by Shawn | Apr 1, 2021 | Podcast
How Can You Help Your Team Members Succeed?
When you look at each of the people in your organization, they were brought in to make an impact, to solve problems, to make the best product or deliver the best service to your customers.
There was a reason why you brought them on board.
Hopefully a lot of reasons. Skill set. Experience. Personality. Approachability. Integrity. Curiosity. Dependability.
But sometimes it can feel like they’re just not getting it.
You may have found yourself getting frustrated because you’re just not on the same page. There’s a team member who isn’t giving you the results that you’re looking for.
But I want to suggest that maybe there is something else going on.
Take a step back and think about what you really need from them.
Not how you want them to do it. But what is the end goal?
You see, I’ve seen this happen all the time.
Usually, the person assigned the task is more than capable and more than willing to do it and deliver the end result in flying colors.
But the problem often comes in the how.
Granted, there are plenty of guidelines or procedures or standards that need to be met and kept in order to maintain consistency and quality.
But I think where the issue comes sometimes is when we put unnecessary constraints on the process that limit the creativity of our team members and their ability to get to the end result in a way that fits them best.
Let’s go back to the peanut butter and jelly example from Episode 15.
I could tell you that I want you to make me a PB&J and I could even tell you what type of bread, how much peanut butter and how much jelly.
And you could get to the finish line with a sandwich that met my expectations.
But what if I watched over your shoulder or if I had created such a detailed set of instructions that it just made it super inefficient and frustrating for you.
For example…
Take one piece of bread with your left hand and place it on the left side of the cutting board.
Reach into the silverware drawer with your right hand and grab out a knife.
Place the knife on the cutting board 1″ away from the piece of bread and parallel to the side of the…
OK, you might have just gone ahead and quit by this point. And you might already be asking “can I just do it my way?”
And if I responded “no, unless you place the knife 1″ from the side of the —” I probably would have ended up with a face full of jelly.
So, today, as you think about work that you’ve asked others to do, whether inside or outside of your organization, allow yourself to take a step back and look at what you’re really asking.
Maybe you can give more freedom and creativity in the in between, the process, and allow your people to do what they do best.
You just might surprised at the result.
If you’ve been enjoying the podcast, I’d love it if you’d leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts at shawnwashburn.com/apple Thanks for listening to today’s episode.
by Shawn | Mar 29, 2021 | Podcast
How Can You Really Get To Know Your Team Members on a Deeper Level?
I’ve talked in the past about how I love digging into how each of us has been designed. Our strengths, love languages, interests, communication styles and more.
And there are a ton of assessments out there that can help you discover more about yourself in these areas.
Today, I wanted to focus on personality types.
Now, I know I’ve taken some pretty extensive and complicated assessments in personality and other areas, but one of my favorites was actually a lot simpler.
It involved four animal types: Lion, Otter, Beaver and Golden Retriever.
I remember learning about it from Dr. Gary Smalley several years ago but you can also find it online now as published by Dr. John Trent from Focus on the Family. I’ll post a link to his article in the show notes. I encourage you to check out the article and then take the assessment for your self, although you may already be able to tell where you land as I describe these.
(Here is the link: https://www.focusonthefamily.com/marriage/4-animals-personality-test/)
Like with many assessments, it is pretty eye-opening to not only learn about yourself but about others. And it also can help explain why certain people really mesh together while others can get on each other’s nerves.
I’ll tell you where I tend to fall with this test, but first let me lay out generally what the four types represent:
Lions are the take charge people, the natural leaders. Assertive, goal-driven.
Otters are the life of the party. They don’t plan, they do. They go with the flow.
Gold Retrievers are the feelers of the group. They tend to think and feel deeply.
Beavers are the detail oriented ones. They plan, are more risk-averse… keep people alive.
Like with any assessment, we are usually a mix of the results, with some being higher than others.
And also like with other results, there are generally strengths and weaknesses associated with any of the results.
So, where do I fall?
Well, to start with I’m a super high Golden Retriever. I’m wired to be more empathetic. I tend to think a lot about how something makes other people feel. I’m loyal, listener, caring, etc.
My second trait would be Otter. I love to be creative, to do new things, very verbal, etc.
Honestly, Lion and Beaver are in there somewhere but they’re a distant third and fourth.
One fascinating thing about these four is that each of them has another one that is like oil to it’s vinegar. They clash.
You can probably guess, but Lions and Retrievers can have difficulty together. As well, Beavers and Otters don’t play as well together as they might out in the wild (I have no idea, but I kind of imagine them being best buds in all kinds of river-related activities)
The Beaver will carefully plan out every detail of an event only to have the Otter show up right at the last minute, ignore the plans and say “he, let’s just wing it!”.
And while a Retriever is carefully thinking through people’s feelings and wondering which direction they should go, the Lion leaps past them, makes the decision and is basically like “hey, let’s get on with it”.
Bottom line is that each person is wired differently.
And in God’s creativity and design, each personality is needed in an organization or team to function effectively.
Got a room of all Beavers? Lots of plans. Not much fun.
Got a room of all Otters. Most won’t be alive for long.
Got a room of all Retrievers? The room will explode from all of the empathy flowing out of it… but not much action will take place.
Got a room of Lions… you can just imagine.
The first key is to understand yourself. Understand your own strengths and blind spots based on your personality.
The second step is to do the same with the people on your team.
So, what about you? As we’ve been talking about these different personalities, I’m guessing there were one or two that resonated with you.
Take a deeper dive into them. See what blind spots you might have been missing or where you’ve misunderstood others of had conflict because of the interaction of your respective personalities.
Ultimately, you want to be able to harness each person’s uniqueness and strengths to help your business thrive and grow.
Diversity is awesome.
Celebrate what makes us each unique and seek to understand those that are different.
Here’s a link to find out more: https://www.focusonthefamily.com/marriage/4-animals-personality-test/) Thanks for listening to today’s episode. I’d love to know what you find out about your personality. You can shoot me an email at shawn@shawnwashburn.com. Can’t wait to be back with you tomorrow.
by Shawn | Mar 26, 2021 | Podcast
Today, we’re going to continue on with our Ode to the Office series.
A few weeks back, in episode 11 we gave a shout out to the Sticky Note.
Today, we celebrate those brave heroes of the office… the ones willing to brew a new pot of coffee when the post has run dry.
Ode To The Coffee Brewer
If, while getting your coffee the pot has run dry
Please don’t run away… there’s no need to cry
For you have been chosen, right here on this spot
To make some more coffee to put in the pot
A nobler task would be hard to devise
For you’ll fuel tired bodies and open closed eyes
With this liquid that’s brewed over dark ground-up beans
You’ll power a workforce to do some great things
So go be that hero! Use bravery and skill
Grab beans and a filter, but try not to spill
Make sure to align well the pot with the basket
And push the brew button, that’s all that we’re askin’
Then fly off anew to do more super deeds
Because of your efforts, so many are pleased
All future brew-takers will collectively shout
“Thank you for brewing when the coffee ran out!”
If you’ve got an office or work topic you’d like me to do an ode on, just shoot me an email at shawn@shawnwashburn.com. I’d love to hear from you and see what we can create.
Thank you so much.
If you’ve been enjoying the podcast, I’d love it if you’d leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts at shawnwashburn.com/apple Thanks for listening to today’s episode.
by Shawn | Mar 25, 2021 | Podcast
Listening is one of the best skills you can develop. Being a great listener can value your team while also encouraging creativity, new thinking and new ideas.
In episode 5 we poked a little fun at the phrase of the year: “You’re on mute”
Even just that phrase still makes me smile a little bit honestly. I can picture the mouth moving and everyone scrambling to unmute themselves so that they can tell the muted one that they are, in fact, muted.
But today we’re going to talk about some ways that we might be actually muting others around us without realizing it.
Their mouths are moving but we’re not hearing anything. We’re not listening.
To me, one of the top skills you can have as a business leader is to be a good listener. And I don’t just mean someone that people talk to. I mean, someone that really listens.
To be a good listener means that you are approachable. It means that people know that you value them and what they have to share… even if it’s hard to hear.
Being a good listener isn’t asking for an opinion and then letting your team member speak while the whole time you’re secretly holding your own answer behind your back ready to pounce it on them.
Being a good listener is being curious. Being willing to acknowledge that you might be wrong, that you might not be able to see the whole picture.
I heard a great quote from Andy Stanley years back. He said that “leaders who don’t listen will soon be surrounded by people with nothing to say.”
I remember hearing that and having to think that one through again. But it is dead on and I’ve seen it happen.
If people don’t feel like their opinions and thoughts and ideas are truly valued, then eventually they might try to find a place where they are.
And then all that will be left are people who just repeat back what has been said before.
So, if you really want to not only help your business thrive but also to bring out the best in your team members, put in the work to become a better listener.
It may take time. And if your people haven’t been used to being asked for their ideas and really listened to, it may take some time for them to trust they this time it’s different.
Maybe you could start this week and invite a few members of your team in for a meeting with no agenda other than to just hear from them. Let them know that you want to honestly hear how things are going for them, what frustrations they have, struggles, roadblocks to success.
Ask them what ideas they have about making things better… and let them finish, even if you don’t believe they are things you can do right now. That can come later, but you’ll miss out on so many great ideas and empowering your team if you shoot down ideas from the get go or if they feel like it’s not even worth sharing.
Every person on your team is asking this same question: “Can you hear me?… do you want to hear me?”
I believe your answer is yes, because you care about each one of them… and you also want the business to grow as well.
So un-mute your team this week and let them speak what they’ve been dying to say… unless, of course that lawnmower is still blaring in the background…
by Shawn | Mar 22, 2021 | Podcast
Assumptions… they usually get a bad rap. But today we’re going to dig a little deeper and see how they can actually help us if we use them wisely
You know what happens when you assume, right? You make an…
Yeah, well, I’ll actually let YOU finish that sentence on your own. And… if you don’t know what I’m talking about, head over to the Google after this and just search for “when you assume”.
Now, I’m here to shed a little more light on assumptions.
Obviously, they have a PR problem. I mean, imagine if whenever anyone mentioned you, the first thing that popped into their head was that something really bad happens whenever you’re around.
Yeah, that’s what it’s like for assumptions.
They have to live with this dark cloud hanging over their very existence.
And I get it. Usually, when they’re around bad stuff happens.
But I want to dig a little bit deeper into assumptions today.
I’d like to propose that they actually can have a lot of value, but that they have to be used wisely.
You see, assumptions are sort of like a short cut.
When you say that you assumed something, you are basically saying that you took a short cut in your thinking or investigating or conversations.
As the saying goes, maybe you even “jumped to conclusions”.
But honestly, we assume things all the time. And if we didn’t life would grind to a halt.
We take calculated risks, we believe certain things to be true about the world around us.
We assume that our house isn’t going to fall apart today or that the milk that was perfectly fine in our refrigerator yesterday hasn’t totally turned to curdled yuck overnight. That we weren’t on mute when we chimed in with that perfectly timed response in our zoom call.
There are things that we assume every day… but we just don’t call them assumptions.
What I would like to propose is that most assumptions are fine… they just need to be interrogated. They need to be sat down in that dark room with the spotlight on them. And then we need to ask them some really tough questions.
If we’re willing to do this, then assumptions can actually be good. They can be beneficial. They can save us time.
If you question an assumption and it can’t give you a solid answer, then you need to do more work on your part.
For example, let’s say you have a big meeting coming up with a customer. You set it up weeks ago and you need to make sure that they will be present.
But you haven’t had any communication with them recently about it.
You have a choice to make. You can either assume that all is good on their end. Or, you can just shoot them an email to make sure that they are still good for the meeting.
An email that might take you a few minutes but could save a ton of waste and add tension to the relationship if they didn’t show.
Maybe they had emailed you last Tuesday saying that they had to reschedule but it got lost in your inbox. Or maybe they never got the initial request. Or maybe something else urgent has come up and they were so consumed with it that they had forgotten about the meeting.
Whatever the reason, if you have any uneasiness in your gut or if there might be a big downside to a potential miscommunication, then it’s worth your time to just check in and make sure everyone’s on the same page.
We’ve all experienced the bad side of assumptions and have been burnt by not interrogating ours or we’ve burnt someone else.
But together, you and I can help change the face of assumptions. Using them for good, instead of evil.
Try looking at them a little differently this week and how, when used well, they can actually be something positive.
Maybe the new phrase could be “You know what happens when you use assumptions wisely? You and I save a lot of time and energy!”
OK, so maybe that one needs a little work.
I hope you’ve been getting value from these episodes. If you have, I’d love it if you left a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite player. It truly means a lot and lets me help even more people. Thanks so much.
