The Unseen Power of Language in Shaping Team Dynamics

Unlock the transformative power of leadership interwoven with masterful communication as I, Ron Harvey, along with communication connoisseur Ben Baker, reveal the strategies that redefine corporate culture. Delve into the art of language, its impact on your team, and why miscommunication can be the silent saboteur of an organization's spirit. We uncover the secret ingredient for leaders to truly connect with their teams, emphasizing the importance of a walk-around approach and the unexpected benefits of private internal podcasts for global engagement. 

As your navigators in the intricate world of leadership dynamics, we take you through the coaching mentality that every effective leader must adopt. It's all about preparing your team to shine without you, thus signaling your readiness for the next leap in your career. Discover how to become the leader who not only adds value to those above but also inspires those below, turning the notion of coaching on its head as we demonstrate its role in unlocking potential rather than just fixing problems.

In our final revelation, we tackle the thorny issues of crisis management and change, framing them as opportunities rather than ordeals. Drawing wisdom from "Leading Beyond a Crisis," co-authored by yours truly and Claire Chandler, we dissect the strategic balance necessary to not just survive but thrive in the aftermath of upheaval. Plus, we leave you with a weekly dose of leadership insights via our podcast, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and adding value to your journey as a leader who makes a lasting difference.

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Just Make A Difference: Leading Under Pressure by Ron Harvey

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Disclaimer:

The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers and guests and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any organization or entity. The information provided in this podcast is intended for educational and informational purposes only and should not be considered as professional advice. Listeners should consult with their own professional advisors before implementing any suggestions or recommendations made in this podcast. The speakers and guests are not responsible for any actions taken by listeners based on the information presented in this podcast. The podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice or services. The speakers and guests make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the information, products, services, or related graphics contained in this ...

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to Unpacked Podcast with your host leadership consultant, Ron Harvey of Global Core Strategies and Consulting. Ron's delighted to have you join us as he unpacks and shares his leadership experience, designed to help you in your leadership journey. Ron believes that leadership is the fundamental driver towards making a difference. So now to find out more of what it means to unpack leadership, here's your host, Ron Harvey.

Speaker 2: 0:27

Good afternoon. This is Ron Harvey. I'm the vice president and the chief operating officer of Global Core Strategies and Consulting, and we're a leadership firm based out of Columbia, south Carolina. My wife and I have been in this business now going on 10 years. We're both retired veterans and we wanted to figure out a way to give back and make a difference from all the stuff we've learned in the military around leadership and how do we help transfer some of that over to corporate America or small business. So we love it, we enjoy it.

Speaker 2: 0:52

The one thing that is our motto is people always matter, and that's how we live our lives, that's how we run our business, that's how we deal with all of our clients and our partners is that they matter, and so what I've done over time is our company asked me to start a podcast, and that podcast is to bring other leaders from all industries, all walks of life, from around the globe to share some of the best practical experiences nuggets, if you will that you can put in place today and make a difference in your organization and your life today.

Speaker 2: 1:18

So we're going to be really transparent. The promise that we'll make to you is that we will talk about leadership and we'll be open and transparent because our goal is to add value to you where you are, that you can put it in place today, and so hopefully, you'll enjoy the time that we share we'll spend. I get to bring guests from all over, and today I'm really, really honored that I have Ben Baker who's joining us. That will tell you who he is, what he does, because I want you to know every business owner that comes on, or every CEO that comes on, that they're human, that they do exactly what they've gone through what you go through or they've been through it. So, ben, let me pause and welcome to the show. Thank you for saying yes.

Speaker 3: 1:52

Ron, thanks for having me on the show, but first of all, thank you for your service. I totally appreciate everything every veteran has ever done, so I appreciate the services you gave and I appreciate what you're doing for your audience right here. So thanks for having me on the show.

Speaker 2: 2:06

Thank you, thank you, yes, and thank you for supporting all the veterans.

Speaker 3: 2:09

Thank you for supporting us Well to me it's important Telling the story of veterans and enabling them to be able to transition effectively from their military service to civilian life and be able to translate those skills that they have so that they are equatable in civilian terms. I mean, people in the military have amazing skills, but the civilian world just don't understand what those skills are and how they translate. So helping people transfer those skills is extremely important.

Speaker 2: 2:40

Yeah. Yeah, it sounds like you've worked with a couple of veterans there. Ben, I have worked with a couple of veterans. I have a lot of veteran friends.

Speaker 3: 2:47

You know I spent some time in the Israeli armed forces. Yeah, so you know I've been around military most of my life. Actually, I dated the rear admiral of the West Coast Fleet of Canada for about two years. So to say I've spent a little time with the military would be an understatement.

Speaker 2: 3:05

Yeah in the military would be an understatement. Yeah well, thank you, and I'm sure we're going to have a wonderful conversation because you're going to be pulling from all of those places and experiences to share with everyone. So thank you. Can you tell us a little bit about your business, your brand and where you're located.

Speaker 3: 3:13

Yeah sure, your brand marketing has been around for 16 years now. It is a communications firm that focuses primarily on internal communication for large enterprise level companies well, mid enterprise level companies and what we do is we enable you to communicate more effectively inside the company. I come from 30 years of communication branding marketing experience and what I realized years ago is that companies have a really good handle at times on how to communicate effectively outside their company to their clientele, but they're horrific at communicating internally. The left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. It costs millions and billions of dollars due to ineffective communication. There's onboarding issues, there's change management issues, there's all sorts of different process and procedure issues that can be broken down to ineffective communication, and what we do is try to work with companies primarily to be able to help fix that.

Speaker 2: 4:15

Wow, yes, and it's needed. I'm on the side of culture. You look at our organization and we talk about developing leaders and creating a winning culture. Communication is the number one factor for a bad culture. Oh, absolutely yeah the one thing that drives wedges between everybody is lack of or ineffective communication.

Speaker 3: 4:33

There's a quote by George Bernard Shaw, and I think I'm going to get it wrong, but he says the number one thing that people think is that they believe that they communicated but they really truly haven't. I'm going to have to pull up the actual quote itself. I'll get it for you in a bit. But if you take a look at communication, we all assume that we've communicated. We all assume that we're great communicators, but most of us aren't.

Speaker 3: 4:55

Most of us, because we've solidified that thought between our ears, yes, in our own minds, in our own hearts, in our own souls, we know exactly what we want and we know exactly how we want it done. The problem comes when you try to verbalize it, because then you're not dealing with your own biases, your own hopes, wants, fears, needs and desires. You're dealing with those of your audiences and they perceive things different than you, they hear things different than you, they internalize things differently than you do, they prioritize things differently than you do. And until you can communicate in their language, not yours, and it doesn't matter if you're a company of five people or 50,000, the challenge remains the same Is being able to communicate that way effectively, so you can communicate in the language, remains the same Wow Is being able to communicate that way effectively, so you can communicate in the language of the people you're speaking to.

Speaker 2: 5:50

So let me make sure I heard you right here, ben. So I'm the CEO of a company, I'm hiring all these people, I'm responsible, I'm making sure that they're employed and they got a good job. You also want me to modify my language so they hear me. I got to change how I communicate so they get my message Absolutely.

Speaker 3: 6:05

Because the problem is let's take a look at a sign beside the road. Yes, okay, let's take a look at the sign beside the road. You drive by it. You know one of these 40 foot billboards. You drive by it a hundred times. 75 to 85% of the people won't even notice it the first time. You said it. That's true, maybe 90.

Speaker 3: 6:25

And different people will recognize that message and resonate it based on the amount of times that they hear it. Some people never will. Some people sit there ah, that doesn't matter to me, that message is unimportant to me and they just keep driving. Yes, you know. So you can say hey, listen, at the corner of Broadway and Canby, what's the big billboard there? Yeah, and 50 of the people may never know what it is, even if they drive by it on a regular basis, because their minds are elsewhere, they're thinking about different things, they're focused on their drive to work, they're focused on their kids, their wives, their spouses, whatever, but they're not focused on that billboard. So if you, as a leader, can be sitting there going, okay, I'm only at best going to get 50% of the people to recognize this billboard. How else can I bring that message across? So I can get another 30%, another 25%, another 40% of people to be able to recognize it. So instead of 50% of the people understanding what I have to say, I can get 80 or 90.

Speaker 2: 7:29

Wow, yes, that's a good analogy. I never thought about it that way, because I can tell you I pass by billboards all the time and don't know what they say. Like what are you?

Speaker 3: 7:36

talking about, and I'm sure I can too. It's just when it says McDonald's Okay, I'm hungry, let's go. I see the golden. It doesn't have any words on it, it's just got the big M and it's just like an arrow pointing that way Off-ramp number 32. I'm gone.

Speaker 2: 7:52

And McDonald's was super smart because they put colors for kids. You know, I said look, red and yellow are the first colors that kids learn, so of course they got it. That's messaging, so yeah, messaging, so yeah. So what's your messaging? That's going to attract the people and connect with the people that you're. I love that you're saying that, because oftentimes leaders get frustrated, like they're not understanding me, and what I'm hearing now is are you speaking?

Speaker 3: 8:11

their language. Very much so, because we all listen differently. Yes, here's the thing because it's a priority to you doesn't mean it's a priority to me. I may have 30 other things going on in my head based on other people yelling different priorities at me, and those things because my immediate boss tells me that this is a priority. I may not hear your priority, that may or may not supersede that, and so there's all those conflicts going on in my head. So the question is which message should I pay attention to? Where should I jump and how high? That leads to frustration through a lot of companies.

Speaker 2: 8:53

Yes, yes, I see it all the time. The work that you're doing, ben, in the spaces that you get to operate within, how do you help leaders give feedback effectively?

Speaker 3: 9:03

To give feedback effectively, it all depends on whether we're dealing with a company of five or we're dealing with a company of 50,000. Because it's a different animal. You can't give individualized face-to-face, one-on-one time to 50,000 employees. It's absolutely impossible. It's like a troop versus a battalion. Yes, you know, it's just you.

Speaker 2: 9:25

You don't speak to them the same way, absolutely.

Speaker 3: 9:28

So if you have five employees, you know, you know, I believe, by leadership, by walking around, you know. Five employees, 10 employees, 50 employees, when you have enough people that during your day or during your week you can just say, hey, how are things going, what are you working on, what are the challenges you're facing? Are we on time? And it's not micromanaging, it's going. How can I help? If you do it from the thing is, how can I help make your life better? How can I take away the minutia, release the pain points and be able to make things better? People will open up to you and say, hey, listen, we've got a problem with line number two. Yes, you know, but if all of a sudden, people feel that they're being micromanaged and they feel that it's their fault, the lips will close and the mind will close and they're just going to keep their head down and hope that the yelling isn't too bad on the far side.

Speaker 2: 10:22

Yes, yes, they're going to run for cover, ben. Honestly, at that time, fear causes people to be able to shut down, protect, deter or whatever they have. Because one thing we do know for sure even if someone made a mistake, they still want to feel safe Absolutely, and that's why it's one of the psychological things is, people have to feel safe and if you're the leader that I can't feel safe with you, find out last when there's a problem.

Speaker 3: 10:46

Or you may not find out at all.

Speaker 2: 10:47

You may never find out at all. By the time you find out, it's much bigger than you can handle. So I love that you're saying, hey, walk around, ask how you can be of service, and not micromanaging and checking on people. So if you're running a five-person company or you're listening to us and you have a smaller company, then your team should be able to know who you are and know that you're there and know you're of service and you're helping and supporting the mission, which is helping them get better and get all the resources. How do you help someone that's running a Fortune 500 company that doesn't have the ability to get out in front of people? How do they get messaging across and get feedback effectively?

Speaker 3: 11:16

Right. The trick is to make sure you're actually getting accurate feedback from the field. I mean, I look at middle management and, for good or for bad, and middle management has its purpose but I look at them as the permafrost layer. I look at nothing gets above it, nothing gets below it, because a lot of middle managers spend their entire lives running for their life. They're the ones that are given all the responsibility and none of the power, and you know so. Therefore, their attitude is everything is wait and see. Their attitude is well, you know, the CEO could be just having an off day. So you know, I'm not really going to push this thing down. Or this employee is going to make me look bad. I'm not going to push this information down, or this employee is going to make me look bad. I'm not going to push this information up.

Speaker 3: 11:57

We work with large enterprise level companies and we create internal private podcasts for companies. Wow, so what they are is they're behind closed doors, private and secure, on a private network, ability for people around the company to be interviewed on various points, to be able to get points of view, and then we drive that to Teams meetings or Slack channels or different forms of communication, either at a Teams meeting, a district meeting, a division meeting, a company-wide meeting, to be able to disseminate that information and have conversations through the company about what happened on the podcast. And it works really well for driving change. It works really well for culture, purpose and mission, vision and values. It works really well for onboarding, in order to be able to sit there and say okay, because then the CEO or the C-suite or the senior management or whoever is going to be listening to this and I hope they all are is hearing directly in the voice of the person who's actually turning the screw what's going on. And it enables you to be able to sit there and say, okay, these are some people in Tokyo, these are some people in Germany, these are people in South Carolina, these are the people in the LA office, the New York office, the Vancouver Toronto office to be able to sit there and say, okay, I may never meet these people, but it also enables the CEO, at the same time, to be interviewed and be able to say I heard you. Yes, I was listening to you.

Speaker 3: 13:30

Here are the things that we're working on. Here are the things that are coming down the pipe. Here are the big three things we're going to. Here are the things that are coming down the pipe. Here are the big three things we're going to focus on in 2024. And this is where we are today. These are the challenges. This is what the opportunity is and this is where we're going and this is what we need for you.

Speaker 3: 13:47

And that way, every employee can hear directly from the CEO. And it's not just an all hands meeting. That happens once. Maybe you listen in, maybe you don't, but with a podcast, you can go back to it and you can listen to it on your schedule. So if you work midnight to 8am head office time, you're not going to get up at three o'clock in the morning just to listen to an all hands meeting. This enables you to listen to it at your time on your schedule and then drive the conversation from there, because there's chat capabilities, there's comment capabilities, there's poll capabilities, there's all sorts of different capabilities to be able to drive and be able to understand. How do people receive that message? Is it being received? How many people actually listen to this? How many people listen to the whole message? Yes, and then be able to sit there and say, okay, what do we do now?

Speaker 2: 14:42

Yes, yes, phenomenal information. So we know that communication is very vital to success of any organization, regardless of size. Why are we having such a tough time with getting it? It's been said for years. We know the importance of it time with getting it. It's been said for years.

Speaker 3: 14:56

We know the importance of it, but why is it so difficult to get better at it? I'll go back to the fact that most people assume that they communicate well. Most people assume that they communicate effectively. Most people assume that they are articulate, that they're smart, that they're able to bring a message to bear in a reasonable way, that most people are going to do it and they don't listen for cues of. Have they actually been understood? Wow, and I think that that's an ego thing. And we all have it. Yes, we all sit there going. I said it. Why didn't they understand it? Yes, why didn't they understand it? And a lot of it comes down to the fact that there's a thousand different conversations going in a thousand different sets of ears at the same time. You're having that conversation.

Speaker 3: 15:45

Yes, and some of it has to do with business, and some of it has to do with the fact that you got yelled at because you forgot to pick the kids up after school the other day. Yes, yeah, we never know what's going on in somebody else's mind and we don't know what are the filters that are keeping them from listening to what we have to say. So all we can do is keep moving forward.

Speaker 2: 16:07

How do you know? Because change is happening rapidly and the world has changed. The command and control of way leadership used to be is ineffective Of have someone and you're watching over their shoulder there from eight to five or nine to four, whatever that schedule is they're going on a one-hour lunch break at this time. The world has changed so drastically. What is your advice to leaders that are now responsible for this ever-changing world, in a leadership role that's totally different from what our parents were leading?

Speaker 3: 16:31

You need to train your leaders. You need to train them on empathy, on communication, on listening skills, on what we call the soft skills of life. You know, the problem is most leaders that have grown up you know us Gen Xs, you know some boomers, you know late millennials, whatever grew up in that command and control. Everybody was in the office. You could walk around and you could keep an eye on everybody. Yes, Now we have work from home, Now we have hybrid situations, Now we have decentralized offices, we have all sorts of different things. So there's not the ability to walk up to somebody's desk and say how are you doing? And we need to be able to train people, because the problem is the Peter principle still exists in big form today. I mean, we promote people to their highest level of incompetence. We assume that somebody was a great salesperson, so we make them a sales manager. They're a miserable sales manager because they want to go out there and they want to talk to people.

Speaker 3: 17:29

They want to go out there and they want to have those conversations. They want to play golf, they want to be in those strategy meetings. They want to do it. They don't want to be babysitting a bunch of salespeople with a thousand different egos and then dealing with the paperwork on the backside. You ever want to make a salesperson miserable? Give them paperwork, tell them that they have to fill out the CRM. That's how you make a salesperson extremely miserable.

Speaker 3: 17:52

So what we need to realize is that we need to sit there and say, okay, leaders need to learn how to lead in a new way and they need to learn how to be engaging over a Zoom meeting, how to be able to realize that hey, wait a second, I'm only seeing somebody from the shoulders up. I can't look at their body language. They could have their phone below them. They could have a second monitor over to their right. They could be watching porn in the corner for all we know.

Speaker 3: 18:20

And we need to be able to sit there and be able to realize how do we engage our people in a way that's meaningful, using the new technology? It's not using technology as a crutch. It's not using technology as an excuse. It's using technology to enhance the conversations and communication we need to have and being able to have either the one-on-ones or the one-to-many, or wait a second. Here we really need to bring everybody into a room or away for a retreat and yes, it's going to cost money, but it's money well spent because all of a sudden we're sitting there going listen, we're disassociated as a group. We need to reassociate everybody. We need to get everybody back to thinking in a similar way, not group think, but at least in a similar way, so we can all drive the mission forward. And sometimes that doesn't happen when we don't bring our teams together on a regular basis and actually have those meaningful conversations together.

Speaker 2: 19:17

Yes, yes, phenomenal information. Bring your teams together, listen a lot and make sure that you build the energy within a team, because relationships do matter. How do you help a leader that you and I were peers and all of a sudden, I get promoted and now I'm the leader of the team that I used to be buddies with and we were peers? Oh, my goodness, what a hard thing to do. And the military learned that really, really quick. So they move you. When they promote you, they move you. The military does that you need to move. This is the team you worked with and grew up with. We're going to move you. How do you help?

Speaker 2: 19:46

leaders make that transition.

Speaker 3: 19:52

Because it is a very yes, yeah we don't have to worry about being fragged in the civilian world. So this is a good thing, you know. For anybody who doesn't look it up, look up fragging In the civilian world. When you've gone from being somebody's buddy to being somebody's boss, yes, it's an extremely difficult situation. It is hard, it's difficult for you. It's also difficult for the team.

Speaker 3: 20:11

Yes, because more than likely, you and maybe one buddy or another buddy were all up for the same position at the same time, yes, so therefore, not only are you their boss, but they resented because they didn't get the job and you did, yes, so it's a matter of enabling those people within the team to become leaders in their own right. I'm a big believer of the number one rule of every leader is to make the next generation leaders, and it's not to be afraid of other people. It's to harness and yoke their talents and be able to allow people within your team to have their own rights, their own responsibility and their own zone of talent and just say look, when it comes to spreadsheets, hey, listen, that's Sarah's job. When it comes to market, hey, listen, bob is the king about that. And defer to your team. When you're talking to your leadership and say listen, I'm building a next generation of leaders because I want your position. So I can't have your position until somebody replaces me, because I want to help you get your boss's job.

Speaker 2: 21:16

Yes, I want to unpack that for a second, because developing the next leader is important and then organizations tend to when it comes to succession planning. That's a little intimidating because it feels like for leaders like I'm working myself out of a job. How do you help leaders understand that they're really responsible for ensuring that if you're not here, this organization shouldn't fail because you left or because you could? How do you help us do better at succession planning and developing the next leader?

Speaker 3: 21:42

Yeah, I don't say that you're working yourself out of a job. You're working yourself into the next job.

Speaker 2: 21:47

Yes, yes.

Speaker 3: 21:48

And I think that's the best way of couching it. They say you can't be promoted until you show that you're ready for that next level. And the way you're ready for that next level is when you show that, hey, listen, I'm not necessary here anymore, I'm not needed here anymore. There's three people below me that I've trained, that I've coached, that, I've mentored, that I've given the responsibility to that can step. I could fall off a cliff for a week, yes, and this team would do just fine.

Speaker 3: 22:19

I want to do that at the division level. So, listen, kick me up to the division level, because I'm ready for it, I've shown I'm ready for it, and give one of these people a chance to shine. You know, below me, first of all, that builds enormous amount of loyalty. Yes, yes, you know. The trick is to show the VP above you or the senior manager above you, or whoever it is, that what you're trying to do is not, you know, cut their knees off. What you're trying to do is give them shoulders to stand on so they can apply for their next position.

Speaker 1: 22:53

Yes.

Speaker 3: 22:54

So you not only have to manage down, but you have to manage up as well.

Speaker 2: 22:57

Absolutely. It's super important that you understand how to do both. Can you speak? Can you unpack that for a little bit on the side of how important is it for me as a leader to be able to mentor and coach people that are on my team?

Speaker 3: 23:09

I think, as any leader, you need to both be coachable and mentorable as well as you need to coach and mentor. I don't care if you're Elon Musk. Yes, they have coaches. People at that level have coaches. You know, everybody can make you know. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, michael Jordan the best in any game had coaches.

Speaker 2: 23:31

Yes.

Speaker 3: 23:31

And their job was not to nitpick, but to make them just that little bit better.

Speaker 2: 23:36

Yes, and I love that you said that, because oftentimes we think that coaching is only for, like, a repair or something's wrong with you, versus, nah, you're actually doing well, but we see more potential and we want to be able to extract that out. So if someone's approaching you like for in our organization, if someone is figuring out, hey, does Ben get to stay in the company or are we looking for extra strategy, I would tell the company, yeah, coaching is not that thing that's going to decide whether you retain this employee.

Speaker 2: 24:00

If you're on the fence, just make the hard decision and realize this person is not good. But coaching is not going to save that. So if you're looking at coaching or mentoring. It's a resource used to make people better, not to help people keep a job.

Speaker 3: 24:13

And I think that's so important and that's a mental shift that I think a lot of senior leadership have. They sit there and say, oh, if somebody needs a coach, there's something wrong with them. No, if someone needs a coach, it means you see potential in them and you see that they can be better. And it's not a negative, it's a positive to sit there and say, look, this is our next generation of leaders. They're good, but they could be so much better. And the reason they can be better because they're young, they haven't got experience, they haven't fallen down enough holes, they haven't cut enough of their knees, they haven't bled enough. Yes, and they need somebody who's been out there, who's been in the trenches, that can show them the way and show them the road to better. And I think that's really what coaching, mentoring and training is about. It's not about deficiencies, it's about taking people that are good and making them better.

Speaker 2: 25:02

Absolutely Love it. You mentioned earlier, Ben, being coachable. What does that mean to me? I'm a leader. How do I know if I'm coachable or not?

Speaker 3: 25:10

If you're not able to listen and take advice and be able to extrapolate and adjust, you're not coachable, if you are not the type of person that can sit there and say you know what, yeah, I can be better. There is something that you know. I look at myself. There's Ben Baker, there's the good, the bad and the ugly, and God knows there's some ugly out there. I think we all have ugly.

Speaker 3: 25:35

All of us have ugly and there's all things that we can be better at, and that's what a coach does. A coach is sit there and says that puts your feet to the fire and says look, this is what you're great at, here is your zone of genius, here are things you're really good at, but there's these few little things that if we can work on those and we can make those better, it's going to elevate everything. Yes, and I think that's where you need to be as a person. You need to be able to listen to that without ego and be able to sit there and say I'm not perfect, yes, and I'm never going to be perfect. There's no such thing as perfect. There's better, and you need to be able to understand the difference between perfect and better.

Speaker 2: 26:20

Yeah, I love it. I mean, you're dropping some serious nuggets out there for people that are listening. You know and you've had a vast amount of experience. You're bringing your experience to the table. What is the greatest lesson you've ever learned to help you be who you are today?

Speaker 3: 26:33

I think the greatest lesson I ever learned I think the greatest lesson I ever learned that's a good question, because there's lots of them, yes Is that it's okay to be wrong, it's okay to make mistakes, it's okay to fail, it's okay to you know, trip, it's how you get back up and what do you learn from it and what do you do next? Because if all you do is slip and fall and crack your head and you just sit there and grab your knees and you roll back and forth, you haven't learned anything. During the pandemic, my partner, claire Chandler, and I wrote a book called Leading Beyond a Crisis, a conversation about what's next, and our big thing was it's not about COVID particularly, but any crisis. Yes, whether it's a fire in your plant or whether it's an international pandemic, leaders need to keep one eye on the here and now and they need to keep an eye on what's next. And everybody needs to be thinking about how do we get out of here, how do we scale those insurmountable walls? Where do we find the ladder to climb the cliff? Where do we find what we need, what we personally need to move beyond?

Speaker 3: 27:42

And I think that, as leadership, we need to be able to sit there and say, okay, I fell, okay, that didn't work, Okay, I made a mistake, I'm sorry. I learned from it. Where do we go from here? I mean, that's what I love about the military is the debrief. Yes, the amazing thing about a debrief is that egos are checked at the door. Everybody has the ability to be wrong. I don't care if it's the captain or anybody can speak and everybody can do. A friends of mine that flew elite fighter jets and they said you know what? The lead pilot screwed up, he was a little bit off in formation. Everybody let him know about it.

Speaker 2: 28:20

Yes.

Speaker 3: 28:20

Because him being out 18 inches, could be the difference between life and death.

Speaker 2: 28:26

Absolutely.

Speaker 3: 28:27

Yes, and it wasn't about what he did wrong, it's what can we do better next time?

Speaker 2: 28:32

Yes, yeah, which is huge for all of us. And so, if you're listening to, what Ben and I are talking about is you got to create a space for everybody to receive feedback, exactly, and that's up to leadership. Leadership has to be able to create. Well, if the leader can't get feedback, then you've set a culture where most of your leaders that come behind you won't get feedback either, because it's not an environment that is appreciated. You know, and I tell people, you know, when I do the work, I say feedback is a gift, which means that you got to present it as a gift, so you can't be with malice and just being evil about it. Present it where we all can get better and the team functions more effectively. And if that's what we're focusing on, then how do you create that space? So everybody, so I love that you share that.

Speaker 2: 29:13

Hey, I learned to listen. I learned how to grow, and the things that I learned is I don't have to have all the answers and be right, and I think every leader goes through that. You think you have to, but I think we're shifting. So, ben, as people are listening, I'd love for you to tell us the book again and where can they find it Because I'd love to give people something else to read. And then I want to walk through what are the top three reasons that a company may need to call your company, something that they say, hey, I can use your services, so let's go with the book first.

Speaker 3: 29:35

Sure, there's two books. One was written in 2018. It's called oh God, that was powerful personal brands a hands-on guide to understanding yours, which is all about personal branding, and it's not about how to be a LinkedIn influencer. It's about understanding who you are, what you do, why you do it and how to articulate it effectively, okay. The other book is called Leading Beyond a Crisis A Conversation About what's Next, and that was written in 2020. And both of them are available on Amazon.

Speaker 2: 30:05

Awesome and you're not just talking COVID, I mean. So you know, during that time frame COVID was happening. But the important part is, you know, in that book is leading the word crisis, and there are going to be crises that happen in every organization. How do you lead beyond that Everyday crisis?

Speaker 3: 30:20

Yes, yes, everyday business has crises. Some of them are relatively minor. Yes, some of them are potentially could bring down a company, but they all need to be dealt with and too many people try to sweep crises under the rug and go it's not my fault, not my responsibility. And as soon as you get that mentality within the company, you're literally going to become a commodity and, whether you know it or not, you're going out of business.

Speaker 2: 30:49

Yes.

Speaker 3: 30:50

Yes, the writing's on the wall because you don't take ownership of it.

Speaker 2: 30:52

That's right. So what are a couple of things that will be happening that says I need to reach out and talk to Ben and your brand? What are the things that I will notice in my company that I may need your services?

Speaker 3: 31:02

Yeah, for me it comes down to internal communication. The challenges are with this A lot of companies bring us in is there's going to be a large change management project or there's going to be a change management project? You know, whether it's technology, whether it's process, whether it's people, whatever it is, there's going to be a big change in the company and what we do is we help build the strategy and the tactics to. You know what happens before the change, what happens during the change, what happens after the change, and help you through it. So that's a big thing that we do. Another thing that we do is dealing with onboarding large amounts of people simultaneously. Like we had a company it was a 50,000 employee company. They had bought an 8,000 employee company. It was going to cost them around $24 million in their standard transition period to be able to onboard people. We were able to bring that down to two or $3 million, so we were able to save you know, potentially save the company 20 million bucks.

Speaker 3: 32:01

The third thing that we work with is we work with large leadership companies that are sitting there going. How do we build better communication within the organization? How do we sit there and sit there and say, okay. There's got to be a better way for us to be able to build communication strategies, because whatever we're doing right now isn't working. It's not working for whatever shape of it, and I'll work with you on what's going on now, figuring out why it's not working. Then figure out what we do next. There's no cookie cutter approach. Every company is different, so there's a lot of work before we even come up with a strategy, to understand who you are as a company and how you work and why you work and why there's dysfunction, before we even start talking about a solution.

Speaker 2: 32:48

Wow, awesome and I'm honored to have you as a guest and what you do and the information that you shared. And how do people reach you? What's the most effective way for people to reach out to you should they need your services?

Speaker 3: 32:58

Yeah, the best way to get in touch with me is through my main website at yourbrandmarketingcom. That's yourbrandmarketingcom. There's links to all my eBooks. There are free chapters of my two books, there is past interviews that I've done in there, there's links to my courses, links to my social. Everything is there. You could even book a 30 minute free consultation to talk about where you are today, where you want to go, and then we can talk about where we go from there.

Speaker 2: 33:28

Wow, wow, thank you, thank you. Are there any last minute thoughts that's come to mind that we haven't covered, that you like to leave the audience with?

Speaker 3: 33:39

Yeah, the best thing I like to leave audiences with are care. We need to care about our company, about our customers and about our people. It can't just be lip service. We truly need to care because when we care we can figure it out. When we care we can make it better. When all we do is look at customers as a need to an end, vendors as someone to grind and employees as just another number on a spreadsheet, we become commodities and therefore we become irrelevant and we become replaceable. And I think the companies that truly and absolutely care about their clients, their prospects, their vendors, their people are the companies that will excel in the next generation.

Speaker 2: 34:25

How does it look in the company? What would you notice? The show, because it's easy to say I care. It's different to display that you care. How does it look?

Speaker 3: 34:33

I think how it looks within your company is that people are excited to come to work, but people sit there and there's purpose. You don't have this rotating HR problem. You don't have every 18 months you're replacing 50 to 100 to 500 employees. You don't have divisions fighting with each other over budgets. You don't have the egos in the C-suite that are more concerned about their own turf than they are about the overall success of the company. You don't have employees that feel they're being micromanaged. There's lots of different ways that this is going to present itself, but the most important thing is when your customers start leaving you, you realize that you probably have a systemic problem inside the company, because if you're not taking care of your employees, they're not taking care of your customers.

Speaker 2: 35:25

Yes, yes, and that's absolutely true. When people start walking out the door, you know that you're not taking care of your team, because your team really doesn't care about the level of customer service that they deliver. Yeah Well, ben, it's been phenomenal. Thank you for joining us. I love all the information that you share and, for everyone that's watching or listening, you know Ben and I are available. You know he's dropped his information. Where to find him at?

Speaker 2: 35:46

You can always find us on globalforcestrategiesconsulting. We're happy to answer any of your questions, but, most importantly, we just hope that we share something of value that's going to make you more effective, that's going to make you better at what it is that you're trying to accomplish, and if, by chance, you need to reach out to any one of us to help you go further, we'd be happy to do that, but our goal is to add value to the day. So thank you for joining both of us today. Every single Monday, we release a podcast to make a difference in our community, so thank y'all for joining us and until the next time, Ben and I will sign off and we hope you enjoy the podcast.

Speaker 1: 36:26

Well, we hope you enjoyed this edition of Unpacked Podcast with leadership consultant Ron Harvey. Remember to join us every Monday as Ron unpacks sound advice, providing real answers for real leadership challenges. Until next time, remember to add value and make a difference where you are, for the people you serve, because people always matter.