On today’s show we discuss what to do when you’re not getting the results you need.  

Two decades ago, Jason Scott founded 120VC to help people, leaders, and teams get things done that really matter. He’s uncovered some universal truths along the way: organizations are optimized for the results they’re getting, and to get different results, humans need to perform their jobs differently.

His passion to mentor and training a new generation of leaders led him to start the Transformation Leadership Academy where he leads a 14-week certification program. And in 2020, Jason launched the 120 Brand Community, featuring Brick and Matter CO, BAMCO, a brand accelerator transforming how brands can go to market, and Next Jump Outfitters an overland guide and e-commerce business transforming how people balance work and play as digital nomads.

Jason has spent over 20 years leading global transformational efforts for DirecTV, Trader Joe’s, Blizzard Entertainment, RIOT Games, Sony Pictures, ResMed, AAG, Universal Music Group, Remitly, and others. He is the author of two Amazon-bestselling books “It’s Never Just Business, It’s About People” and “The Irreverent Guide to Project Management, An Agile Approach to Enterprise Project Management” and is a sought-after keynote speaker.

When a high functioning team is not performing well, how do you go about diagnosing the problem?  

• Figure out who is struggling on the team. The problem is almost always a person.   
• Find out what that person is missing to be successful at their job and help them find it.   
• If that doesn’t work and they are unable or unwilling to work together on what is missing, the leader can help them move into another role where they can be successful.  

When an individual in a team is not performing well, what advice do you have for them?  

• There’s a paradigm around accountability that comes from a breakdown, something didn’t go right, and we are going to hold a person “accountable”. This is backwards. A good leader is going to find the right person for the job, that person is going to find the best way to do their job, and the leader is going to help them find their own roadmap to accomplishment. Leaders set people up to be accountable.   
• When an individual feels like they are not succeeding, they are miserable. So a good leader is going to work to help find out what’s missing for the individual, and if that doesn’t work, keep supporting them until they transition out.   
• It is ultimately the leader’s responsibility to make sure the people they invite on to the team, succeed on the team.   

What are your thoughts on failing projects:  

• Projects fail due to poor leadership, period.  
• If you’re not getting the results you need from a team, you need to try something different with the team and then measure if that improves or diminishes the desired result.   
• If you have a project that solves a problem that the people on the project think is real and exists, they will voluntarily participate you won’t have to force them.   

Best practices to reach best project outcomes (KPIs):  

• Make sure you can articulate why the change needs to be done. 
• Humans fundamentally want to succeed. If you ask humans to their jobs differently, they must understand and feel the problem we are solving is important enough to put themself at risk and be vulnerable.   
• When you have a change project you want to deploy, start by asking: 

1) Who are we going to ask to do their jobs differently?  

2) Who is going to be doing the work?  

3) Ask the stakeholders who are responsible for these humans going to manage the change? 

4) How is the problem I am solving related to the two groups that are going to change the way they work.   

Leadership is about commitment not compliance or agreement.   

• As a leader, don’t ask for people to agree – which is from their head, ask them to commit, which is from their heart. 
• Lead by giving people the ability to choose their own path.  
• Compliance is an illusion. You can have authority over people, and they’ll still avoid things they don’t want to do. If you give people choice, and you call on them to use that choice. Allow people to choose to follow you.  When someone tells you something is mandatory…there is a visceral feeling of resistance for humans.   

What do you do about performance reviews when people are not on board?  

• First question from your team members will be why? So whenever you launch any project you need to rationalize your why.  
• To get to your why ask first, what problem are you solving?  Does it improve customer satisfaction? Does it improve team satisfaction?  Does it improve profitability?  

• Then ask: Is there demand for this? Don’t launch a project before you know you have demand. Test a project demand before you launch it.   
• Create a brief presentation with the questions:  How does this drive company vision?  Why do we need to make this change now?  What will happen if we don’t make this change? How are major stakeholders impacted? How does it benefit them?  
• Ask for people to give you experience shares, not advice or opinions.  Team members experience questions:  Tell me about a job you didn’t do performance reviews. How are performance reviews at this company for you?  

Top Takeaways:  

• You don’t have to be talented to be successful. You just have to do the work.  
• The meaning of life is people. If you care for people on your team and support them to be as successful as possible, they will succeed for themselves and for you. Control is not necessary.   

Connect with Jason:  

Websites: https://120vc.com/  

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonscott120vc/  

On today’s show we discuss how to uncover untapped potential in your team.  

Dr. Clint Ladine is a leadership and success coach, author, and former professional basketball player. His clients include renowned restaurateurs, super bowl champions, and C-suite executives. He has delivered coaching leadership development programs in both the profit and not-for-profit realms and he is the author of Power Coaching: Stand Out, Get Unstuck, And Energize Your Leadership. 

Clint’s credential include a Master’s degree in leadership and a Doctorate degree of Strategic Leadership and Executive Coaching from Bethany University. He hold more than 13 years of organization development and executive coaching experience. He previously founded a health clinic in San Francisco and played professional basketball overseas.  

Clint lives in San Francisco with his wife of 27 years and five kids and has served as the president of the North of Market Community Benefit District, a non-profit organization helping to beautify, enhance safety and foster the arts in the Tenderloin district of SF. He is currently serving on the Stonestown YMCA Board of Directors as the chair of the fundraising committee. 

How does coaching in basketball relate to coaching in corporations? 

• Coaching is about maximize potential to ensure the teams are working cohesively.  
• One of the jobs of a basketball coach is to manage egos and get people to work together in the best way, similar to a corporate coach. 

How do you help a team work together?  

• You want to help people understand their why.  
• In every team there’s an underlying why in the human condition that causes people to act in certain ways.  
• When you look at those emotional levers that people have  to succeed or be the best in their area you want to help them to understand that underlying why and tap into that corporate/community part as well.  
• Want to help them understand their why in relation to how it helps the community or corporation as whole.  

What type of things get in the way of coaching or people reaching their potential? 

• Many times it the ego. Or I can do it alone mentality. This hinders people because there’s a greater impact we can have together.  
• To work through this, you can teach that with humility and bringing people together everyone can be successful.  
• This is where coaching people toward an abundance mentality comes in to play. There’s enough for everyone.  

Do you think leaders still need to be the smartest in the room and know it all? Is that the right philosophy? And do you think that mentality still exist today? 

• This mentality still exists today, however successful leaders exercise humility.  
• They want their direct reports and team mates to excel are the ones that see people stay long term and increase in productivity and employee engagement.  
• For leaders, humility is the highest skill set. If they develop that skill they will see their teams succeed wildly.  

What role does leader vulnerably play in building teams? 

• Vulnerability plays a big part of leading. If you want to know others, you need to be known. 
• A leader is leading the charge, they are guiding people in to uncharted waters, so they should do the same with being vulnerable. Leaders can show the way. 
• Start with being vulnerable in small chunks to build trust. i.e. share a mistake  
• It builds engagement with staff and drives team cohesiveness.  
• Being vulnerable might not always go as planned but it is important for leaders to put themselves out there and try.  

What are other key attributes of team cohesiveness? 

• Wanting others to succeed. 
• Know your team and know their emotional levels and personal why’s.
• When you know everyone’s personal whys you can connect better. I.e. communication, recognition.  
• When people feel heard and seen they will be more engaged in the organization success.  

Signs of an unhealthy team: 

• People taking credit for success individually.  
• Shucking responsibility for mistakes.
• No small talk between team members (no visual comradery).

What do you do with a toxic team member? 

• Have a crucial conversation with team member – in a one-in-one setting ask them questions to try to understand more about where the team member is coming from:
  • What do you love about our team interactions? 
  • What has been a highlight for you? 
  • What are your pain points right now? 
  • What could we do better? 
  • What can I do as a leader to better motivate you? Could reveal a blind spot for the leader.  

What are limiting beliefs? 

• Beliefs that prevent you from executing your full potential.
• One way to identify a limiting belief is to look for the word because. For example: “we possibly couldn’t expand into this county because I’m not talented enough to lead this charge.” The because is usually not true.  
• Often, we have built up beliefs in our lifetime and we don’t even know they exist until we talk to a coach to unearth them.  

How do you address limiting beliefs? 

• Get with mentor or coach to unearth those beliefs.  
• Once you’ve identified a limiting belief, take a simple action step towards conquering that belief.  
• Take a small step to tackle the belief. I.e. write the first page.  

What are your thoughts on affirmations? 

• Highly recommended – YouTube, books, post it notes, journals etc.  
• We  need to hear positive reinforcement.  
• Many people have never heard anyone tell them they are doing something positive in their whole life.  
• People usually don’t get enough encouragement, if any at all.  
• Developing these pathways for people is major. Bombard your mind with positive affirmations.  
• Like a superior athlete, one of the major keys to success is that they believe they can do it. 

How do make affirmations not feeling like lying to yourself? 

• Find the component of truth.  
• Focus on the positive. 
• Focus on when things did work not when they didn’t.  
• Begin to reframe and find the truth in the affirmation.  

How can you bridge the gap between where you are and where you want to be? 

• Take small steps.
• Don’t get overwhelmed with where you want to be. 
• Take small steps toward your affirmations (hire a coach, go on a webinar, have coffee with a leader you respect).

Top 3 takeaways: 

1) Hold on to your dream and vison for yourself personally and professionally. Strive for that vision.  

2) Build others up. Help others fulfill their dreams.  

3) Be kind to yourself. Reframe and continue to build on the positive.  

Connect with Dr. Clint Ladine: 
Website: https://www.successfullycoaching.com 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com 

On today’s show, we discuss what your company should be doing in the wake of a layoff.

Miriam Meima has been a Coach & Facilitator for over twenty years.  She has closely studied the overlap between business and psychology in effort to learn how to support her clients in finding simple ways to be authentic and effective simultaneously.  Miriam has coached founders/executives and supported leadership development strategies at Slack, Twitter, LinkedIn, Hims & Hers, Glassdoor, Glossier and 100s of start-ups of all sizes across industries and regions.  

She has worked closely with the thought leaders studying the link between culture and bottom-line success.  Miriam has a unique ability to understand an entire system and how to most effectively influence change, taking into consideration the infinite complexity of the individual, company and current market conditions. She is well known for her success with cultural change and often speaks on the topic of “How to Preserve your Culture While You Scale.” 

Miriam’s credentials include an MA in Organizational & Management Development, a BA in Business & Psychology. She is a Master Certified Coach with the International Coaching Federation, a Fellow at the Harvard Institute of Coaching and a member of Forbes Coaches Council.  Her work exists in the sweet spot blending left-brain research and right-brain creativity.  

After growing up in Ann Arbor, Michigan (United States), and living in Spain, Colorado and Hawaii, Miriam now lives in New York City with her husband.  Miriam believes she is doing the work she was born to do and greets each new day with a sense of optimism.  

Key Takeaways:

Advice for those in companies that are having to lay off and experiencing fear:

• Manage yourself first. Notice how you’re feeling and create a path to get back to bringing your best self.
• Don’t make any major life decisions for a bit.
• Focus on what you can control.
  • Solidify your value in the organization. Demonstrate your impact. Touch base with stakeholders to build bridges. Evaluate how you can improve.
  • Think about your next step if you do need another opportunity and connect with people that could help. Build the skills you will need if you decide to make a change.

As a manager, how do you help those on your team after a layoff?

• Normalize the change
• Be empathetic
• Provide short term wins
• Be more present and personable

As a leader, what if you see that your managers don’t have the skills to manage through a layoff? How should you prepare?

• Lean into the relationship the managers have with the organization. Their relationship with direct reports is an extension of that. Give managers a safe space to express their own negative feelings so they don’t express them to their direct reports.
• Be proactive and have a playbook to give them. Give them the information that they need to be able to move forward.

Symptoms of problems after a layoff:

• Pace of communication. If the pace slows, it’s possible your team is feeling insecure or overwhelmed and disengaging.
  • For these people, it’s great to rally the team and encourage them in the mission ahead.
• Stress level. Short bursts of high stress are expected, but there should be an end in sight. We don’t want to burn out the people we are retaining.
  • For these people, it’s great to have a conversation about priorities. Understand what the top ones are and be willing to let go of some of the lower ones without fear.

If the company does need to be leaner, how do you lead employees in the “less is more” mantra?

• Focus to find ways to work smarter, not harder.
• Have a brainstorming session on creative ways to change.
  • For optimization: Start – Stop – Continue exercise.
  • For innovation: Yes And exercise.

Top 3 Takeaways:

• Manage yourself first – take care of yourself.
• Be aware of the impact you’re having on others.
• Smile. Some of the most seasoned leaders can move through difficult problems with a smile, and that is accessible to more of us.

Connect with Miriam Meima:

Website: https://www.leaderswhosmile.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/miriam-meima/

On today’s show, we discuss why leaders are not making an impact in their organizations.

James Saliba is a certified coach, trainer, and public speaker with a BA, MBA, and over thirty years of experience in the leadership world.

His career began as a software engineer before being promoted to management in the IT industry, where he eventually became the VP of a $4 billion tech company. He worked tirelessly to gain the knowledge and experience to become a leader employees wanted to follow. He has been in the trenches and has conquered most challenges leaders face throughout their careers.

Jim adopted a growth mindset and created an atmosphere where employees were encouraged to experiment and were rewarded for their hard work. Mistakes were not seen as failures but rather as learning opportunities to make changes and improve. He has leveraged his years of experience and experimentation to develop the successful Triple E structure to help his clients get unstuck so they can progress to the next level of leadership.

Key Takeaways:

Symptoms of a gap between leadership and employees.

People are promoted because of their technical expertise, but they don’t have leadership skills, and they aren’t being trained in that area.

What do companies experience when this happens?

Top leaders will find themselves having to manage their managers much more to get what they need, rather than being able to focus on the growth and health of the organization. Because management doesn’t like to be micro-managed, turnover increases.

What are the skillsets needed for leadership?

Vision and Strategy – Can I build a vision for my team/department? What do I want this to look like one year from now?

Execution and Production – How well am I executing, and am I producing?

People and Processes – Can I make a change in my department, or is the corporate culture fighting me in this?

Executive Presence – Can I communicate well,  carry myself well, listen well to understand what’s going on, and can I put that information into action?

What should companies do to address this situation?

Coaching / Mentoring tends to be better than Leadership Training so that the employees have a chance to learn something, try it out, and then get feedback and further guidance. Sometimes companies have a hard time justifying the cost of this type of training, but it brings a good ROI in the long run in productivity and creativity.

What would you tell the individual that doesn’t feel like the company is investing in them?

Great advice from Brian Tracy – Invest 3% of your salary into yourself and your growth.

How can you get the most out of training?

Be intentional about practicing what you learn as soon as possible. You can also find great training as free content on podcasts or social media platforms. Investing 3% of your time is a great strategy as well.

Is there a limit to how much a leader can learn? Is there a ceiling?

There are always new things to learn, and if we aren’t continuing to learn, people will pass us by.

4 Fears of Leadership

• Fear of being incompetent
• Fear of appearing foolish
• Fear of failure
• Fear of being vulnerable

How can we move past the fear?

• Identify the fear.
• Ask yourself- What is the worst thing that could happen?
• Put things in place to deal with the worst thing.
• Then take the risk.

How do I plan my growth? Ask yourself –

• Where am I now – strengths, weaknesses, values?
• How do I currently engage the world or my personal environment?
• Where do I want to be a year from now?
• How can I get where I want to go?
• How am I doing? Evaluate your progress frequently.

3 Top Things to Focus on:

• Self-awareness – Being able to look at what’s going on in you and around you to understand what things you need to tackle.
• Self-development – We are constantly learning and changing the environment around us.
• Support – Don’t do it alone.

Connect with James Saliba:

Website: https://jamessaliba.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessaliba/

Jim’s book: The Six-Step Leadership Challenge

On today’s show, we discuss what the steps are to building and retaining a solid team.

Mark Oristano has led a life a lot of sports fans would envy spending 30 years in the NFL broadcasting games for the Dallas Cowboys and Houston Oilers. Plus a good portion of that time was spent working several jobs in the front office of one of America’s most famous and successful teams, the original Dallas Cowboys.

Mark worked under legendary Cowboy president and GM Tex Schramm learning his management style – a style that kept employees engaged and working for the team for decades. Tex also created a front office system that was the envy of the pro sports world.

Key Takeaways:

What was the measure of success for your team?

Success on the field was winning the Super Bowl. Success off the field was helping the team win the Super Bowl.

During the season, everything was run by checklists and procedures set in place. During the off-season, all of the checklists and procedures were re-evaluated to see if they should change or improve based on how the season went.

How do we keep great people?

• Hire the best people you can find. They will cost you more up front, but it’s worth it.
• Train them your way. Explain why you do things the way you do them to gain adoption.
• Let them do their jobs. Don’t micro-manage.
• Implement the Golden Rule – treat your employees the way you want to be treated.

How do you find the right talent that is a good fit for your organization? You want people who:

• Understand the basics
• Are eager to learn more
• Have a desire to be a part of the team

How do you set up a new hire for success?

• Give employees permission to not know the answer, but be able to find it and bring it to you.
• Convey to employees that they all have a role to play. If they take care of the little things, the project will work. Everyone’s contribution matters.

3 Top Takeaways:

• Decrease turnover. It costs 1/3 of the departing employee’s salary to replace them.
• Be certain that you are receptive to your employees’ ideas, problems, and thoughts.
• It’s not about you. It’s about the team.

Connect with Mark Oristano:

Website: https://www.leadwithprinciple.com/

Mark’s course: https://www.leadwithprinciple.com/courses/lead-with-principle

On today’s show, we discuss how to optimize operations within your organization.

Tommy Yionoulis has been in the restaurant industry for nearly his entire adult life. He has a BSBA from University of Denver’s Hotel Restaurant school in addition to an MBA. This former stand-up comic turned SaaS founder, has extensive experience helping businesses become more efficient and profitable through process, accountability, and data.  He’s currently the Managing Director of OpsAnalitica, an Operations Analytics platform that focuses on managing and measuring daily team activities for large multi-unit businesses.  Tommy believes that the next big technological disruptor event for many businesses is going to be implementing Operations Management software to shape the future of work and beat our competitors through better, more consistent daily operations.

Key Takeaways:

Why do we need to optimize our operations?

We are not suffering from a lack of knowledge, but too much information and too many things to track. The human brain can only keep a few things in mind at a time. Leaders have already identified the things that they know they should do to stay on top of things, but they cannot translate that knowledge into consistent action at the location level. Often, an employee missing one step in the middle of a multi-step process will cause the process to fail.

What are the symptoms that indicate a problem? What is the trigger point?

Unfortunately, without implementing operations management software, an organization may not realize they have a problem. KPI indicators will lag. For instance, by the time the sales numbers indicate a problem, the business has been suffering for a while, and it may take years to win customers back.

How does the solution get you more instantaneous feedback? What is being measured and how does an organization know what action to take?

At the location level – It takes the guesswork out of running the business by scheduling a series of tasks and checklists.

At the upper level – It allows teams to be more effective and efficient. Corporate brings on people to manage multiple locations. The solution allows these managers to watch what’s happening in real-time. When there are issues, the solution alerts the managers.

How do you avoid “death by checklist”?

Checklists often need to be done at busy times, so they need to be focused and smart. Real-time collaboration can allow several people to check things together and be more efficient. Randomization helps ensure good coverage over a series of things that need to be checked as well.

How can a business promote adoption of the system?

Adoption is dependent upon the priority structure of the business. Part of the systems can be time-based to ensure things are done at the optimum time and promote accountability. Process and systems-driven businesses are the ones that succeed.

What are some of the key things a business should think about when wanting to optimize its operations?

• Get started soon. Let the data influence you over time to make it better. Don’t wait to figure it all out.
• Keep the process simple and track everything.

Top Takeaways:

• Operations management is the next technological battlefield that we will all be in. In the multi-location business of the future, you’ll be collecting data from 5 places:
  • POS
  • Internet – social media
  • Checklist platform
  • Robots
  • Sensors
• The key will be to bring all of that information together and turn it into real-time actions that solve the problems that are affecting the customers. Jump in on an ops program to get the data and take it seriously.

Connect with Tommy Yionoulis

Website: https://opsanalitica.com/