Season 2 Episode 4: How to Make Your Team and Organization Elite with Spencer Tenney Artwork

Becoming Unassailable

Have you ever wondered why some organizations thrive in volatile times while others don’t? Today’s organizations are facing a magnitude of overwhelming challenges, including employee retention and workforce shortages, lack of engagement, supply chain, burnout, and even generational differences. For any leader hoping to build a legacy of lasting success, knowing how to tackle any of these problems can feel like an exercise in futility.Organizations that achieve lasting success embrace forward change together – instead of their people, teams, and departments constantly moving in separate directions. By building cultures of genuine teamwork and collaboration, leaders transform their company or agency into an unassailable organization equipped to thrive regardless of today’s challenges.Each episode of the Becoming Unassailable podcast will tackle a challenge that is keeping your organization and leadership team from moving forward together to be Unassailable.

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Becoming Unassailable

Season 2 Episode 4: How to Make Your Team and Organization Elite with Spencer Tenney

May 16, 2023 • Mark Kenny

Welcome to the Becoming Unassailable podcast! This podcast is all about helping leaders build functional, collaborative, and aligned teams so that your organization becomes unassailable. Season 2 is dedicated to "Lessons from Leading Teams" from a variety of senior leaders.

My guest for this episode is Spencer Tenney, the President and CEO of the Tenney Group, a merger and acquisition (M&A) advisory firm that has been dedicated to transportation and logistics since 1973.

What you will learn in this episode:

The critical importance of establishing core values in order to attract the right people and clients.
Why you should control what you can control.
The importance of creating weekly measurables that are publicly accountable to everyone.
Tactics to hire for cultural fit and eliminate "unforced errors" in your hiring process.
How to "let go" as a leader.
Weekly tactics to keep your team and organization aligned.
The importance of candid conversations to solve issues in minutes instead of months.
How to provide weekly focus and direction to the team.

Key Quotes

"When you are very forward, these are what [are values] are, and there are no apologies about it, these are our expectations. Then it's a matter of 'if you resonate with these [values], you probably are going to really enjoy this experience both as an employee and as a client.'”

"We are going to be elite at what we are doing as long as we do weekly what has to be done."

"Someone can do it as good or better. It doesn’t matter if they approach it differently so long as they do it with excellence."

"Things at Tenney Group got a whole lot better [when I focused on what can I get rid of]."

"If you are really serious about core values and hold them accountable, everything in conflict with [those values], will ultimately get [naturally] rejected. You are then able to focus on the core work, knowing we are not going to deviate from that standard."

Links

Learn more about EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System)

Get your free gift from Mark (free chapters from his book)

Book a complimentary strategy call with Mark to discuss the best strategies for your team

About Spencer

Spencer Tenney is President and CEO of the Tenney Group, an industry specialized merger and acquisition advisory firm that has been dedicated to transportation and logistics since 1973. Tenney Group’s core business is sell-side representation services for trucking and logistics companies with annual revenues ranging from 20M to 300M. Spencer graduated from The University of Texas and currently serves on the American Trucking Association’s M&A Task Force. He also hosts the industry M&A podcast “In the Hot Seat with the Tenney Group.” On a personal note, Spencer, his wife Lauren, and their three kids reside in Franklin, TN. He enjoys songwriting, fitness, reading presidential biographies, and serving Franktown Open Hearts – a faith-based non-profit dedicated to inspiring and empowering inner-city youth.