Time and time again, big Hollywood studios produce movies with epic tales of men and women saving the day with their innate strengths.
Strengths are important. They give you an advantage in life – in business.
Your strengths become the foundation for your personal brand.
But when a villain wants to take down a superhero, he exploits the weaknesses that come with the superhero’s strengths.
Be brave enough to look at not only your strengths but also the weaknesses that come from letting those very strengths get out of control.
IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN:
Review of soft skills, also called competencies.
Four examples when a great strength can have consequences for your business if left unchecked. (For one of the four examples, we look at one of my strengths and how it creates weaknesses I have to manage.)
A tip for pulling yourself into the present moment from Olivia Fox-Cabane’s charisma speech. Full video found below.
How you deal with your strengths and weaknesses impacts your team.
Complete Your Workwork:
For the next week, make a list of tasks that drain you like kryptonite. Tasks that you avoid. Look for a pattern. That list will give you clues to an area of weakness that needs to be addressed. Let me know what you discovered in the comments below.
Links and Resources:
Charisma speech by Olivia Fox-Cabane
Thank You For Listening!
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You need your team to help you. To do the work you cannot or should not spend your time doing.
In this episode of the Create Your Culture podcast, we’ll look at the top three lessons learned from watching famed music producer Bruce Dickinson (Christopher Walken) try to motivate the members of the Blue Oyster Cult band with “more cowbell” in the iconic sketch from Saturday Night Live.
Whether you already have a team or are building a team, there are some valuable lessons here.
In this situation, the Blue Oyster Cult band members knew their instrument to play. They knew what the goal was. They all wanted to get the song recorded. They actually brought themselves together to meet their goal in spite of their “leader.”
What about your team? Do they each know what part they play? Do they know what the goals are?
If your team is still engaged and working together, they will try to figure things out on their own – for a while.
Do you want a company culture where the team assumes you either do not want to help them work through an issue OR worse – aren’t capable of leading them?
You can learn what motivates your employees and be a better leader.
Don’t hope they will figure it all out. They need to know you are a resource – willing and capable.
Don’t be Bruce Dickinson.
“Y’all will be wearing gold-plated diapers!” is not motivating unless you work for Huggies.
I love watching Will Ferrell and Jimmy Fallon try not to laugh.
IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN:
You are a part of your team. You are boss, but you are not above them. “Bruce Dickinson. Yes, THE Bruce Dickinson.”
Give your team rewards that motivate THEM. If you are guessing, then you may be spending valuable resources that aren’t helping your team or getting the results you want. “Gotta have more cowbell baby!”
Confusion shuts down motivation. Bring clarity to your team. “I gotta fever and the only prescription is more cowbell.”
There are 6 types of motivators that could motivate your employees. Here are some sample questions to consider for each motivator:
Usefulness/utility – Who on the team is driven by money?
Supporting people – Who on the team is driven by helping others?
Search for truth or knowledge – Who has a voracious need for learning?
Control their own destiny – Who wants to be recognized publicly for their accomplishments?
Form and harmony – Who wants a beautiful work environment?
System of beliefs – Who wants to have a mission or be a part of team traditions?
Complete Your Workwork:
For the next week at work, watch for signs of confusion in your team. Ask them for feedback on how you can help. Then shut your mouth and listen to them. Do not get defensive. Just for a week, try to respond with “Thank you, that is valuable feedback.” Be open to hearing what they have to say. Notice if they are afraid to give you feedback or are excited you want to be involved. Let me know in the comments how it goes.
Thank You For Listening!
Please subscribe, rate and review the Create Your Culture podcast on iTunes! Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated. They do matter in the rankings of the show, and I read each and every one of them.
If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of the post.
Your business is like an island in a far away land… or maybe sometimes it just feels that way.
What happens when you bring people onto the island to help you?
The work can be spread among more people and reduce your stress… IF you bring the right people onto the island.
In this episode, we’ll bring four potential candidates onto your island to look at how they will behave (DISC behaviors).
We also look at how each would react to a future team member being added to the group.
Each style has valuable innate qualities. They also have unique dark sides and reactions to stress.
If people come to your island who do not mesh with the team and provide skills that take burdens off of the rest of the team, then that person may cause MORE drama and stress – not less.
People do not have a neutral effect. Every person on the team will affect the team.
Every person you hire will impact your business. Choose wisely.
IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN:
The four categories of human behavior. HOW people do what they do. This profile information pulls from how people are already behaving to predict how they will act in your business.
The first employee is named Dominant but his friends call him D.
The second employee is named Influence but his friends call him I.
The third employee is named Steadiness but his friends call him S.
The fourth employee is named Compliance but his friends call him C.
Which behavioral style makes the best leader?
How each of the four styles may react to the next new team member coming onboard. How will they initially treat others?
Let’s look at four reasons why DISC is important for your business.
Last set of fours – Where do you go from here? What do you do next?
Here’s Your Workwork:
For the next week, watch how people interact with you. Look at how they communicate not necessarily what they are saying. Are their decisions guided by people or tasks? Are they experience or results focused? Are they trusting or skeptical? Gather clues and look for patterns. Hidden here are gems to connecting to people faster. Leave a comment about what you were most surprised to notice when observing how others interact with you.
For this first podcast episode, I share a personal story about a harrowing night in the Paris Metro. My mom hadn’t even heard the story until this podcast.
Why would I tell a story to begin this discussion? Stories connect us.
Stories snap us out of our inner monologue and give people clues to who we are and how to communicate better with us.
For example, your reaction to hearing that story would give me clues to your communication style. To what drives you, your priorities in life.
Why is this important for your business?
Imagine the next time an employee misunderstands your directions or is upset by something you said or did not say.
How will you approach them to fix the issue? Will you listen and provide constructive feedback? Will you ignore it because you don’t like confrontation? Will you tell them to figure it out or get over it?
Your business needs people moving together in the direction you choose.
Want the work to get done? Faster? Better? Want to become the next Apple or Google – or the next big thing?
Don’t ignore the communication needs of your team.
Communication forms your culture.
When communication breaks down, the WORK. STOPS.
IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN:
I cover the why you should care in more depth in the podcast.
Next, a brief overview of the areas that my assessment tools, profiles and analysis address.
The 7 Rules for Using These Skills
Disclaimers. You had to know these were coming.
Here’s Your Workwork:
Not homework, but workwork. What did you learn about yourself as you listened to my story? Were you enjoying the experience? Wish I’d stop talking and get to the business stuff? Not only could you gather clues about me through my story, but you can learn about yourself as well. Let me know in the comments section below.
Thank You For Listening!
The podcast has been submitted to iTunes and Stitcher, so it should be out there any day!
If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of the post.
What Mom Said
Finally, I promised to let you know what my mom said when she heard my subway story for the first time. What clues do you see about both of us in the text convo below?
The end of year one is here. This was not the entrepreneurial journey I expected or hoped for. It’s weird. It’s scary. And working with my clients is more fulfilling than I imagined.
The vision is still solidifying. The content still knocking around inside. It was a necessary, painful, liberating year.
Maybe you took two weeks to get going. Or 6 months. Or 3 years. Maybe you’re still stuck. Spinning. Ready, aim, aim, aim, aim, aim, aim.
Maybe you jump without stopping to think and have to clean up messes later. Ready, fire, aim.
Dreams of the glorious first year in business didn’t include these battles and unforeseen detours. Leaving a “safe” corporate job was terrifying, but staying could have killed me.
I had no idea how far I had pushed myself.
Years of being penciled in and removed from the layoff list. Bracing for the increased work for those lucky enough to stay behind. No clear view of how teams affected each other. People shutting down legitimate inquiries with personal attacks. Corporate reorganizations started before the last one took hold. Good people working too hard and going nowhere fast.
You know the story. You’ve been there.
After leaving, it took me 6 weeks to stop having phantom adrenaline rushes.
Three months to clear out the head-trash and cool the anger.
Six months working with a new doctor to start to repair the damage from stress.
Hurtful behaviors shut off communication. Poor communication breeds poor decision-making. Consequences of those decisions push down the chain as the path of least resistance.
Your good people either shutdown or their anger increases.
The talent leaves. You struggle to recruit new talent because the word about your team begins to spread.
Your team cannot fix a broken culture without you.
Whether you are task-focused or all about the people, you need to be intentional about your culture. Business is a balance of task and people. Both are required. Neither can be ignored.
What work needs to be done? Let’s benchmark the job. Then you can hire for those skills.
What are the values of your team? Let’s identify the values. Then hire for those values.
What is the business vision? What drives you? Let’s determine the driving forces. Then connect people to that vision.
Will everyone on your team march to the new direction? Maybe. Maybe not. If not, then you have to make decisions about their future at the company.
When communication clears, morale improves. Work gets done faster, better. Revenues increase. Profits increase.
It’s not too late. In 2013, I read the story of Moses wandering the wilderness for 40 years. It was not the first or even twentieth time to read it, but I became agitated. How could someone be in a wilderness for 40 years? How does someone get to that place and then die within reach of the Promised Land?
Then eyes wide and stomach sinking, I knew… I was the one wandering in a wilderness. I had just turned 40. Still killing myself for someone else’s dream. Stubborn and blind. Losing myself in retail therapy and travel. Too tired to use my true talents.
Your battles and detours may be different from mine. You’re still working a day job and dreaming of the day you pick your coworkers. Your business is growing faster than you can handle and building a solid team is critical to get to the next step. You’re selling this business and prepping for your next adventure.
Regardless of your stage, you are not stuck. Leave the wilderness of catty break room chatter and slamming doors. Of passive-aggressive behaviors. Angry outbursts. People withholding information.
You can improve your team… or change the team you have. It’s up to you.
I’m not going to pretend that this journey is easy. It’s messy. It’s uncomfortable. And it’s so worth it.
People are complex. It may feel overwhelming, but you are not alone.
You need help with your culture, with world domination? I’m here.
You are brave. You are hopeful. You are stubborn. You are visionary. You are genius and a lil insane.
So, what should we do tomorrow?
The same thing we do everyday. Try to take over the world.
