Ever imagine a workplace where everyone feels valued, collaboration is the norm and little victories are celebrated? Our insightful conversation with business management expert, Justine Beauregard, takes you on a journey to create just that. Justine discusses practical, easy-to-implement tips that inspire proactive action, turning traditional hierarchies into teams that work together like clockwork. Together, we shine a light on National Bosses Day and its power to encourage better leadership and highlight the importance of creating a workplace environment where every member feels appreciated.
As we continue our chat with Justine, she introduces us to the insightful book by Simon Sinek, 'Leaders Eat Last', and how investing in your team can create a dynamic and supportive workplace like no other. Discover the importance of defining your mission, vision, and values, and learn how to utilize the strengths of your team members to achieve these goals. We wrap our discussion delving into resources for bosses to grow and how best to draw out the talents of your team, ensuring that your workplace becomes a powerhouse of success. Join us in this empowering conversation and embark on your journey to become a better leader for your team!
Visit www.hollycurby.com for more information and to sign up for the monthly Holly's Happenings e-newsletter. Holly's Highlights podcast and the opinions and ideas shared within it are for entertainment purposes only. The advice should be confirmed with a qualified professional.
Ever imagine a workplace where everyone feels valued, collaboration is the norm and little victories are celebrated? Our insightful conversation with business management expert, Justine Beauregard, takes you on a journey to create just that. Justine discusses practical, easy-to-implement tips that inspire proactive action, turning traditional hierarchies into teams that work together like clockwork. Together, we shine a light on National Bosses Day and its power to encourage better leadership and highlight the importance of creating a workplace environment where every member feels appreciated.
As we continue our chat with Justine, she introduces us to the insightful book by Simon Sinek, 'Leaders Eat Last', and how investing in your team can create a dynamic and supportive workplace like no other. Discover the importance of defining your mission, vision, and values, and learn how to utilize the strengths of your team members to achieve these goals. We wrap our discussion delving into resources for bosses to grow and how best to draw out the talents of your team, ensuring that your workplace becomes a powerhouse of success. Join us in this empowering conversation and embark on your journey to become a better leader for your team!
Visit www.hollycurby.com for more information and to sign up for the monthly Holly's Happenings e-newsletter. Holly's Highlights podcast and the opinions and ideas shared within it are for entertainment purposes only. The advice should be confirmed with a qualified professional.
Speaker 1:
Hi friends, welcome to Holly's Highlights, a podcast designed to encourage, inspire and accrue you to intentionally live your life full of purpose. I'm your host, holly Kirby, motivational speaker, leadership cultivator, marketing strategist and personal cheerleader. Let's check out today's highlight. Today we are highlighting Boss's Day and, as we'll discuss, one of the ways to be a better boss is to invest in you and your team. Whether you're looking for some one-on-one guidance that focuses on a specific need or growth in your own leadership skills, or you're wanting to develop your leaders and help empower them to improve their overall performance while effectively achieving their goals, leadership coaching can help. As Forbes recently pointed out, there are so many benefits of coaching, such as self-awareness, self-confidence and self-leadership. They went on to report that 70% of individuals who received coaching benefited from improved work performance, relationships and more effective communication skills. I'd be honored to come alongside you and your team in providing leadership coaching as we tackle timely issues going on in your workplace to produce immediate application and effective impact. Together, we can help your team collaborate more productively and prepare for the ongoing changes in your workplace. With 20 years in executive leadership, a master's in leadership and management and certified as a live coach, I've partnered with companies, big and small, who have seen valuable results through our time together. I'd welcome the opportunity to come alongside you and your team to grow as leaders. Scuttle your first coaching call for the month of October 2023 and receive November and December half off. Connect with me on my website at hollycurbycom or via email at hello at hollycurbycom. That's H-O-L-L-Y-C-U-R-B-Ycom. Spots are limited, so contact me today.
Speaker 1:
On October 16th, we will celebrate National Bosses Day and, according to Hallmark Corporate, the company who has a special greeting card for any and all occasions, national Bosses Day began in 1958 when Patricia Bays Horoski, then an employee of state farm insurance company in Deerfield Illinois, she registered the holiday with the US Chamber of Commerce. Now, ms Horoski chose October 16th, as it was her father's birthday, and that date for National Bosses Day because she felt he was an exemplary boss, so something really special that came from a very special day. Now, according to Indeed, bosses Day gives a chance for employees to express their gratitude to their employers or managers, but it's also seen as a way for the relationship between managers and employees to be strengthened. Now, I'm sure we all have different ways. We've celebrated this day for our bosses, from a signed card, an organized potluck at lunch, a special cake, to even collecting money for a gift card or an engraved pen or even an office plant.
Speaker 1:
But as a leader, this day can also be an opportunity to thank those who support you as a boss and therefore can encourage us to be a better leader, a better boss for them going forward. So today we have Justine Beauregard with us and, as someone who has worked with small and family owned non-profit and businesses of up to $300 million, she can absolutely pour some insight into what consistently creates incredible leadership across the board. Now, justine is known for sharing practical, easy to implement tips in an engaging way with the audience of all sizes and demographics, so I'm so excited to have her on Holly's Highlights today. Welcome, justine. Thank you so much. Great to be here. Oh, pleasure is all ours. I think we should go ahead and just dive right into it, because we have a lot to cover of what are some of the challenges that bosses and leaders face today.
Speaker 2:
I love this question. Well, there are so many and it's definitely subjective, but I would say one of the biggest things and I've noticed this when I hire my own employees and people to help me in my business is inspiring proactive action. So what I notice a lot is leaders can sometimes kind of teeter the line between manager and leader, and what I think really separates a leader, a true leader, is being able to cultivate an environment where your employees or people that work on your team really kind of take ownership of what they're doing, and so, instead of always putting out fires and reacting to circumstances, they're coming to you with proactive solutions. And it's something that I always highlight when I'm hiring is I want you to be proactive. If you need a meeting, you tell me when you want to meet, you tell me what the topic is, you set up the meeting, invite, you send it to me. I don't want to have to go back and forth five times to set up a simple meeting. Or if there's something that you notice that is inefficient or needs some changes, I want you to step up and take ownership of that and not just tell me about it. Come up with a solution, come up with a couple of next steps that we can take to measure and start to improve things so that it's easier for me to say yes and support you as a leader.
Speaker 2:
Because when you cultivate that environment of proactive action, I think a lot of things that are struggles and challenges at the top end of leadership become less problematic because you have a team that's really working for you and with you and it just cultivates a really beautiful environment of collaboration and teamwork too. So that's definitely one of the big challenges. I think another one is retaining top talent, and when we take that action to make our team more proactive and kind of overcome some of those challenges, just by cultivating really good leaders from bottom up, we can retain top talent so much easier because people feel like they have ownership of what they're doing day to day and they feel respected and valued way more because they're able to kind of take control of some of those things that they notice and see. And there's so much value deeply rooted in lower level team members because it's not about hierarchy, it's about giving people that ownership and that responsibility so that they can take it to the next level and when they feel valued and appreciated and we've seen this so many times.
Speaker 2:
They end up staying, even if the pay is less, even if the benefits aren't as good, because they feel so valued in such a part of the core team that they wanna stay. And most people stay in an organization not for the organization, not even for the pay, for the people, for the culture, for the experience. When we wake up every day looking forward to going to work, feeling valued, feeling seen, feeling like you're part of something bigger, you really wanna be part of that. It's like being part of a crew team Everyone's moving in the same motion and they're all going forward and there's no one kind of holding up the ship and the progress. And to go into work every day feeling like you're part of that progress, that feels really good.
Speaker 1:
I can agree more. I think the first one that you hit on is that, instead of just being a problem identifier which I think bothers all of us as leaders right when everyone's pointing out, oh this is wrong, this is wrong, okay then what are we gonna do about it? So being that problem solver is so crucial. But then you hit, I think you nailed it with the culture, which is so important in retaining our team for sure, and I love that. I love being able to be a part of a culture that is encouraging and inspiring and equipping, because so many people just wanna be seen, and when you just show them the acknowledgement of I see you, I value you, I appreciate you, as you said, that is tenfold over whatever they could make somewhere else in their industry. So true so true.
Speaker 1:
Now, if I challenged you to give us three tips or ways to be a better boss, what would you say? And can you walk us through each one of those?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so the first thing I would say is praise the little moments. I think a lot of people wait for those big wins to celebrate somebody, but it's in those small moments that the acknowledgement really builds to the bigger wins quicker. So when there's a little thing that someone does, like taking a proactive action right, like bringing a solution to the table, even if it's something really small, like the way that we organize our team meetings could change subtly and create a better flow for everybody, that one suggestion is worthy of praise, of recognition, and it doesn't have to be monetary, but it's great. When it is too right, like someone does a great job and you say, hey, let's take you to lunch today to celebrate that win, or let me give you a gift card for gas, or something really simple and small to just acknowledge the employee for the work that they're putting in and the solutions are coming up with. And that also cultivates the environment of not just retention but also more proactive problem solving, more critical thinking, more boldness and courage to be able to speak up and say the things that you wanna say. And I think a lot of leadership is encouraging that, because we can stifle people when they're doing little, small things and they're just like oh well, I guess the team structure like I mean, I had that solution, but I didn't really feel rewarded, so I'm not gonna go back and create something else, like I'm gonna spend my time on me and my personal development or with my family instead. But when we reward and highlight those things, it really creates a more dynamic partnership with each employee, making them feel that value.
Speaker 2:
I think another thing is that leadership is a team sport. Right, we think about it like top down, but really it's side to side. We're all locking arms. We all have strengths and capabilities that support the overall goals of the company and their organization. So when we can bring people in and enroll them in the process of leadership and how we lead them, how they desire to be led, how they want their entire team environment to look like, how they like to collaborate with others, it's sort of taking that golden rule and turning it into the platinum rule.
Speaker 2:
I don't want to treat you how I would want to be treated. I'm leading you and I want to know how you want to be led. I want to know how you want to be treated because when I know that, I know that my feedback for you is going to be better received. I know that things aren't going to be missed, I know that you're going to feel more valued, and so it's all of that coming together. When you make it a team sport, and it's not just this person directing this person directing this person until it goes from top to bottom, because that becomes like a game of telephone Things get missed, things get lost, people don't feel respected or seen or valued. Things start shifting in the organization turn over, grows and then more stress comes in on the organization and, as we know, when people are not happy and they end up leaving, we can invest six to nine months getting someone on board and really embedded in the organization. So you're wasting a lot of time and money not spending time just taking the extra five to 10 minutes to really bring people in and enroll them in the process of leadership.
Speaker 2:
And then the last thing I love Simon Sinek. I think he's an amazing resource for leadership. I'm sure everybody who listens to your podcast listens to Simon Sinek because he's wonderful. But there is a book one of the books that changed my life that he wrote is Leaders Eat Last, and he tells the story of how leadership is like a family.
Speaker 2:
So when there was a recession in 2008, there was a company and I can't remember the person's name, but I think it was Bill Chapman or something like that but there was this company and they had to face a big decision Do we lay people off and have them lose their jobs, or do we enroll the entire company to take a blanket cut and figure out how to make it work? And they ended up having certain employees who made a little bit more money, household income wise, who were happy to take a two weeks sabbatical, unpaid, to be able to kind of share the burden of the lower economic downturn and say, listen, we don't need the extra money. This person who's a single mom who has three kids to support, really needs the extra hours. Instead of laying that person off, let's give her some of our hours. Let's kind of spread the burden, just like we spread the wealth when we're doing great right.
Speaker 2:
And it's that concept of looking out for one another, caring for each other, really putting the people before the needs of the profit or the bottom line or the organization as a whole, because the people are what make a company profitable and when you have a strong team like that people show up and they do things for each other that make them want to be loyal to the company too, that make them want to show up differently when they go to work, and it's that sort of antithesis of the classic leadership style of last hired, first fired.
Speaker 2:
It's we're slow to fire people. We want to nurture them, we want to take responsibility when they're not showing up. And obviously, yes, we still have to fire people sometimes. We still have to do layoffs sometimes. It's a difficult decision we have to make as leaders. But if we can as much as possible treat it like a family and see people as people, as important, as valued, as humans, instead of numbers on a spreadsheet, we're going to create a very different dynamic in the workplace, where we don't even have to ask people to stay late or show up or step up. They offer because they're happy to be part of that environment. So those are the three things that I would really focus on.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, it all goes into that care, just showing the basic care for people right, and so many companies are missing that. And I love that you pointed out that book, because that actually is one on my bookshelf and I love it. So, yes, if you have not read it, definitely read that. Leaders Eat Last. It's a wonderful leadership book. I think it's a great book for anyone, even if you don't claim yourself as a leader. I think there's a lot that we can soak up from that book. So now you just kind of touched on the care itself, but one thing we as leaders hear again and again is the importance of investing in others not just caring for them, but investing in others, building that bench, so to speak. So what can that action plan look like?
Speaker 2:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
So at first, I think it's so important to define your mission, vision and values as a company and get everybody on board. Like step one is really figuring out what is everyone's goal and then what's the goal of the company, so that we have a direction, because you can't have an action plan unless everyone's kind of on the same page and having that destination in mind. So definitely starting there and getting really clear. I love going to companies websites and seeing their mission, vision and values highlighted right on the page, like if you go to Amazon's website or even Google's website, like big companies, they all have a page about their values and how they lead their teams, and I think that's super important to really set yourself up for success in knowing how and where to invest in your people and make sure that everyone's going toward the same kind of end result as a collective. And then, I think, identifying the strengths of the team and leveraging them Right. So figuring out is there a skills gap over here, but this person's the right fit, or do we have to maybe create a program to invest in people, to kind of build a certification on this side, to make sure that there is some consistency here, or are people asking for support in certain ways to really show up differently. Do they want certain lunch and learns or workshops, or how do they want to be supported in terms of materials and you know things that they need? Sometimes, especially through COVID and we've seen this multiple times even before the pandemic Sometimes people need more flexibility in their schedule. How do we hold them accountable? What tools do we give them that we can invest in to make sure that they are working at their best? And I think, too, with that, there's sort of like a sub category of that, one which is understanding that we're not paying for time. Right, like.
Speaker 2:
A lot of people focus on the 40 hour work week, and I'm all about like, maximize your time and be productive and all of those things. But especially with the culture of today and having that remote work kind of coming into play, it's not about putting in a full eight hours. It's about fulfilling your mission as an employee and getting the work done that you need to do, and I think people should be rewarded for their efficiency. If you're getting all of your 40 hour work week done in 30 hours, take 10 hours off, right like you're fulfilling your job description, and so even subtle investments like that, where we honor. These are the things that you signed on for as an employee and these are the things that you got done. I don't care if it takes you 20 hours, I don't care if it takes you 50 hours. Some people are going to pay a tax on being less efficient and some people are going to get rewarded for that, and I think that's such a beautiful way to reward people and invest in them and kind of build that bench.
Speaker 2:
And then the last thing is really find ways to measure success, set simple goals and bring everyone on board. So we've heard I'm a sales trainer and coach by trade so we've heard of gamification, bringing people in and kind of setting different goals and hitting them and milestones and prizes and incentives and all of these things which work really well on sales, but I think they work really well overall. Like people love to be rewarded, they love to be appreciated. One of the top love languages is gifts, right, and so if we can find ways to really set those simple goals and milestones so that everyone knows what they're after, I find this so common, where people just want a lot out of their employees but they don't get clear on what it is that they do want, and not everybody is enrolled in those goals.
Speaker 2:
So when we ask our employees like, how's it going this month?
Speaker 2:
And they're like good, I think you know, like I'm doing what I was gonna do.
Speaker 2:
I said I was gonna do these things and I did those things. But how do we know they're successful? How do we make them accountable to their goals? How do we create a secondary layer of accountability and encouragement for our teams and invest in those things to make sure that not only are they being hit, but they're also top of mind all the time? People are just knowing it and they're excited about it and they're energized about it. And sometimes that's just asking your team, really sending out an email and saying what's gonna make this month the best month for you? What types of incentives would you love to see? Instead of ordering pizza for everyone and half of your staff is gluten intolerant or doesn't like cheese, you're asking them like, what's gonna motivate you? For some people it's gonna be a trip to Hawaii, for other people it's gonna be subtle, small gifts throughout the year, and just knowing how people like to be rewarded and how you want to measure success as a company is gonna help everybody really feel energized around the momentum that you're creating as a team.
Speaker 1:
Absolutely. I hear in all of that the overarching theme of collaborate, of working together, because things aren't cookie cutter, so finding what is going to work for each person. And one thing I have to point out and this kind of goes into my next question for you is you are a woman after my own heart mentioning the love languages, because I absolutely am a firm believer of love languages. We've done an episode back in. I think it was season two or around, maybe season three or a episode three or four. But yes, I think it's so important to learn your teams love languages and know how to love on them, how they like to receive and be seen. It's not the same from one person to the other. And that goes into the question of what resources are available for bosses looking to grow as a leader. I mean there's one of them. Learn the languages of your team, the five love languages. We've mentioned that leaders eat last, but from Simon Sinek. So what are some other resources you might suggest?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, well, first of all, Simon Sinek. Anything of his his YouTube channel, his Instagram videos, his everything he's ever done the Infinite Game is another great book. Start With why? Another great book. His TED Talk about the Golden Circle, like all of those things I just can't praise him enough. He's one of my favorite authors. A beautiful writer Love it.
Speaker 2:
I think another thing is personality assessments. Like I love the Enneagram, I actually invested thousands of dollars into learning about my Enneagram style and the Enneagram style of people that I support and who work under me and my clients. And all of that Because knowing the style of the people that you work with. It could be disk, it could be Myers-Briggs, it could be any of these types of personality styles. But just knowing this person is naturally a high performer. This person is naturally a great supporter. This person is very dynamic and has, like a movable skill set. This person is very static and logical and needs to work in this type of role Understanding how people fit into the organization and support each other, and knowing what's a good cultural fit for the team, like some teams do really well when everybody is sort of more logical or everybody is more creative.
Speaker 2:
Others really need the balance and the ebb and flow of those different personality styles and knowing we really need an Enneagram 3 in this position. We need somebody who's a go-getter, who's an overachiever, who knows what they're after, who doesn't stop until the work is done, or we need someone who's a really amazing, compassionate support person. They're probably going to be more of a two or a nine, so let's take a look at their Enneagram style and make sure that we do some assessments and find the right fit. And also just knowing your type, knowing how you show up, like I'm an Enneagram 8, which means I'm sort of I am a leader. That is the Enneagram 8 personality style as we lead and so just knowing what type of leader I want to be, just understanding my need for a person and to really learn how I'm going to be a leader for this organization and how I support people and my compassion for the underdog, like how does that show up?
Speaker 2:
Really, learning those personality styles is so critical and I think another thing that's massively, massively overlooked and I talk about this a lot with sales teams specifically but understanding who the top performers are in your organization and leveraging them. They are one of your best resources or one person who's outperforming everyone else. It usually is the case. There's usually one person per department. That's really crushing it. Having them teach your other employees what they're doing.
Speaker 2:
Or having a rotational schedule where we take the strengths of each team member and let's just say we bring in one of the lower level people that seems to be low performing but has a really amazing penchant for customer service, and having them share their beliefs, perspectives, their processes for really enrolling people into a beautiful customer service process, even though the rest of their work is average. We take that strength and we leverage it among the team and we do that throughout all aspects of the team. Again, everyone feels acknowledged, everyone feels seen and appreciated for their skill set and you don't have to pay an outside organization to come in and do skill building and do training or pay for certifications, because everything is already fostered and sitting within your organization. It's mining for value. So those are the things that I would definitely pay attention to.
Speaker 1:
So true, I think you just hit on a gold mine of using your own talent. There have been so many times that I've seen where it's well, let's hire out of these thousands of dollars because they're an outsider, so they must know better, and it's like. But you're sitting there with a crop of people who are skilled in this area and can teach it just as well, can share their experience and their knowledge and just be able to ignite that fire because they're within the team. So I know the organization.
Speaker 2:
That's the most beautiful part. They understand the dynamics of the team and they can present that in a way where they might not be the best presenters, that might not be their zone of genius, but they can say and you know what, Paul, you'd actually be really good at this thing. Or, and you know what, Stacey, let's bring you in on this thing, because I've noticed that you do this and an outsider is never going to be able to recognize those strengths within the team and be able to present that way. And the more you cultivate that environment, the more people are excited to build those skill sets and become better presenters, which helps them show up better in their job as well.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, not to even mention the buy-in. I mean, you have someone that has extreme buy-in of their own company versus an insider that is there to check in, check out. That's right, oh true, yeah, justine, I'm sure we'll have leaders wanting to connect with you further, so how can they do so?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so they can email me, justine at JustineBowardcom or JustineJBoward on LinkedIn, or at JustineBoward Coach on Instagram or Facebook.
Speaker 1:
Perfect. I'll make sure to put all of those in the show notes too, for you listeners. Now, Justine, here on Holly's Highlights, we have a signature question. If you could go back and encourage, inspire or equip yourself as a young child, what would you tell your young self?
Speaker 2:
Oh, so many things I think I would start with. I sort of have a life mantra which is do less better. So I've always been kind of the person that sits in the front of the class and raises their hand and overstudies and overlearns and overworks and overdelivers. Like I'm just, I'm a go-getter. You would think I was an Enneagram 3, but I'm not.
Speaker 2:
And when I think about how little we have to do to have a beautiful life, it really it inspires me as an adult in hindsight, 2020, I look back and think you know what, if I did half of what I did, but I did it better, if I really lasered in on what felt good and I invested in the things that I knew really drove me or really inspired me or motivated me or wanted that I wanted more, it would give me such better outcomes and I'm grateful for everything to date.
Speaker 2:
Obviously, like that's what made me who I am today.
Speaker 2:
But I think that there's there's sort of courage in those decisions and those small moments where we can decide. Instead of taking on more, instead of pushing ourselves further, instead of getting massively uncomfortable all the time, what if we just sat back and allowed ourselves to have that courage in those small moments to kind of lean in and trust and do a little bit less and really kind of refine how we wanted it to feel and how we wanted it to look. And I think that you don't need to take big swings to knock it out of the park. You can bunt sometimes, like if we're talking about a baseball analogy and get a home run. There are people already on base to support you and especially when it comes to leadership, like knowing when your big plays are and when you've got to downplay it a little bit and lean in and live and be present and enjoy the process is so important. So I wish that I could go back and tell myself that and I hope that someone listening is inspired by it and just takes that minute to reflect today.
Speaker 1:
Very insightful. Thank you so much, justine, for joining us today. If you'd like to learn more on being a better boss, feel free to check out the article in the City Journal in Utah that will be coming out in October. I wrote that and just submitted it the other day. So looking forward to more additional tips that we haven't even shared today. And then also you can check out some of our other episodes, such as season one, episode three, on being a leader. Others follow, and then season two, episode six, on building, developing and empowering teams. So both of those would take us just to that next level in some of the things that Justine has shared with us today, so grateful.
Speaker 1:
As Charles Wilson has said, a good boss makes his team realize they have more ability than they think that they have, so that they can consistently do better work than they thought that they could. So happy Boss's Day Now go, encourage, inspire and equip your team. Thanks, justine, thank you. Thank you for joining me on this journey of life. I hope that today's highlight has been encouraging, inspiring and equipping so you can go out and live your life full of purpose. I'd be honored if you'd take a moment to leave a review or, better yet subscribe. We can also stay in touch by joining my email list at hollykerbycom. That's holy. See you, rbycom. Until next time, make it a great day for a great day.
