0:14

All right , everyone welcome to a new episode of the Evolving

0:16

Business Minds podcast . If you

0:18

are a business owner that wants to grow your team

0:20

or maybe you already have a team of

0:23

people in your business but you want to improve your company's

0:25

culture then this episode's for you . Our

0:28

guest today has over 28 years of experience in

0:31

leadership , management , development , supervision

0:33

, training , executive coaching

0:36

, as well as team building and communication skills

0:38

. I want to welcome Ron Reich to

0:40

the show .

0:42

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

0:44

.

0:44

Yeah , I'm excited to have you on today . I

0:47

dug into quite a bit of your stuff , you

0:49

know , after we connected . So

0:52

before we get into it , why don't you go ahead and take a few minutes

0:54

and just let everyone know you know , give them

0:56

an overview of what you do and how they can connect with

0:58

you ?

0:59

Sure , andy , I have worked in

1:01

leadership

1:04

training and development for over 30

1:06

years , mostly

1:08

in leadership development , management

1:11

development , executive coaching

1:13

exactly what you were saying and

1:15

over the years it's evolved also

1:18

into coaching , along

1:20

with the organizational development piece

1:22

which is culture development and

1:25

it just things

1:27

along those lines , and truly

1:29

I feel so unbelievably

1:31

blessed because I love

1:34

what I do and we don't

1:36

know each other at all and I hope this comes

1:38

across as proud and confident because

1:41

, that's how I mean it . I'm good at what I do

1:43

and I love helping other people

1:45

. You know , as far as connecting

1:47

with people , probably the easiest

1:50

way to do it is very simply through

1:52

my LinkedIn page .

1:53

Yeah .

1:54

And it is , you know , ron Reich , r-e-i-c-h

1:57

. The name of my company is RLV

1:59

Training and Development , and

2:01

the one thing in which I believe so

2:04

strongly , andy , and it's what I'm hoping you

2:06

and I can do , and I'm very confident we will

2:08

in our time together now is

2:10

just chat , and that's what

2:13

I believe in , you know . If anybody out

2:15

there , you know , wants to just chat

2:17

about gee I'd like to learn more about

2:19

this Gee I wonder if there's

2:21

something that could , you know , could help me , we

2:24

can talk about it , and I promise

2:26

it's not going to be . Oh , you know , there's

2:28

a charge for no , this is a , it's

2:31

a sales call . It's not going to

2:33

be a sales call , I promise .

2:36

Well , I mean , like I said , I prepared for this episode

2:38

because I think one of the things a lot of

2:40

business owners struggle with is scaling

2:43

their teams and creating good

2:45

company culture and hiring . There's

2:47

just so many aspects of bringing on employees

2:50

to a business and the fact that you have

2:52

, you know , leadership and management experience

2:54

. I've got quite a few things

2:56

. I think it's going to be impactful or questions

2:58

, at least for you . That I should . That I think

3:00

will be impactful for everyone listening

3:02

. Should

3:06

, uh , that I think will be impactful for the everyone listening . Um , so how

3:08

did you get started on your path to leadership training , Like

3:11

?

3:11

what prompted this for you ? It's it's an interesting story . It's

3:13

it's rather long and I'll make it succinct

3:15

. Uh , when I , when I

3:17

began my career all those years ago

3:20

, I was in human resources and

3:22

worked for a bank and

3:24

back in the mid 80s

3:27

, the banking industry everybody

3:29

was swallowing everybody else , a bunch

3:31

of different mergers , and

3:34

the executive vice president

3:36

of the bank where I worked left , started

3:38

a consulting firm and he asked a couple of

3:40

us to come with him and we did . We

3:43

stayed there for about five years or

3:45

so , for a number of different reasons

3:47

, decided to close the doors . At

3:49

that point in time I was going through

3:52

a divorce and it just

3:54

. I had nowhere to turn . I mean

3:56

, I moved back in with my mom and dad and

3:59

where I'm going with the whole thing out of nowhere

4:01

, I got a telephone call from a guy

4:03

in Dallas , texas I'm in Whippany

4:06

, new Jersey who said

4:08

I've got an opportunity with Toshiba

4:10

. It's the exact opposite

4:12

of what you are . You're looking for

4:14

somebody who has strong training

4:16

, some HR . You've got a lot

4:18

of HR , some training . You

4:21

need to get them to flip their competencies

4:23

. I went in and I talked with

4:25

them . They hired me and

4:27

, andy , I have never looked back since . And

4:29

it is like I said , I am just so fortunate

4:32

and just so thrilled with the

4:34

way things have turned out .

4:36

Yeah , that's awesome . It's interesting right

4:39

how life kind of opens

4:41

doors for you , and you

4:43

know a lot of people , myself included

4:45

at times when I feel like I'm I have

4:47

a specific plan that I'm going towards , and

4:50

then things change directions , kind of unknowingly

4:53

to me , but it happens right . Like it's just

4:55

interesting how that happens . And now look at where you're

4:57

at , you know , look at what you're doing now from

5:00

something that you didn't expect

5:02

to get a call for .

5:05

Well , and you know what it's it's . It's interesting because it's something

5:08

that for me here is applicable , I

5:10

hope , to the audience . Something

5:12

else in which I believe very strongly and

5:14

it's a mantra by which I live , is

5:17

very simply Ron , stay

5:19

out of the results

5:21

business , Don't worry

5:23

about results . Results will come

5:26

. Your job , ron , speak

5:28

for myself here . Just keep

5:30

doing the next right thing . Just

5:32

keep doing the next right thing . The

5:34

results will follow as they're

5:36

supposed to . If I get

5:38

hung up on , I've got to close this

5:41

deal . We need to hit this

5:43

number of you know in revenue

5:45

this year , and if we don't , it's like man

5:47

. That's just that screams

5:50

trouble to me Just keep doing

5:52

the next right thing , Keep doing the next right

5:54

thing and then when the results come

5:56

, whatever those results are , I

5:59

deal with that Right and it's

6:01

just an ever it's

6:19

like a cycle , and it's like a cycle .

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7:04

. Yeah Well

7:07

, it kind of shifts focus from being

7:10

sales driven to just improving

7:13

the product or service , whatever that might be

7:15

.

7:16

That's exactly right .

7:18

Yeah , it's easy to get caught up in the numbers

7:20

game and like , oh , I need to do this this quarter

7:22

, but really you can . You can

7:24

say all of those things right , and there are activities

7:27

to get there , but I think a lot of people

7:29

lose focus along the way of just uh

7:31

and creating an exceptional product or service

7:33

, because that does draw people in

7:36

. So so

7:40

I want to dive in a little bit into , you

7:42

know , hiring employees . What do you think

7:44

some of the common mistakes business owners make

7:46

when making their first hire ?

7:49

I think one of the biggest mistakes people

7:51

make is number one . They don't know what

7:53

they're looking for , and

7:56

you've got to identify that very

7:58

, very , very clearly . What are

8:01

the competencies I want in

8:03

order to in order for

8:05

this position not the person

8:08

itself or himself herself in order

8:10

for this position to contribute

8:12

to the organization ? What do I need

8:15

? What are the

8:17

competencies ?

8:19

And to take it just

8:21

a step further too , so

8:23

many people it's just been my experience

8:26

don't know how to interview well , so

8:29

, yeah , I think the DISC

8:31

profile in my experience gives you a really

8:33

good indicator of just job

8:36

fit , based on personality and

8:38

then understanding how to work with people , but

8:42

I didn't really think about it in a way that there might be an issue

8:44

using it when you're hiring . So , um

8:48

, what do you ? You know what is the difference between

8:50

a manager and a leader , and do

8:53

you think it's important for business owners to shift

8:55

their thinking from being a manager to

8:57

being a leader for their team ?

8:59

one of the one of the things , one of

9:01

the quotes I like that

9:03

ties into this directly

9:05

, is managers do

9:08

the right things . No

9:10

, no , no , sorry , sorry , sorry . It's the other way around . Managers

9:14

do things right , leaders

9:17

do the right things . Okay

9:19

, and you know , leaders need

9:21

to lead the way , leaders

9:24

need to lead the way . Leaders need to create the vision . Leaders

9:27

need to take

9:29

people to places they

9:31

haven't been before . Shift

9:47

to a leadership mindset . The better off everybody will be , the better off everybody will be , because

9:49

every single person in the organization is a leader

9:51

of some sort . I don't care where they fall

9:53

, I don't care how small or how big the organization

9:56

is .

9:58

Yeah , I agree . How

10:02

would someone who feels like they're not

10:04

a leader learn

10:06

that skill ? Well , first , do you believe

10:08

it's a skill ? Are

10:12

they inherently born with it ? And

10:14

if they're not , can you develop that ?

10:17

I truly believe it's both . I

10:21

really do . I believe people are born

10:23

with some natural capabilities

10:25

, absolutely , some of which includes

10:28

, you know , there is some leadership

10:30

capabilities , some leadership competencies

10:33

, and

10:35

it can be developed Absolutely . These are

10:37

learned skills . If they weren't

10:39

, I wouldn't be in business , right , and

10:41

I mean , it's as simple as that . It's

10:43

not like well , andy , you've been a

10:45

just you know , for argument's sake here , you've

10:47

been a great salesperson , so now

10:49

we're going to make you the manager . Just go out

10:51

there and manage , you'll do fine , you're

10:53

a born leader , andy .

10:55

Yeah .

10:56

It's not going to work that way . Yeah , you'll

10:58

have some inherent traits and capabilities

11:00

. There's also some skills that

11:02

people need to learn about

11:04

, and need to learn about extremely well

11:07

to be most effective .

11:11

Right , yeah , I think

11:13

. What's your thoughts on business

11:16

leaders these days ? Do you think that a large

11:19

majority of people are lacking leadership ? Do

11:22

you think more people are more aware of it in training ?

11:24

I know it's kind of a loaded question but

11:27

my direct experience has been that

11:30

most leaders are not aware

11:32

of their own blind spots

11:34

, and I think they're also . I

11:38

think the mindset that I have seen

11:40

a lot of is that you

11:43

know , if I'm the leader up here is that I

11:45

don't need the training . They

11:47

need the training . Yeah

11:49

, it's just so . It's

11:52

interesting , it's sad to a certain extent

11:54

when I get people coming to me Ron , this

11:56

is great , this training is fabulous . We're getting

11:59

so much out of this , except the people

12:01

up top need it . The people

12:03

up top need it . The people up top need it . And that's where

12:06

it all goes back to . Everybody

12:08

needs to be a leader . Everybody needs

12:10

to realize there is room for

12:12

improvement , and I mean again , speaking

12:15

for myself , I am going to be

12:17

a work in progress until I take my

12:19

last breath , or at least I hope so

12:21

.

12:22

I love that you just said or at least I hope so . I

12:27

love that you just said that because I think a lot of people get in this mindset whether it's training

12:29

for leadership or just fixing things in their business that they're

12:31

going to do it and they're going to

12:33

achieve a finish line and then that's it . So

12:36

they're going to do the training for management

12:38

or leadership and then , oh

12:40

, I'm a leader now and I don't have to work on it anymore , where

12:42

what you just said is it's it's a continuing

12:45

, it's continuing education and it's

12:47

continuing to try to improve yourself and

12:49

it'll never be perfect . Uh , but

12:52

it's just one of those things where you will get better with time

12:54

If you practice .

12:56

It's . It's not the exact same thing

12:58

, except that it's . It's close enough

13:00

. With a quick story . When I first started with Toshiba all

13:06

those years ago , I was doing a lot

13:08

of sales training . And I'm in

13:10

Boston , I'm doing a sales training class

13:12

and I got a telephone call

13:14

from the sales manager of

13:16

one of the reps who was attending the class

13:19

. He calls me . Hey , ron

13:21

, is Tom going to ? Tom gonna make it

13:24

? And I was like you're kidding me , right

13:26

, he goes . No , is he gonna make

13:28

it ? And I was like vince

13:31

, I don't know like

13:33

make it through the class no , no , I'm sorry

13:36

, is he gonna make it essentially ? is he gonna be successful

13:38

? Will he be a successful rep ? It's

13:40

like I have no idea . I've known

13:42

for two days . Right , it's going to be

13:44

more up to you whether or not he's successful

13:47

or not . Yes , well

13:49

, through a class . My point is simply

13:51

oh , they went through training class now

13:53

. They're salespeople now . Or they went through

13:55

management training . They're managers

13:58

now .

14:00

Uh , no right , it's constant

14:02

. What you just said

14:04

actually leads into my next question , and

14:07

I think about this a lot because we've had team members over the

14:09

years . I've had employees um

14:11

, I hate using the term employee

14:13

. I like a team member because it is a collaborative

14:15

effort where a lot of times

14:17

, I think , just as a side tangent

14:19

, I think a lot of business owners get in

14:21

this mindset of calling people their employee

14:24

and it almost feels like they have some

14:26

form of ownership over them , and

14:28

I don't like that .

14:31

Nor do I , andy , I agree .

14:33

What are some ways you can set up your

14:36

team members for long-term success in

14:38

your business ? So if you're a business owner , you're

14:40

hiring people . What are some ways you can set

14:43

them up for a long-term success ?

14:45

One of the best ways , of which I'm aware

14:47

, very , very simply get

14:49

to know them . Yeah , and

14:52

I'm dead serious when I say that Get

14:54

to know them professionally

14:56

, get to know them personally

14:59

. What are you looking to do ? What

15:01

are your goals ? What are your aspirations

15:03

? How's your family ? What's

15:06

the latest ? What's going on with your mother-in-law

15:08

and Andy ? The other key

15:11

thing here is this is also

15:13

one of the things that needs to be consistent

15:16

. It's not a one and done . I

15:18

think a lot of times leaders or

15:20

managers look at it that way is that if

15:23

you , just for argument's sake , you know

15:25

, you come on board and I talk to you after

15:27

two , three months , whatever it is

15:29

. So , andy , how are things going , what are your

15:31

goals and what would you like to do ? Okay

15:33

, I talked to him about that . Yeah it's

15:35

three years later . You know

15:38

, whatever it might be , it's like no , because

15:40

things change , people change

15:42

, circumstances change , and

15:44

that's why it's so critical

15:46

to maintain those solid

15:48

relationships .

15:50

Yep , and I think a lot of big companies

15:52

correct me if I'm wrong , but my experience

15:54

with larger companies is that they

15:57

do that with a one-year

15:59

review . Right , your one-year review is

16:01

where they check in . Now you may have on a lower

16:04

tier level , like a direct

16:07

supervisor , build those relationships

16:09

with you if they're good . But

16:13

I agree it's something I think , checking with

16:15

people all the time we have currently

16:18

we've got four employees and

16:21

it's something we try to implement just

16:23

throughout the week , or before weekends or

16:25

around holidays , like we're just checking in how , like

16:27

, how are you guys doing ? What are you doing for the weekend

16:29

? Are you having fun with family ? Stuff like that

16:31

.

16:33

The better you know people , the

16:35

more effectively you work with them

16:37

, and the research backs that up . It's

16:41

just so clear . And yeah

16:43

, I mean , I don't know what else to say about that

16:45

and I think a lot of times a

16:47

lot of companies just fall down

16:50

in that area , where it is . It

16:53

can go back to again . It's like oh

16:55

, Andy the employee , no

16:58

, it's Andy , and I'm just taking

17:00

this out of the air . It's Andy

17:02

the husband , it's Andy

17:04

the brother , it's Andy

17:07

the guy who loves to ski , it's

17:09

whatever it might be it's Andy the

17:12

accountant over there .

17:16

That's funny , something

17:18

I've struggled with in the past and I know a lot of business

17:21

owners do . But how

17:23

can you keep team members motivated

17:26

and excited about their job when

17:29

sometimes the job task or their

17:32

job gets monotonous , right

17:35

, but there's a job that they're hired to do ? So

17:37

how do you keep them motivated and excited about their

17:39

job ? You know , day after

17:41

day , month over month , a year over

17:43

year .

17:46

I'm going to go back to what we were just talking about

17:48

, and I think this is where the

17:50

conversations need to take place

17:53

on a regular basis . Okay

17:56

, you've been doing this for a year now . How

17:59

are you enjoying it ? You know , on a scale of

18:01

one to 10 , how content are you ? And

18:03

just you know , where would you like to go

18:05

, what are some of your other interests

18:08

? And if the company is big enough

18:10

, you know , would you consider

18:13

, you know , perhaps working

18:15

in this other area , or maybe you

18:17

would want to go on what I like to

18:19

call an informational interview and

18:21

just say , hey , go talk to the

18:23

people in marketing , find out

18:25

more about what they do . Go talk

18:28

to the people in digital

18:30

, you know , whatever , Just you know all

18:33

of these different things , and

18:35

there's a again I like to link

18:37

things together Is

18:40

that constantly improving , constantly

18:42

improving ? One of the ways I do

18:45

that is that I am a voracious

18:47

reader , and when

18:49

it comes to this topic

18:52

, about helping people to grow

18:54

, helping people to develop , one

18:56

of the best books that I've read on

18:59

this topic is called Promotions

19:01

Are so Yesterday

19:04

, and it's written by

19:06

Julie Van Guglione

19:09

, something like that . If anybody's

19:11

interested . Just Google Promotions

19:13

Are . So Yesterday , and

19:16

what I found important was

19:18

that everybody needs

19:20

to read the book . The managers

19:23

need to read the book , and so do the employees

19:25

, and once that's done , you

19:27

can really start to talk about

19:29

where might you want to go , what

19:32

do you know ? What are your interests ? She's

19:34

got in there a lot of really

19:36

good assessments and exercises

19:39

that help everybody involved

19:41

to learn about . Okay , this

19:43

is where you may want to go . Next , you don't

19:45

want to get promoted ? Fine , nothing wrong

19:47

with that . Let's see where we can go

19:50

. You want to interact more with other people

19:52

? Again , whatever it might be , it's an

19:54

excellent resource .

19:56

Okay , yeah , that sounds great . I'd have to check that out

19:59

too . It

20:01

sounds interesting . Sounds

20:03

great . I'd have

20:05

to check that out too . It sounds interesting

20:08

. So this one , I think , is

20:10

also another . It's probably going to tie into most of what we're talking about , right , but what do you

20:12

think are some ways business leaders can create an unbreakable company

20:14

culture ?

20:16

Develop a very strong vision

20:19

, mission statement . Develop

20:22

values that everybody

20:24

, everybody knows

20:26

and cares about and

20:29

lives .

20:30

And .

20:30

I'm serious when I say that , because I think

20:32

that is one of the that has been my

20:34

experience where , just so

20:37

often , companies just start

20:39

to , they'll

20:41

drift from where they started

20:43

and they become rudderless and

20:45

without a vision , without a mission

20:47

to refer to . It's like

20:50

how do you make decisions ? What

20:52

do you base your decisions ? Like well

20:55

, what seems right , or how revenue

20:57

is at the time , you know whatever it might be

20:59

, and it's like , man , that's , that's crazy

21:01

.

21:02

Yeah .

21:03

Again , this is where I did

21:05

this . It was , it was , it was a lot of fun

21:07

and it's still ongoing A

21:09

small food company here

21:11

in New Jersey . They

21:14

contacted me . We need management

21:16

training . Okay , so we're

21:18

, you know , I was talking to a couple of the , a

21:20

couple of the senior leaders , and

21:23

they were telling me what's going on . We're family

21:25

owned , we've been around for a while and things

21:27

have sort of drifted a little bit . So we need

21:29

to get people back , you know , back in line , and

21:31

get them doing what we need them to do .

21:34

I was like OK , yeah , you're right , you do

21:36

need management training .

21:37

There's not a doubt in my mind , except

21:39

, before we do any of that

21:41

, we need to come up with

21:43

a mission for the organization

21:46

. We need to come up with a formal

21:48

culture for the organization

21:50

, and it's at that point in time

21:53

the senior leaders need to go through

21:55

the training and then we

21:57

will cascade it down and

21:59

I give them a lot of credit because they've taken

22:01

the time , they devoted the energy

22:03

and their resources to it and it's making a

22:05

difference do you get pushback

22:07

sometimes like that , like when you are telling

22:10

them what they need to do from a , from a leadership

22:13

standpoint , before you go in and train the employees

22:15

, do people have that like block that

22:17

it's just the employee's fault , that ? sometimes

22:20

some , sometimes I will get pushback

22:23

and it goes back to again

22:25

andy , for me at least , I I believe

22:27

this . Establishing the relationships

22:30

up front , yeah , and and

22:32

just letting , letting people know it's like I'm

22:34

not going to come , I'm not going to walk into

22:36

your organization guns

22:38

blasting , I'm going to walk into

22:40

your organization asking

22:43

a lot of questions before

22:45

we do anything , because how can I

22:47

make any recommendations until

22:50

I know about you , until I know about

22:52

the organization ? what you're hoping

22:54

to achieve . You know where

22:56

were you , where are you now ? Where do you want

22:58

to go ? Where do you want to go in the

23:00

gaps , and just all of these

23:03

different things .

23:04

Yeah , you know . Back to the mission

23:06

and vision statement . What's

23:09

your thought process Like ? How do you , how do

23:12

you break that down for yourself

23:14

? Or when you're helping businesses , how do you

23:16

help them determine the vision ? How do you help them determine

23:18

their mission ?

23:19

Yeah , I'm

23:21

going to go back to one of the best books I've

23:23

ever read , and this again goes into

23:26

the organizational development work

23:28

rather than the formal training . The

23:31

book I always ask people

23:34

to read before we start any

23:36

mission and or vision

23:39

work is called the Advantage

23:41

. It's written by Patrick Lencioni

23:43

. He's written a bunch of different books

23:45

. Most of them are fables . This one

23:47

is not . Although it's not boring

23:50

, it's not . It's a really good

23:52

book and what he just talks

23:54

about is that most

23:57

, actually every organization

23:59

in the United States is smart

24:02

. He said I believe that Every organization has

24:04

smart people working within it . He said I believe that every organization has smart people

24:06

working within it . He said the problem

24:08

is most of these organizations

24:11

are unhealthy , meaning

24:14

that there's politics , people

24:17

are rowing in different directions

24:19

, they're pulling each .

24:20

I need this . No , I need this .

24:21

Boss , we should be doing this . And

24:23

again , there's just so much

24:25

inconsistency and

24:29

it's from that that you start

24:31

to develop the vision and the mission

24:33

and it boils down to

24:35

essentially what is the

24:37

reason this company exists

24:40

and it really is . What's the reason

24:42

we exist ? This organization

24:44

allows customers to fill

24:46

in the blank . This organization

24:49

wants to treat its employees

24:51

fill in the blank . And there's

24:53

much more to it , of course . And

24:56

again , andy , I'm not trying to be self-serving

24:59

here by any stretch of the imagination

25:01

. This is where it's critical

25:03

to have an outside facilitator come

25:06

in and help . And

25:10

the reason I say that I worked with an art gallery

25:12

in Manhattan a number of years ago . We

25:15

did some training , it went really well , we had a lot

25:17

of fun and so forth . Chief Operating

25:19

Officer was one of the people

25:21

in the class and we got to talking

25:23

about vision and mission and all these

25:26

different things . And I said to

25:28

him he said I'd like to have you work with

25:30

us on this . I was like , okay , read

25:32

the book , let's talk about it . Great

25:35

, yeah . Actually , my

25:37

family and I were flying to Colorado

25:39

over the weekend . We're

25:41

going to be there for the next four days . Whatever it is

25:43

, I'll read it on the plane , and

25:48

you know I followed up with him afterwards .

25:49

Crickets .

25:50

So I called my contact , my direct

25:52

contact at the agency . I was

25:54

talking to her and I was like I'm

26:01

not hearing back from him and I think

26:03

I know what's happened . And she was laughing and she

26:05

said yeah , I think you're probably right

26:07

, Tell me . I said he read the book and

26:10

he loved it . Yep , he tried to do

26:12

it on his own , Yep , and it turned out to

26:14

be a disaster ?

26:14

Yep is

26:25

it's . A lot of times it's difficult for people to see their own

26:27

blind spots and so , whether it's a leader or just an individual at a company , a lot

26:29

of times somebody from the outside looking

26:31

in can point out things that we don't see . And

26:36

I've had to learn that the hard way

26:38

over the last few years , where , you know , we've

26:40

ended up hiring consultants and people to come

26:43

in and help with different things , because , you

26:46

know , I get too stuck in my own head or I'm just

26:48

too stubborn to like see the things

26:50

I'm missing , and even if I'm open

26:52

to it , sometimes I just I miss them . You

26:54

know I miss certain things that somebody else will notice

26:56

.

26:57

That's right , that's exactly

26:59

right . You know and it's you know . It's not

27:01

malicious , it's not intentional

27:04

on the leader's part by any stretch . Sometimes

27:06

it is yes .

27:07

Oh yeah , sometimes for me it's just me being

27:09

stubborn , like oh no , I can do this on my own , and then

27:11

I quickly realize that I can't .

27:14

That's exactly it , and

27:17

I think that's also , though , another

27:20

critical , critical piece to any

27:22

leader being successful , in

27:25

that you can't do this alone . Nobody

27:28

can do this alone . It's , it's impossible

27:31

, and I mean I've been , I've been learning

27:33

, I mean I've known this for years and years

27:35

and years , and you

27:38

know , I mean I don't know how I hope it's relevant

27:40

I had my knee replaced

27:42

13 days ago .

27:45

Oh wow , and you're already here doing a podcast

27:47

, because usually that's a pretty long recovery .

27:49

Oh , I'm up and about , I'm walking

27:51

the walk and see

27:53

. One of the reasons , though , is

27:56

that you know the

27:58

surgeon I hired , if

28:00

you will . I did my

28:02

research . I knew what I was looking

28:05

for . He's got an incredible

28:07

reputation , so I

28:09

went into the surgery very

28:12

, very confident . Everybody

28:14

on his team , everybody

28:16

beforehand . This is what

28:19

you can expect before the surgery , Ron

28:21

. This is what we need you to do beforehand . This

28:26

is what's going to happen day of . This is what you're going to need to do post-op . These

28:28

are your responsibilities , and I

28:30

can't do this alone . I need

28:32

to depend . I needed to depend upon him

28:34

. I'm depending upon the physical

28:36

therapists . I'm depending upon

28:38

my wife , who has been an absolute godsend

28:41

throughout this , because , in

28:43

the beginning , I couldn't do anything on

28:45

my own right and I'm the

28:47

same way you are , nick , or just you know with

28:50

you know . You know I heard you use I am so stubborn

28:52

where it's like I can do it , I

28:54

can get my socks on and

28:56

I was like , no , you can't run . I was like

28:58

I know I can't , I just want to be able to do

29:01

it right until you try to bend your leg and

29:03

you realize , yeah , not happening . That's

29:05

not going to work .

29:06

Yeah

29:08

. So one of the next questions I have for you we've

29:10

kind of already touched on it , but I'm

29:13

more looking for you know . So what

29:15

are signs of bad company culture

29:17

and how can you turn it around and

29:19

, kind of using the framework

29:22

that the leader has now already recognized

29:24

some of these skills and what they need to do , how

29:26

do you get your team on board to

29:29

turn that bad company culture around ?

29:34

Toxic company culture is

29:37

just when you are starting to hear

29:40

inconsistencies throughout

29:42

the day . You know where it is , just like

29:45

no , this isn't a priority

29:47

. This is the highest priority . No , this is our top

29:49

priority . No , they said we

29:51

should do it . This is what they make us

29:53

do , and I

29:55

always listen for . I'm always listening for

29:58

the we . I'm hoping to hear

30:00

the we , which indicates a team

30:02

and a more cohesive

30:04

team . When I'm hearing the they's

30:07

and those sorts of things , that

30:09

becomes a problem as

30:11

far as turning

30:13

it around . A big

30:16

part of it is , at least in

30:18

my experience , and something

30:20

in which I believe get everybody

30:23

involved . Get everybody involved

30:25

. Go all the way down to the people on

30:27

the floor and just talk to

30:29

them about what do you

30:31

think the culture is here ? What

30:33

would you like it to be ? How important

30:36

is culture to you ? And

30:38

once they're involved in it , then

30:40

it's not a mandate coming from

30:43

down on high . They're

30:45

involved in the process , so they own

30:47

it as much as anybody .

30:51

And you're talking about one-on-one conversations

30:53

with people , right ?

30:54

Yes , yes , yes , yes , yes , yeah

30:57

. I think one of the other

30:59

big things , too , is that

31:01

and this is what I talk to , I talk

31:03

with the leaders about this at that food company

31:06

is that if you're going to undertake

31:08

this sort of change , you need

31:10

to be ready to lose people within

31:13

the organization at all different levels

31:16

. It's going to happen because not everybody

31:18

will buy into it . And it happened

31:20

and they were okay with it , and just

31:22

realizing is that and that needs to

31:24

be part of the expectation that's

31:26

set for the entire company . Like folks , listen

31:29

, we're going to make some big changes

31:31

here , and here they are . This is what's

31:33

going to be going on , and if

31:35

you're not comfortable with this , it's

31:38

it's . It's pick one . It's either

31:41

come with us on this new journey

31:43

or you're going to need to find another place

31:45

to work .

31:47

Yeah , it's a

31:50

but . That's a good thing , right , because sometimes

31:52

you have people who maybe didn't start

31:54

out as I

31:56

don't want to sound too negative , but

31:58

let's just say a toxic person in the

32:00

workplace . You

32:03

know , there are there's a lot of toxic people inside

32:05

of workplace that starts

32:07

to kind of corrupt the rest of the team , sometimes

32:10

, um , very quickly , yeah

32:12

. So I think what you're explaining is

32:14

like it's okay to lose some people , because

32:16

usually the people who are leaving are the ones that weren't

32:18

going to , uh , help

32:20

uphold the company culture that you want to have .

32:23

Exactly , that's exactly it . The

32:30

people who are going to walk out are probably the people that you want to have walk out , and

32:32

so be it . You might lose a couple of good people

32:34

too , and again so

32:37

be it . These are the tough decisions that the leaders

32:40

need to make and

32:42

the consequences that they need to be willing

32:44

to accept .

32:45

Yeah

32:48

, Something else this is . This is actually something I have

32:50

personally struggled with at times , because

32:53

I don't want to be one of those guys that micromanages

32:55

our team . But how

32:57

do you create high standards in your business and

33:00

hold your team accountable to maintain those standards

33:02

without being like

33:04

that boss that everybody hates or

33:07

the micromanager ?

33:10

I think , for me

33:12

, I think you just used a couple of the key

33:14

words , Andy . Number one setting

33:18

the standards , setting the expectations

33:20

. This is what I need done

33:22

. This is what I need done

33:25

. And if the person is highly capable

33:27

and highly motivated , that's

33:30

where any good leader just needs

33:32

to hear here it is , take

33:34

it , run with it , let's

33:37

follow up . And this is the key for

33:39

me at least . Let's follow

33:41

up a week from today . Let's follow

33:44

up a week from today , just as a quick follow-up , that's all

33:46

. And then , just you know what's the progress

33:48

, what's going on , what

33:50

are the roadblocks ? Are there any roadblocks where I need to help you ? And

33:53

then the key is and not

33:55

for you , andy , yourself , for

33:57

any leader , though stay

33:59

the heck out of it , leave

34:01

them alone , let them do their thing

34:04

. And again

34:06

, this is where the leader needs to know

34:09

his or her employees really , really

34:11

well . Maybe

34:13

the person needs some coaching

34:15

, maybe

34:20

they're not ready to just , you know , to have a project just handed to them . Here let me guide you

34:22

a little bit . This is how I've done it in

34:24

the past . This is what you might want to try

34:26

, and as the person gets better

34:29

, the leader naturally

34:31

just starts to back off

34:33

, back off and again

34:35

let the person fly on their own

34:37

eventually .

34:38

Yeah .

34:39

You know , and I mean there's a , there's a . I'm

34:41

a big , big believer

34:43

in Stephen Covey's work and the seven

34:46

habits of highly effective people , and

34:49

one of the quotes he uses in the course

34:51

and I love this is just

34:53

very simply , you cannot hold

34:55

people accountable for results

34:57

if you supervise their methods

35:00

, and

35:02

I love that . And again , you know it is just

35:04

like go for it . Go for it as

35:07

long as I , the leader

35:09

, am confident and you're confident , the

35:11

work will get done the way we need it right

35:13

no

35:16

, I do love that because it is easy right

35:18

to start you know you're

35:20

used to doing something a certain way .

35:22

Now you train somebody else to do it and they may

35:24

have a slightly different approach that

35:27

still achieves the same outcome . But a

35:29

lot of times uh , you know myself

35:31

included , right we get stubborn and go no , I want it done

35:33

this way , and it's , it's hard , you

35:36

know , stepping back and just letting people do their thing

35:38

. So so

35:40

I ask uh , I'm

35:42

asking every guest this , but

35:45

I don't know how familiar you are with ai

35:47

and the emerging AI and everything that's

35:49

coming on . But what are your thoughts

35:51

on AI and how do you think it has

35:53

affected business owners and entrepreneurs currently

35:55

and how do you think it will affect them in

35:58

the future ?

36:01

I love it . I mean , it

36:04

clearly is the future . Used

36:06

properly and that's the key used properly

36:09

, it can be a tremendous resource . It's

36:12

still it's

36:14

. There still is no substitute

36:16

for the sitting down and having

36:19

a direct conversation , just like

36:21

you and I are having right now with

36:23

people . There's just no

36:25

substitute for that . The people

36:27

aspect of business is never going

36:29

to go away . You

36:32

know , the AI information absolutely

36:35

can speed

36:38

things up , can help with processes

36:40

and everything else . People are still

36:42

involved . Else

36:49

People are still involved and that's the reason the leadership aspects , no matter where we

36:51

go with AI , are still going to be critical .

36:52

Yeah , I love your answer

36:54

. I get different answers from

36:56

other people . There's some

36:58

people that love it , some people hate it , some

37:01

people don't really know much about it . Still , I

37:04

mean , they know of it but don't use it yeah

37:07

I personally I mean , our

37:09

team uses it to brainstorm a lot

37:11

of stuff . You know , I'm very I struggle when

37:13

I'm looking at a blank page and I'm trying to

37:15

come up with an outline

37:18

or some sort of whatever

37:20

project I'm working on , right , but it's . It's

37:22

one of those things where I can put prompts in and it

37:24

just gets , even if it's not what I'm going to use

37:27

. It just helps me work through

37:29

the process a bit and it's been super helpful

37:31

. Yeah , and it allows our team to put

37:33

out a lot more content

37:35

. I mean , we've we had put things on a break , on

37:37

a pause for a while , but now that we're producing

37:40

content again , it really speeds

37:42

up our output .

37:44

Yeah , yeah , absolutely , absolutely

37:48

.

37:48

So I've got one final question for you before we

37:51

wrap this up , but I like to

37:53

leave all listeners with a actionable

37:56

item . So if you could leave the listeners

37:58

with one actionable item that would have a

38:00

positive impact on them today . What

38:02

would it be and why ?

38:09

impact on them today . What would it be

38:11

and why ? The actionable item Adam for me , Andy

38:13

, I'm sorry , no worries . Get

38:20

to know yourself extraordinarily well . Get to know yourself on an incredibly

38:23

, incredibly deep level . Go

38:25

back to the disc instrument . If

38:28

you can take the disc , learn about

38:30

your personality , learn about your

38:32

strengths , learn about your limitations

38:35

. Learn about how other people

38:37

may perceive you , what your

38:39

work habits are like . Think

38:41

about how well you listen to people

38:44

, how

38:46

well do you give feedback . My point simply is the better

38:48

you know yourself , the more

38:50

effectively you will work with other people

38:53

yep , I love that

38:55

and I want to throw something in

38:57

uh , about the disc it is

38:59

.

38:59

It changes over time . Um

39:02

, when I first took the disc , years and years

39:04

ago it was I was like a high

39:06

D , I was a DI . So

39:09

high D , I'm very like

39:11

I want to get to the point , you know , I don't waste a lot of time

39:13

and then I was very , you know , social

39:15

. But after

39:17

being in real estate for a number of years , I had

39:19

been retaking the disc every I don't know I

39:21

probably it uh three

39:24

or four times over the course of those years and , uh

39:26

, I've noticed that it had changed

39:28

from a di to a d , c

39:30

, where it was more detailed , like

39:33

high , you know , high d . Still , that

39:35

was always the dominant feature . But

39:37

the c was more paying attention

39:39

to the details . But I was in contracts all the time

39:41

and , looking at you know , if I

39:43

wasn't a c then I was gonna probably have

39:45

some problems . I need to hire

39:48

someone to do my contracts if I was not that good

39:50

at them . But well

39:52

, I love that . It's been a great episode . Thank

39:55

you for being here today , you know , and taking the

39:57

time , and I think this

40:00

is just one of those valuable conversations for business owners

40:02

to listen to , because I

40:04

think hiring people and

40:06

building a team has been one

40:09

of the biggest struggles that we've

40:11

gone through with running a business

40:13

. It's the key to growing and

40:16

it's also one of the most difficult things to pull off

40:18

.

40:18

Well , that's right .

40:20

So thank you again for being here .

40:22

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

40:25

Absolutely .

40:26

And then I want to thank all of you guys for listening here . Andy , it's my pleasure

40:28

. Thank you for having me Absolutely . And then I want to thank all of you guys for listening today

40:30

. If you enjoyed the show , I felt like it provided you value . I'd love to hear in the

40:32

comments what stuck out the most to you from

40:35

today's episode . So we'll see you on the next one

40:37

. Thanks for watching

40:42

.