by Shawn | May 5, 2021 | Podcast
I love taking trips with my daughter to our local playground. It’s grown over the years and is a fun place for kids to have fun, explore, build friendships and try new things.
Often, as I sit and watch her and other kids play I see more than just what’s in front of me. I like to think of the playground as a great big collection of life lessons that kids get to work on… all in one special place.
The other night I was thinking about the connection between the playground and one of my favorite work activities – problem solving.
There are almost unlimited opportunities to problem solve at the playground. Sometimes kids will be playing tag and they will scamper up to the top a structure and scatter. And I’ll watch the tagger evaluate all of the different options at their disposal for getting down.
Of course, there is a mix of slow ways, fast ways, safe ways, dangerous ways. They don’t want to think too long because their targets are quickly moving away, but eventually they’ll pick an option that is as close to the safe and fast part of the matrix as possible.
Other times, it might be a toddler staring up at some ominous looking steps that lie between them and the activity and excitement they see at the top. They may start to take on the first step, then maybe one more, but then quickly begin to evaluate where they are and if they’re willing to risk going farther.
Our playground also has a big rope net pyramid where kids can pick a multitude of ways to climb around and up to the peak. My daughter loves to get to the top and slide right down the pole in the middle while others might take a different approach.
And then there is the problem of parents telling kids that it’s time to go. This might be when I see kids get the most creative in their problem solving skills.
When it comes to work, encouraging and growing problem solving skills in your team members is one of the most critical tasks you can undertake. It is those skills that help them make the right decisions when the process breaks down or they have to navigate a customer conversation or trouble shoot a machine or other failure in your system.
And like on the playground, the more opportunities you give your people to think on their own, the more they can take calculated risks and think for themselves. Each opportunity does a little bit more to strengthen those muscles.
Are you giving your people enough chances to think on their own or are they just given a specific path with no room for questions or thinking?
I think you find that the more they’re able to be in those positions and empowered to problem solve, the better your company will be in the long run… as well as your people.
Thanks for listening to today’s episode. I’d love hear from you about today’s topic or just in general. You can shoot me an email at shawn@shawnwashburn.com or head to shawnwashburn.com/contact and you’ll find links to connect with me on social media as well.
by Shawn | May 4, 2021 | Podcast
When it comes to what it takes for your business to run effectively, there are definitely certain hard and soft skills that you and your people need to possess.
But there is another crucial component that often gets overlooked.
And that… is mindset.
I reached out to a good friend of mine to get his thoughts on how business leaders can foster the right mindset for their people. DJ Eidson is founder and COO of Limitless Minds, a team that works with companies in a number of ways to help them understand the importance of mindset and neutral thinking and how leveraging those can give them a competitive advantage in their industry.
You can find out more about them at thinkbig-gofar.com or searching for them on LinkedIn. They’re doing amazing things in a number of businesses.
Here’s what DJ had to say…
[DJ’s audio]
I loved DJ’s insights into this. It made me think about the whole idea of trying to chop down a tree with a blunt axe. You have the tool and you know the objective, but it is the act of sharpening the axe that is sort of like developing the right mindset. It can transform you and your team and get you on a totally different plane.
We’ll hear more from DJ in coming weeks. Thanks so much DJ!
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Thanks for listening to today’s episode. I’d love hear from you about today’s topic or just in general. You can shoot me an email at shawn@shawnwashburn.com
by Shawn | May 3, 2021 | Podcast
Today, some real talk about what you do when you’re struggling. I share some behind-the-scenes about the podcast as well as some honest thoughts about some struggles.
When you’re struggling, what helps you get unstuck or get through rough patches?
Thanks for listening to today’s episode. I’d love hear from you about today’s topic or just in general. You can shoot me an email at shawn@shawnwashburn.com or head to shawnwashburn.com/contact and you’ll find links to connect with me on social media as well.
by Shawn | Apr 30, 2021 | Podcast
Last weekend my daughter asked if I wanted to do a puzzle together.
I love puzzles so logically I said yes.
She went to her room and came back with a little green purse. From inside it she proceeded to pull out a ziploc bag full of puzzle pieces.
We pulled them all out, one by one, flipped them over and began to separate out the edge and corner pieces from the rest.
After a few minutes we had them all separated and were ready for the next logical step… looking at the picture to see where they all when.
I began to look around for a picture of the puzzle and we soon realized that… we didn’t have it.
OK.
So… this was about to be a lot more difficult than we first imagined. Not impossible, but without a picture to reference, if we were able to complete the puzzle at all it was going to take us 10 times longer.
Well, we were determined to do it so we began to try to group like pieces and colors and parts of the picture together and it started to come into focus. A giraffe. The jungle. The sky. The birds.
Finally, we got it all together (except for that last piece, of course that is living somewhere alone and afraid in our house).
But it made me think about how a poor vision in an organization can lead to frustration, lack of direction and often an end result that isn’t anything like the leader imagined.
Maybe you’ve been in that spot. You’ve assigned a project or task with what you thought was enough information.
But what your team members received was a box full of puzzle pieces that were missing the box cover. They might have done their best to complete the project the way you intended, but the end result and what you had envisioned might have been quite a bit different.
Next time you assign that task or project, or send that email, make sure that you’re providing a clear enough box cover for them, a vision of what you’re after, a clear directive to follow. And then make it easy on both of you by just asking them “is there anything that you don’t understand or questions I can answer?”
You might be surprised to find that often there are questions but they would have just tried to fill in the gaps on their own because maybe they felt like they were expected to just know something that wasn’t communicated.
So, give that a shot next time and see if you get a better result with less frustration.
And… if you happen to find a puzzle piece that looks like a giraffe’s knee, could you send it my way? Thanks.
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Thanks for listening to today’s episode. It would help a ton if you’d be willing to leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts
I’d love to connect: website / LinkedIn / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter
by Shawn | Apr 29, 2021 | Podcast
“Be a disruptor. Step on some toes. Shake things up.”
That’s what my boss told me when I started at one of my jobs.
Right off the bat he made that clear. He already had seen that in me from my interviews and he wanted me to turn over those stones, to be curious, to question and disrupt.
And, honestly, I did in a lot of ways.
What was so helpful was that he empowered me to do that from the beginning.
He wanted to see how we could grow and break some old thinking or systems and take the next step.
And that was how I was naturally thinking, but without his blessing and charge to do that, as the new guy I think I would have been a lot more reserved in that. I would have tended to just keep some thoughts or ideas to myself because no one was asking for anything to be different or improved.
His words from the get go (that were also backed up by frequent conversations we’d have affirming that), made such a huge difference.
And so I wonder a few things for you as a business leader.
First, do you want people who will disrupt, ask questions, bring about change?
If the answer to the first question is no, then I believe you might be missing out on a big potential for growth in your processes, communication and more in your organization.
But if the answer is yes, my second question would be this: are you communicating this to your people and empowering them to be that in your business?
Do they have your backing to question long held procedures, thinking or ways of doing things? Or are they afraid of what would happen if they stepped out of line or went against the flow?
Take some time to think about that today.
Think about some specific people in your organization. Maybe you have some who have some new ideas, who are willing to question and challenge and grow. And maybe they are quietly (or more vocally) frustrated because they’ve been instructed to just do as they’re told.
Unfortunately, it’s those kinds of people who will often leave to go somewhere else where they can make a bigger impact and use those skills if they’re not allowed to do that where they are.
So, remember that our words are powerful and empowering and inviting our people to do something carries a lot of weight.
Be willing to make that shift and see what happens.
Thanks for listening to today’s episode. It would help a ton if you’d be willing to leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts
I’d love to connect: website / LinkedIn / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter
