The strength of a team lies in the relationships that bind its members. This episode goes beyond surface-level interactions to delve into the essence of fostering genuine connections within a team. Hear Emmy and Mae discuss the impact of aligning the team with humble, hungry, and smart individuals who embody the company's mission. Learn about the trust that this alignment nurtures and the amplification of potential it leads to. But beware - they also expose the possible sabotage and manipulation that can ensue from having individuals not sync with the team's objectives.
The strength of a team lies in the relationships that bind its members. This episode goes beyond surface-level interactions to delve into the essence of fostering genuine connections within a team. Hear Emmy and Mae discuss the impact of aligning the team with humble, hungry, and smart individuals who embody the company's mission. Learn about the trust that this alignment nurtures and the amplification of potential it leads to. But beware - they also expose the possible sabotage and manipulation that can ensue from having individuals not sync with the team's objectives.
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Speaker 1:
This is Unleashing Leadership and I'm your host, travis Moss, and you are listening to a special team interview with some amazing women, emmy and May. We are going to be diving into their actual real life experience with some of the lessons learned from Surrounded by Idiots, how they've applied them, what they've learned. There are 13 episodes in all. I know 13 is a lot, right? 13 entire days of listening to takeaways on Surrounded by Idiots, but there were 13 unique and complete thoughts about what you can do to use this information in your life to better your client experience, to better your employee experience, to better your business experience, to better your own experience. We didn't want to waste any of them. So there's 13 straight from the heart, life changing takeaways with lots of laughs and even some tears.
Speaker 1:
Emmy and May are some of my team members at Seed Planning Group and you can get a face with a name and more information about them from seedpgcom that's S-E-E-D-P-Gcom, and I want to encourage you to go there and look them up, because if they say something special or something that touches your life or leaves an impression to you, or you have a question about some of the things that they've mentioned because again they're living this they deserve to know how special they are. Let them know so, without further ado, please enjoy.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, and I think it goes to not just being self-aware of what you can contribute to meet that 100% or offset you know if they're maybe at 60% but also giving them the space to tell you what they need. You know you can't pour from an empty cup and when you know what fills your cup or fills the cup of your team and you are willing to do what you can so they have that space to refill their cup, so they can do 100%, that is where that strength comes from. You know, may is very, very much extroverted. She loves people, she loves taking care of them, she loves making their experience, you know, top notch with internal and external. And every once in a while she needs to be able to crawl in that hole and say I need less people today. I need a day where I can work from home and just actually pound out some work without having to be on per se.
Speaker 3:
And that helps fill her cup and having those conversations and understanding the different color personalities and you know what might fill their cup. For a blue it might be. Let me have two hours to just mess around with some analytics and a spreadsheet that might fill their cup, so then they can go and do the other things. That drains it.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I think being aware of we talk about this when we talk about productivity and some of the stuff that we do.
Speaker 2:
We're trying to keep ourselves on task when we're overwhelmed and stuff being aware of what winds you up and what unwinds you is so important, but the team being able to say that person, right there, we need to let them unwind a little bit and we need to take the pressure off, and I think that that's you know. Good reinforcement is when you say, hey, you know, it's okay, we got you. Like, if May comes in and she's at 70%, instead of the team saying what's wrong with you, May, you're normally 100, why are you at 70? What's wrong with you? It's like, May, you're normally at the hundred. What can we do so that you don't have to use all 70% today? Yeah, that's.
Speaker 4:
That's really good, because that was actually something I wanted to kind of touch on, because I think as big as a yellow can feel when the yellow doesn't feel big, you notice that right. Like there is a huge difference. When I come in on a day that I'm like ready to go, I'm ready to good morning it up, I'm ready to get some coffee going, I want to talk to everybody, and then there are days where, like you said, their life is happening and I I can't guarantee myself that I'm going to be able to show up in the same way every day, let alone guarantee everyone else. And so I think one of the most freeing things that I have been able to find, primarily within SEED and this team because of our closeness, is that that's okay and it's not a lack. Like there is nothing lacking about me because I look different on a day compared to a different day, Because what it provides is an opportunity for other people to show up and to tap in to their, their own strengths and their.
Speaker 4:
You know I love you guys and I love the way that I am valued here, but the same that you talk about me, I feel for you and me. I mean, I think there is such beauty in the abilities that you guys have, and I think the point that I'm trying to get to is that we all have an opportunity to amplify those gifts, and so me lacking doesn't mean that there's lack there. It means that there is an opportunity for me to trust and to be surrounded by safety and for other people to be able to shine in different ways, and what that looks like.
Speaker 2:
And I think that that's so important too, because let's say that you're going through a time and you need that break, right, you need that refresh, and somebody fills in and they do an admirable job, right, just to go both ways too. But we'll follow this path first. It doesn't mean that that person's also going to take your job or should fill your position, or is going to be able to withstand that situation indefinitely. And from a leadership perspective, it's very hard sometimes because they're like oh, emmy filled in for me perfectly, emmy must be just like me. And it's like no, emmy is not anything like me.
Speaker 2:
Emmy is like Emmy and she brings to the table her skills and what not, and she's doing her best may interpret impersonation, because that's what the team needs and because she's she's trying to do may justice, right, and I think that that's you know. It's just so important to realize that. And I think it goes the other way to from a standpoint of well, I totally forgot where that one was going to go. These things happen. What are they thinking about there? Can't go the other way, because let's see, like Emmy, I'm gonna fill this for you.
Speaker 2:
Oh, let's say that you're doing your job and you're doing you're normally doing an amazing job, right? And then all of a sudden, you're having a bad time. So the natural inclination is for everybody to start judging you and say, oh, you know, you're just no good at this anymore. You're, you have no passion for it or anything, instead of saying, look, that is, she, is who she is and, like you said, that meter is not going to be full every single day and that's okay and the team needs to be able to trust in that. But they get you back to trust and communication, right, because if you're feeling like that, if you're feeling tired because that's the feeling, reds have it, everybody has it.
Speaker 2:
You feel tired, right, the grind gets to you and you need to have people around you that you can trust, that you can say I'm tired right now. You know, or I'm exhausted by this or I'm okay. That took a lot out of me, right. I got you know. I took 50 body punches yesterday and or last week or last quarter, and I'm gonna be fine. You guys don't need to worry about that. But what you do need to do is kind of keep the wolves off my back for the next week, right, just give me some space and let me recover will be good, but you need to have people around you that you can trust enough to be able to say that to. Where they're not like Okay, how can I take advantage of the situation where they're not like well, screw you, that's your problem. They're actually that invested and interested in you, and I think that that's where the dynamics of the team come from too, because if you only have people like you, you're only ever really gonna hear people who talk like you.
Speaker 2:
Mm-hmm right, yellows kind of. When you talk to a yellow, they all kind of have a certain way of shaping the world. And red stew and blue stew and greens do right, and so if you're a room full of blues, you you're kind of gonna get lost and being a nerd Right, and sometimes you need somebody to come and say look, pay attention to this over here. Yes, it's not on your spreadsheets, but it's really important and you know, same thing with all the different colors, like it's. We need to get that perspective from other people. But we also need to trust each other and say you know, I believe in where you're going with this and why you're coming across this way, and I think understanding the, the dominant personality traits of somebody helps us understand when that person probably needs that kind of help.
Speaker 3:
Mm-hmm. It allows you to foster genuine relationships and I think too many companies have the perspective of leave your life at the door. And Life is life, it's all encompassing, it's personal, it's professional. And when you Acknowledge that and you foster these relationships and you understand that a person's you know cup gets filled or emptied by all Aspects, it allows them to be real with you, to be open, which which grows and strengthens that team, because then everyone can support Everyone when it's needed.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, but you do have to have the trust component there. You have to make sure that somebody's not bringing drama in for like attention or because they're dumping garbage on people or because they have the wrong intentions. I think that I get back to the last book we did with the ideal team player and gets back to the whole humble, hungry, smart framework. And if, if your team is full of people who are hungry, humble and smart and who have bought into your mission, it really allows you to use tools like this for maximum effectiveness, because you know that they're there for the right reasons in the first place, right For either one of you.
Speaker 2:
If you weren't that type of person and you were having these discussions with each other, one of you would be using it against the other one to sabotage and set them up.
Speaker 2:
You know, and sometimes there's not even any personal game, it's like you know, I mean it could be somebody, I mean you could be you as the boss and and you're trying to manipulate may or may as the Employee, trying to manipulate me, even though there's no game for either of you. You see this at different places where you've worked and it's like what is the point of that? You're just, you know, wrecking each other to wreck each other, and you have an environment where you don't have that because you're sticking. You have that framework already in place. You have a mission of what you guys trying to do together, and now you have common, you know, respect for each other and a better understanding of why each other is doing what they're doing. So it's like this is why you're so good at what you do. This is why I'm good at what I do. Now we can actually respect each other's roles better.