier for you. It’s easier for the teams that they lead when everyone’s clear on what that role looks like. Number two, a clearly defined organization chart. Who Do I report to How does that work Everyone should understand who they report to, how that works. The organizational charts should be very clear. Again, why do we bring this up This is the rule, not the exception of not having a clearly defined org chart and then people are fuzzy on who they report to and who their boss is. And sometimes in in businesses where this isn’t clearly defined, they tend to feel like they have two to three different bosses. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t like to have one boss let alone two or three bosses, like I’ll live with one, but I definitely don’t want two or three.

Speaker 2: But a lot of organizations are created in a way that’s very unintentional that then creates a situation where people report to multiple people or they have multiple people telling them what to do, how to do it. And that becomes a very frustrating as a team member. So number three, we want to articulate the leadership authentically to the team and with authority. So articulate the leadership authority to the team. This needs to be stated. Don’t assume that people understand it just because all of a sudden you said this person is a manager and how do we do this What does this look like Okay. I want to be really clear about what this looks like. I’m going to have a meeting and I’m going to make a big deal out of this and I’m gonna say, guys, we’re changing some things. There’s some things that we’re going to do differently.

Speaker 2: As an organization, I want you guys to be aware of what it is that we’re doing. Our mission is x and our experience that we’re trying to create is why, and because of my role as an owner of the organization, I have recognized as we’re growing, my role has to change if we’re going to continue to grow and create healthy environments for you. Now, why did I just say that Because I want the team to understand that this is something that will benefit them if they own it and they accept it. So I want them to know that what’s in it for them. As I’m positioning this now I say, listen, as a result of this, I’m going to put so and so in a role of x. This role is going to entail and I will give them kind of the boundaries of the authority.

Speaker 2: The scope of their role and what that looks like. I will let them know who will be reporting to them and why we’re doing this and that, hey, this is a change that we’re making. This person has my full, uh, my full trust, my full authority to make decisions that are good for the company, that allow us to reach objectives and continue to create a high level experience for our clientele. This person has my full trust in this process. So if you have questions, if you have concerns, if you have things that are going on that you need help with, for those of you who report to this person, this is the person that you go to do not come to me right now. There may be some situations where you do come to me or whatever, but um, those should be few and far between.

Speaker 2: So this is the person that you report to. This is the person that has authority to make certain guidelines, rules, things like that. Please respect that. So then I’m going to tell him, look, I’m looking for people who are willing to, as part of our organization grow and get uncomfortable. And I recognize that maybe having someone who was your peer or bringing someone, um, you know, from the outside an organization to manage, that’s tough. Right in, you know, we get uncomfortable with that. We don’t know what to expect. And I’m just saying that, look, the promise of what we’re trying to create as a culture always stays the same. But I want you guys to lean in, right Because it might get a little messy. There might be some bumps in the road as we make this transition, but it doesn’t mean that this process is going to go away.

Speaker 2: It’s here to stay because it’s the only way for us to really grow effectively and leverage the talent, the people that we have. Right So that’s just kind of a specific example of how I would really position authority and make that work for my team in a way that hopefully painted the picture for them and help them to understand what I’m doing, why I’m doing it, and what their role is in this process. So number four, don’t undercut authority. So don’t make decisions for your leaders and don’t violate your cultural boundaries. So listen, if you have values, if you have procedures, if you have systems, if you haven’t experienced, that’s articulated then as a leader, own it. And I see too many leaders who undercut other leaders authority by making decisions over their head, right Because people then say, well, if I can’t get a mom to do what I need them to do, I’ll go to dad or vice versa.

Speaker 2: Right We don’t want to mom and dad’s scenario and leadership. We don’t want our kids running to one person, one parent or another, to undercut the authority of the other person. We don’t want to do that. And as a leader, if you’ve been trusted people into leadership and you know that’s their purview and that’s they’re there. That’s the sandbox that they play in. Do not make decisions based on that. In fact, when those things happen, I will redirect to an employee to say, what did so and so say How do they feel about it Because how they feel about it is more important than how I feel about it. And I’m going to not undercut authority, but I have leaders all the time who create values and say all this stuff and then they don’t follow it. And it really, what it says is, you know, I don’t really believe in these values.

Speaker 2: They’re not really that important to me. So you know what, um, they’re, they’re just, they’re, they’re here in name only. And if push comes to shove will violate those or we’ll do something different. So don’t undercut your leadership authority. Number five, your leaders aren’t your assistants. They’re leaders. So delegate the role and give them authority. So look, don’t treat your leaders like they’re your personal assistants that do your bidding, right Oh, have this conversation. Do this right If you’re treating your leaders as people that just have to do all the crap that you don’t want to do, that diminishes their authority. It also diminishes their self esteem and their self worth. If you’re going to put people in a leadership role mean it and give them the authority that that leadership role deserves. If you’re not willing to do that, do not have a leader.

Speaker 2: It will be more destructive than it will be constructive in the long run. Number six, don’t allow people to violate boundaries and step on authority. So look, if you’re going to have leadership, if you’re going to have boundaries, if you’re going to have authority, do not allow people on the team to violate those things. So if you’re going to be a leader that positions yourself with power, then the best thing that you can do to really maintain your level of power and authority is to fight for the boundaries of that authority and make sure that people do not step on those. And look, I see this all the time where leaders get worn down or they’re not intentional or they get worried that confront behavior. And so they allow people to do whatever they want. They, you put a boundary in place, they do something different.

Speaker 2: You don’t say anything and guess what You’ve told the team, hey, you know what Those boundaries and all these things that we talked about, they really don’t matter. You can continue to step on those, do something different. Hey, it’s your deal. Just do your deal. It’s fine. You know, don’t worry about it. And that’s a damaging thing to tell your team because eventually the more we do that, the culture will erode. And when there is no boundaries, a great culture can’t be present. So look, when you think about some of these things that I just talked about in terms of just how to really position well when we position, well, look, this goes back to the total experience design methodology is that great leadership is by design. It’s not by default, right If I’m going to be a leader, I’m going to be very intentional.

Speaker 2: I’m going to be very purposeful and I’m going to follow through on those commitments in that purpose that, um, I have made. And so, uh, as a leader, look, one of the 10, uh, points of total experience design on the manifesto is that great leadership will either make or break experience. And we’ve seen plenty of times where leadership has really further the experience and a really powerful way. And unfortunately, I’ve seen plenty of times where leadership has undermined the experience and then it hurts the culture, which then hurts the ability to create value for the end user that you work with in your business at the highest level possible. So think about what that looks like. And so think about, just look, when you have clear authority in your business, this leads to clear direction and it facilitates healthy comp, uh, communication, right So when I have clear authority, I have clear direction and I have great facilitated, healthy conversation, and that’s really what I want in my organization.

Speaker 2: So if you can’t get behind a leader, right If we’re, if we’re talking about positioning authority and you’re sitting here thinking, Brandon, yeah. But yeah, but yeah, but look, if you can’t get behind a leader, they shouldn’t be leading your team. If you can’t get excited, if you can’t fight for a leader, if you can’t, uh, support a leader at a high level, that person should not be leading your team. Period. Point blank. Get rid of them. So look, if you’re, you know, when you’re in the initial growing stages too, like when you’re in this process, this, this process is going to foster healthy growth, right The more you can really position authority, especially early on in the early stages of your business, this will really help to foster a healthy growth because people will get on board with it, they’ll understand it, and it will become kind of the cultural norm that, hey, we have people that we’re going to bring up as leaders.

Speaker 2: We’re going to have different leaders. The person who’s leading today may not be my leader tomorrow. And Hey, that’s a part of a growing organization. That’s what happens. But the more you embrace that, now the better. Right So if you’re scaling, I’ll say this, this is a must for the process of your business. Scalability. If you get this right, your business will scale it a much easier and less frustrating way because you’ll have other leaders that are developed, have authority and are working in an empowered way. If you don’t do this right or if you’re not good at this, scalability will be difficult because you need people to scale. You need people to be ambassadors for the work and make sure that the important work is getting done so that it doesn’t affect your brand in a negative way. And so as you think about how you position authority, think about, you know, what are the things that I talked about around positioning, especially like org charts, roles, those kinds of things.

Speaker 2: What are things that you need to put in place and do to really create effective positioning within your leadership What does that look like for you first and then how do you do that for other leaders on your team And if you have leaders on your team right now that you’re not absolutely 100% excited about, what is it gonna take for you to either get excited about them or potentially move on from that leader because you’re not doing them a favor and you’re not doing yourself a favor as well. So I want to thank you guys for listening this week. That’s all I got on positioning authority. If you have any questions, go to new work revolution.com hit us up there. If you like the show, share it on social media, rate us in iTunes. I know a lot of you guys have been doing that, so I appreciate it. Want to give a shout out to you know all our listeners. I mean we’ve got listeners all over the country now. It’s awesome. Uh, Germany has now overtaken Canada as a the second most downloaded country for the new work revolution podcast. I want to give a shout out to Germany. That’s awesome you guys. Thank you for listening and look, we’re picking up people all over the place. Japan’s making a strong move right now. So, Hey, thanks again for listening. Share the show, rate the show, and we’ll talk to you again soon. Thank you.

Ep 255- Are You Wasting Your Time with Employee Reviews?

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Employee reviews are a tough sell for employees and leaders alike.  No one likes to do them or be on the receiving end of a review gone wrong.  With as many leaders that don’t like to do reviews, it begs the question, are employee reviews a waste of time.

Total Experience design is about creating a business by design vs a business by default.  How you prepare your review matters.  What kind of feedback you give to your team throughout the year matters.  Gutless leaders wait until reviews to talk about issues.

Powerful leaders do reviews right, this week’s podcast lays out the process and keys to creating an experience for your team members that they enjoy in the employee review process.

Check out the podcast by clicking the player above or you can go to iTunes and subscribe to the show and even rate it there as well.

PS.. I mentioned the training and the tool that we put together in the Business Accelerator Membership.  If you are a coaching client, you should already have access.  If you aren’t a coaching client, and you want access, go here.

Here is the Transcript of the show:

Speaker 1: Welcome to the new work revolution podcast, New Work Revolution tot come take your business leadership to the next level and join the revolution. Here’s your host, Brandon Allen. All right, I want to welcome everyone to the new work revolution podcast here on new work, revolution.com in case you don’t know who I am, this is Brandon Allen and what is the new work revolution The new work revolution is a Speaker 2: crazy idea that I came up with years ago that not only should people execute at work, but they should also enjoy the work and the environment with which they do that work in. If you’ve ever worked for someone else, you’ve ever worked in a large company, you know that sometimes this can be challenging. So that’s what this podcast is about. I want to thank you guys for being here and so I want to talk about employee reviews today. I was doing a workshop a couple of months ago and I had a gentleman asked me about reviews. He just said, hey, you know, tell me a little bit more about reviews. We don’t do them. I don’t really enjoy him. And so we had a good conversation about that. And so because of that conversation, I wanted to really talk about reviews. And this is something that, if you’ve been to our business accelerator membership, we’ve talked about this, we did a training on it I think at the beginning of the year around just the tool that we use to create some intention around reviews.

Speaker 2: But you know, as the business owner that I talked to mentioned reviews are a love hate type of a situation, right Because here you have on one end you have employees who want feedback. But the problem with the feedback that they’ve gotten in the past is that their feedback has been given them to them in a way that was unexpected or passive aggressive or maybe just overly aggressive. And so employees are pretty leery about getting feedback even though they know they want it. Now on the flip side of that, there’s leaders that want to give feedback, but they’re nervous about it and it’s awkward and it’s nervous. And it’s Kinda like, you know, I want to approach this person and ask them out for a date. And we’re nervous about it and you know it and reviews are the same thing, right. It’s just an uncomfortable space that we create between two people that really, because it’s uncomfortable, our brains tell us, man, don’t do that.

Speaker 2: It’s a bad idea. Don’t do it and hopefully as I talk about this today, you feel a little better about reviews. You have some different ideas on how you can approach them so that you don’t create those kinds of situations because when, as a leader, you know, I’ve got to think about this and what I think about reviews is that reviews are not reveals and a lot of times a leader will basically dump all of their concerns and issues and challenges with a particular during a review process now for talking about a year since you’ve done a review, that could be a lot of things and I don’t want to create a situation where employees are hearing something for the first time at a review now as an employee, if you look at that from their standpoint, I’m nervous about that because now I’m like, what is this person going to say and how is this experience going to be

Speaker 2: Early on in my career, I watched as I worked in the finance industry, I watched a gentleman go into a review thinking he was going to get promoted and then watching as he came out, all puffy eyed and with tissue in hand, recognizing that that was the last day of his employment because he was fired. I never forgot. That was one of the first things I ever experienced in my career and it was very unsettling for me. I had a viewpoint of reviews that was not positive as a result of that. And what it made me think of it, I’m going to speak to leaders right now in this regard, is that you can’t be a gutless leader. And I’ve done a podcast on getting this leadership, but there’s a lot of gutless leaders who don’t want to tell the truth and be honest and be upfront.

Speaker 2: And they say it’s because they worry about hurting someone else’s feelings. But the person, when we withhold feedback, the person that we’re most protecting is ourselves because we’re scared about being rejected, not being accepted about being seen as a a mean person or a difficult person or whatever it is, right You insert whatever adjective you want to put there. And so you don’t give feedback. But the reality is, is if we want people to grow and we want, and we’re serious about that and we want to be intentional about it, we want to create a space for growth. And sometimes creating that space is about feedback. And I’ve shared this story i in a lot of workshops. If you’ve been to one of my workshops, you’ve heard this story, but I remember I, ed, I’ll, I’ll tell the guys name because he was a great boss, Wade Hall.

Speaker 2: He was the one time, he was my boss’s boss and he took me out to breakfast one time early on in my finance career, my corporate career, and we sat down and we had breakfast and Brett and, and I’m thinking, man, you know, I’m doing pretty good from a sales standpoint. I’m really think I’m feeling like a value contributor and my boss’s boss sits me down. And what are the first things he says to me is, Brandon, let me tell you why it will never hire you or never promote you. I’m sorry, he, they did hire me, but let me tell you why you’re never going to get promoted. And I thought, oh my gosh, here I was thinking we were going to talk about when I was going to get promoted and now he’s telling me, let me tell you why we’ll never promote you.

Speaker 2: And I was like, oh my gosh, this conversation is horrible. I’m thinking I’m getting fired. And he said, you know what, we’ll never promote you unless you grow up. Now. That was really hard feedback to hear. I didn’t like hearing that. I thought it really, you know, Kinda hit me right between the eyes and, but it caused me to think and I realize that I valued fun and out and drinking and staying up late and coming into the office a little bit late. I value those things way more than I was serious about my career and my success. But the reality is, is when I put my values in play right there, I would say early on in my life, probably my career was the number one value that I had over anything else. And I had a very success oriented mindset. Now, as an as impressive as that sounds, it didn’t come from a healthy place.

Speaker 2: It came from a place of lack. And so therefore, the way I tried to overcompensate for my feelings of lack was to perform in my life, in all areas of my life and work was just one of them. But the hearing was recognizing that where I wanted to be was not the path that I was currently walking on. I decided to change my behavior. And because of that I had a longer term, more successful career with that company. And that feedback actually made a real big impact on me. And I didn’t love getting that feedback. I didn’t love hearing it, but I appreciated it later because it made me better and it tapped into the potential that existed for me. Reviews aren’t necessarily giving feedback like that, but it’s an opportunity to give an overview and an understanding of where someone’s at today and where they want to go and what they can do over the next, whatever timeframe it is.

Speaker 2: But so their next review to move forward in that direction, right Everyone has a next step. So my job as a reviewer and as a leader is to find out what that next step is and then create the pathway for that to be successful. And so as we think about this, um, there’s a lot of issues that come up with doing reviews that I want you to just avoid and be careful with. Um, number one, we don’t want to make reviews critical and where they’re primarily critical, right I mean there can be some critique in there and hopefully it’s critique they’ve already heard, but we want to also bring out the positivity in that and make sure that, look, it’s, it’s not just about being critiqued and doing better, it’s also about celebrating the things that you already do well in your career.

Speaker 2: Number two, people do reviews with no intention, no structure. There’s none at all. Don’t go into a review without structure. Create a structure for how you want that to go. And I’ll kind of talk about what that looks like here in a minute. No follow through. So then here’s the thing, we do the review. It could be critical. We give the review, we go through the process, we write some things down, and then there’s no followup afterwards. What’s the point of doing a review If you never talk about the contents of that review again, all you’ve done in that situation is telling an employee it didn’t matter. It didn’t matter. We did it, but it was really just for the dog and pony show of it. It wasn’t because we really wanted to create any sort of real transformation in that process. And, and I think if we’re going to get this process right at the core of doing reviews well is having a heart for people development.

Speaker 2:

If you have no heart, you will give no effort.

Speaker 2 Source Title

And so I had to learn this early on. I would love to tell you that early on as a leader, man, I had just this tremendous heart for people and I was really great about that. I sucked at it, I was terrible at it. But when I started to develop a heart for people, it started the impact of different things that I did and how I did it a lot differently. And, and I’m going to share this with you guys. This is from a Bible study that I’m working on. Um, so just lean in here, right Even if you’re not a bible reader. Becu cause I think you’ll find this really helpful. It’s about encouragement. It says encouragement is not a technique based on selecting certain words. And I get this all the time, right

Speaker 2: People say, Brandon, I wish I could use the words that you use and the way that you use them, how you use them. Could you teach us how to wordsmith But here’s the thing. Encouragement is not a technique based on selecting certain words. It is an attitude of view of others as valuable with a commitment to treat them accordingly. Think about that. It’s an attitude of view of others as valuable with a commitment to treat them accordingly. Everyone knows how to treat someone with value and treat them as if they have value. Everyone knows what that looks like, but we don’t all have an attitude for doing it. I know I have been a person that hasn’t had an attitude of doing that and I think if you don’t have heart, you will have no effort. And then if you do give effort without heart, it’s just going to be flat.

Speaker 2: It’s going to fall on it’s face, it’s going to be transparently, not authentic, and so that is going to be one of those things where if you’re not careful, you can erode culture in the ways that you do reviews and things like that. But here’s some things that I want you to think about as you do a review. Number one, what is your intention for doing a review Now you’ve heard me talk about this a lot of times our methodology is total experience design. How do you design a business versus by design versus default How do you create a business by design versus one by default, every aspect of the business is created with intention. Reviews are part of that. What do I want to do a review for What is the purpose How does it work How do we get to the end result, right

Speaker 2: We start with the end in mind. We reverse engineer that process so that we can create a process that speaks to that. Now, here’s what I’m going to here, right This is what you may be thinking right now is Brandon, how do I do it and I’m going to tell you that everyone has different intentions. It all looks a little bit differently for me. I like to make it very forward focusing and powerful, so there’s elements in there where I ask people to provide feedback on how we’re doing as a company, asking them to provide feedback on how they feel about their own performance. I start to give them pointers and tips about how I see them as an employee, what’s good, what’s not so good. I asked them to provide areas where they want to grow and they want personal development and then we start to work on the plan for the coming year of how we address their limitations and how we expand upon the areas that they already do really well and how do we get them to their next step.

Speaker 2: Do they want to get promoted Do they want to learn new things Do they want to do a different role How do we start creating the framework for that to happen That is how we provide a review. That’s how we do a review. We want to think about what does a successful review look like Number two, what do your people find valuable So this is for you, but it’s also for them. So what do they want And don’t be afraid to get feedback on your feedback mechanisms. One of those feedback mechanisms happens to be a review. Don’t hesitate to ask your team, how does this land with you What’s helpful What’s not helpful But we don’t ask these questions cause sometimes we don’t want to know, right What if they’re going to be really critical What if they hate it Now all of a sudden been looked.

Speaker 2: That’s a place of ego right then and there, right And when we talk about embracing and working in our soul purpose, ego was one of those things that gets in the way of us walking in purpose. But I want to be able to walk fully in purpose. And one of the ways that I do that as I let go of my ego and I asked for feedback and I accept that feedback and I listened to it and I take it and use it as an opportunity to potentially, reiterate the things that we’re doing and, and create something new as a result of that feedback. It doesn’t mean that I always take the feedback that I get because some of it I may feel like it doesn’t fit or it’s not realistic or whatever, but I do listen to the feedback and I take it in.

Speaker 2: But what do your people find valuable What do they want to see out of a review What would be helpful for them They’re the customer. How do I deliver for them while also making sure that we’re delivering for the company Number three, create a rug. A regular structure for ongoing personal development after the meeting is the important piece. How do we interact How do we work together How often do we train Where do we grow All those things need to happen afterwards. And how do I recognize and acknowledge areas of growth that I recognize in someone that they’re doing right So I may give a certain employee something specific to work on and then I w I noticed that specific thing showing up in a powerful way. I can recognize that employee right there and say, man, you are really nailing that thing that we talked about.

Speaker 2: I’m so happy about that. Really proud of you. I’m really excited to see how you’re growing in this area. Now that’s a impromptu feedback, but I’m also creating space for intentional conversations. How’s it going How are you feeling about the development plan Do we need to make some changes to what we’re doing All those things need to occur. Do not ignore the review and never talk about it again, but a lot of times people say, well, Brendon, I’m busy. I’m busy, but your business is a relationship business. Most businesses, our relationship businesses, not just relationships with customers, but relationships with each other, and if we tell the people inside of our organization that we’re too busy for them, what we’re saying is you’re not that important period. You’re saying you’re not that important. And I’m telling you right now, if you’re too busy to meet with your employees on a regular basis, what you’re doing is broken, it’s broken.

Speaker 2: And at some point in time, maybe not immediately your brokenness will be exposed in a big way that will cause you to then do the thing that you’ve been avoiding. But it won’t be on your terms. It will be on some other circumstances, predicated terms and now you’re not playing your game, your playing someone else’s game or something else’s game because of that process. So do the work afterwards and follow up. The real benefit here is look, if you lean into reviews and you do reviews is certainty. Dr. David Rock from the neuro leadership institute, he went through and Hook people up to functional Mris and he and he really studied like how do people receive feedback How do they, how do they get that How do they work that, um, you know, what does their brain do when they get certain stimuli and responses And one of the things that people respond really positively to is certainty.

Speaker 2: And a review is an opportunity to create certainty around how to pay increases happen. It’s an opportunity to create certainty about how are you doing and how do I feel about you. It’s an opportunity to create certainty around what is the next step in your career and where are you going. Those are all the things that are possible when you do reviews in a healthy way and people want to know where they stand. You think they don’t. And that’s the problem with where leaders go is they think, hey, we don’t the, the, the employees don’t want feedback. They get defensive or they get pissy about it, but they want feedback and they want to know what’s next, what is next for me How do I fit And I’ve seen a lot of leadership scenarios and people who leave organizations because they don’t see where they fit and what’s next.

Speaker 2: When we do this right, we allow for a more productive and engaged team. And if you want a more productive and engaged team creates space for regular feedback, create space for growth, training, development, help them get to that next step. And that’s really about an investment in your people. And look, if you’re too busy to make this investment, your ability to scale, your ability to grow, your ability to develop leaders will be hindered because you’re not taking the time to grow and develop people. And people are your key leverage point to growth and next steps in your own business as you grow your organization and provide value to others. And so I want to make sure that I take great care of my people. And one of the best ways that you can do that is to do reviews and have intention around it.

Speaker 2: Follow up, follow through, honor that person in the process, and think about what does it look like for me to continue to open my heart to people and help them grow and develop as they have been. They’ve entrusted their career to you as a steward of their career. How do you steward them well in the coming year So if you have any questions, please go to new work revolution.com let me know if you are not connected to us and coaching. Go to business accelerators. co – BAM – b I think is the URL, but I’ll put that in the show notes because I probably just screwed that up. Um, and, and check us out because we do ask me anything. Calls monthly, we do training calls monthly, you’ll get access to some of the tools and resources that I’m talking about in that membership site. So if you’re not connected to us, BAM is a great way to go. I’ll make sure that’s in the show notes, but I want to thank everyone for listening to this week’s episode. Hey, if you liked the show, some of you guys have been awesome, right Leaving reviews, rating the show. I really appreciate that. Go Review, review the show, rate the show, share it on social media, let other people know about it. And again, thank you for listening. We’ll talk to you again soon.

Speaker 1: Thank you. Thanks for listening to the new work revolution podcast on new work revolution, Todd. Com. Until next time, take your business leadership to the next level and join the revolution.