The Blueprint for Engagement in the Age of the Great Resignation

Get ready to redefine what it means to be a leader in today's workforce, as the insightful Steven Turner joins us. Strap in for a transformative discussion that promises to arm you with the leadership tools needed to foster a thriving, engaged team in a world where the Great Resignation has made it clear that we must value and empower our people. We'll tackle the unique challenges men face in balancing professional and personal fulfilment. Steven, with his rich experience from UPS to his current ventures at Beyond Resilience LLC and Flow Business Solutions, offers a treasure trove of strategies for leaders at any level.

As we navigate the shifting tides of management styles, Steven recalls his early days at UPS and the pivotal moments that shaped his people-first leadership philosophy. We confront the stark truth that a majority of employees feel disconnected from their work, and we dissect how leaders can break this cycle and foster a culture of genuine engagement and trust. The conversation unravels the art of authentic interaction, with an emphasis on the profound impact that a leader's approach can have on the workplace atmosphere and the broader implications on employees' personal lives.

Wrapping up our in-depth chat, we discuss practical steps leaders can take to build high-performing teams that are not just operationally efficient but also emotionally invested. From reimagining schedules for working parents to embodying the principles of servant leadership, we share how you can encourage and empower your team to achieve more. Steven's unique perspective shines a light on the power of listening, the importance of addressing team challenges head-on, and the value of nurturing each member's development. Whether you're leading a team of five or five hundred, this episode will leave you equipped to create a positive ripple effect through your organization and beyond.

Key moments in this episode:
06:11 The Evolution of Leadership Styles 
18:17 The Power of Open Dialogue in Leadership
22:49 Characteristics of Effective Leaders
25:08 The Impact of Perception in Leadership
26:47 Common Mistakes Leaders Make
29:39 The Shift Towards Servant Leadership
34:17 Applying Leadership Strategies at Home
35:32 Advice for Struggling Leaders

How to reach Steven:
Website: http://www.flow-business-solution.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/SteveTurner327
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/steven.turner.3701
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/swturner/

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

You know we're all engaged in the most dynamic time in business history. You know the leadership styles of the past 120 years just aren't serving us anymore and it won't lead us to successful businesses in the future. You know, people have been undervalued and the pandemic sure brought that delight, didn't it? And there's new expectations from our employees and so those of us that are leading businesses. We need to be mindful of this great resignation because across the US, we're looking at 45 million employees leaving their jobs because of an old, non-employee approach to how businesses, how business is done and growing. But there is a proven way, and if you think that it's just that you go back to work and it's just going to be a work issue, then we're going to be sadly mistaken, and so these same issues started to show up, not just at work, but we're also seeing them in our home lives as well. So I want you to stay tuned to this episode, because my guest is going to share his 30 plus years of experience in leading teams and what we need to do to become better leaders at work and at home.

Speaker 1: 1:01

Now, before we get into a lot, we know that today has been over. Now has been more challenging for men than ever before. And because we have this challenge, some of us feel this as a very deep pain inside of us. It's a pain of loneliness and unworthiness, and it's masked by anger and resentment, and it's all because we're uncertain and afraid to take that next step. So if you're tired and fed up with where your life is at, then I'm going to encourage you to start your hero's quest, where you can become more, accomplish more and live more than ever before. Just go to memberswagonmannet and start your quest today. With that, let's get on with today's episode.

Speaker 2: 1:44

The average man today is sleepwalking through life, many never reaching their true potential, not alone ever crossing the finish line to living a purposeful life. Yet the hunger still exists, albeit buried amidst his cluttered mind, misguided beliefs and values that no longer serve him. It's time to align yourself for greatness. It's time to become a revolutionary man. Stay strong, my brother.

Speaker 1: 2:14

Welcome everyone to the revolutionary man podcast. I'm the founder of the Wakenman movement and your host, alan Dumanzo. Before we get started, let me ask you a couple of questions. Do you work in a high functioning team and are you the leader of that team? Regardless of what your answer was to the first question, no, I think it's safe for us to say that we've been on both sides of that equation, have we not? Where we're in high and low functioning teams, and sometimes these teams are led by us and other times they're not. But regardless of our position of where we are in, it takes a strong individual to recognize how they are impacting the team, and so we for sure don't have all the answers as leaders, but we do know one thing is that we can control that. What we can control is that how we show up as a leader at work and at home. So today, my guest shares his journey from leading teams to training leaders and how they can transform their leadership style to develop high functioning families and teams.

Speaker 1: 3:13

Allow me to introduce my guest. Steven Turner has spent 34 years in various leadership roles with UPS, serving in the US and in Europe, and Steve is now the chief operating officer for Beyond Resilience LLC and is the president of Flow Business Solution. Steve believes employees will follow those who care about them, train them for success and appreciate who they are as individuals, and I couldn't agree more. Welcome to the show, steve. How are things, my friend?

Speaker 3: 3:41

Thank you very much. I'm glad to be here. I'm glad to be here. Things are exciting. There's lots of things to do. You did a very good summary and everything that you said, so we're going to have a good chat here today. I could ramble on here. So what better be quiet than? And let you do your thing, it's your show.

Speaker 1: 3:58

All good friend, all good. As you know, we get to as we get started in our fish. On every episode, I always like to get a little sense of some history, of what our fat, what our guests, have been through in their life, and how does it they get to where they are today. And so that's my opening question If you tell us about that time in your in your life when you knew something had to change, what did you do about it and how was that experience and what did it, how it shaped you into who you are today and that work that you're doing?

Speaker 3: 4:25

An interesting thing for me when I got started. I started at UPS on the leadership team when I was 20 years old. So when I got started, the people that are going to report to me were going to be older than I was, which it doesn't matter in your 30s, 40s and 50s, but from 20 to 22, it matters. So I had a challenge right off the bat and nobody really warned me of the challenge. It's just. I mean, I just thought about it. You know, I'm only 20 years old as a sophomore in college at the time, barely. So I thought to myself well, if I was in their shoes, how would I like my leader to be? So I basically treated them like I'd like to be treated and I got off to a tremendous start and that philosophy has been with me ever since. So that's over 45 years and it works everywhere and it worked right away and I was blessed. And I'll give you one more thing that helps set me, set me up, which I didn't really realize was happening until I got into it.

Speaker 3: 5:24

But UPS is a great place because if you do well, you're left alone, and I did well largely because of that first, that first decision, which obviously has a broad application. I mean you've got lots of opportunities, lights of different situations, different work groups, different locations, but people are the same all over. So I got off to a good start and because UPS kind of functions like if you do well, you're left alone. I was left alone for 34 years but I got to do my own thing and I've heard some horror stories out there of people that weren't as blessed as I was in that particular scenario. So I feel the pain of leaders who do not have the opportunity to be more of themselves. You made a very interesting statement and very accurate that the management styles the last 150 years don't work anymore. And that is a massive discussion because you could take that all the way back the beginning of the Inductor Revolution and I can walk through with you what I have witnessed. I wasn't there, but I've seen the result.

Speaker 1: 6:32

Yeah absolutely and for sure we should do that journey.

Speaker 1: 6:36

During this conversation I just had made a couple of notes here Is that?

Speaker 1: 6:40

One thing I found really intriguing is just how you know conscious you were at 20 to recognize that in being in a leadership role with people that are older than you I would say much older than you upwards of a decade or maybe more that how you would want to be treated is how you wanted to treat them, and I've seen that and witnessed that and experienced it in my career.

Speaker 1: 7:04

I started as a chef many years ago and back in the mid-80s, early 90s it was the Gordon Ramsay Hell's Kitchen wasn't too far off in terms of what the work environment was like, and I recognized, as I was growing up in that industry, that I wanted to lead differently as well, and that's why I'm always intrigued to speak with experts such as yourself to see how much things have changed and how you know the leadership style from you know Drucker and Benethmore and Benes and that's the kind of material that I was reading to the stuff that you're doing today and how that has evolved. And so let's talk a little bit about that evolution of the leadership style, because really I think what you're talking about is a different style of how, an approach, and I think it's worth really exploring.

Speaker 3: 7:51

Well, when you go back in time and you go all the way. Now we can go back to the Industrial Revolution. We can talk about this because this is critical and unfortunately it happened and nobody thought about it. So when you take a look at what happened at the beginning and it was 1850 about the United States when the Industrial Revolution picked up over here and so we had farmers that came in off the farm and started working in factories Now, when you look at the characteristic of a farmer and the life that they led, they were basically 100% in control of how they spent their time and they had.

Speaker 3: 8:26

Their payment cycles are probably, you know, two or three times a year, based on crop cycles, livestock cycles, etc. So they get paid once, you know two or three times a year. They take that money, they go to the bank and pay off the banker. They had to borrow money for some seed or some livestock. Then they would have to manage that money until the cycle hit, you know, started again. So that's a lot of truly being, you know, in ruling your own life. So when the Industrial Revolution kicked in now, all these people came to factories and somebody else told them what to do.

Speaker 3: 9:01

Not that the factory wasn't a good idea because it certainly did a lot for, you know, business and manufacturing, what have you. But the leaders forgot that it's people that do the work. So the focus was so heavy on procedures and numbers and more numbers and accountability, not with human relationships involved, but strictly by pounding numbers. So we kind of end up with we've heard reference in the past to the two by four approach of management, be it on people long enough until they submit it's ugly, but that's the way it was. Now, when you get to about 1895, there was a guy named Frederick Winslow Taylor who was recognized as, probably you know, the first industrial engineer in the United States. He's recognized as being such, and there's nothing against industrial engineers. Gotay, ups has a tremendous industrial engineering department but the message was a number message Manage business by numbers, numbers, numbers, numbers, numbers. And there's nothing wrong with numbers because it reflects success or lack thereof. Actually, however, the people part was gone, and we know that it was sensitive because it only took six years before the first labor union showed up, which was, you know, the workers standing up and being heard.

Speaker 3: 10:21

Well, this process continued on. Well, you know, we also tend to replicate ourselves. So if somebody comes into the management team and they are trained, or say influenced, by the people that are already there. There's a really good chance. You're just going to replicate what you see. So that's 100% understandable. But someplace along the line the people piece had to be brought, you know, picked up on, and really it hasn't happened that much, unfortunately.

Speaker 3: 10:51

Now let me tell you a story. When I was at UPS and I said, did my own thing for 34 years, I took an early retirement, moved into the entrepreneurial space, started to get into coaching, but all I knew was UPS, successful business, right, yeah. So I had a study done to give me the lay of the land for what I didn't know, and the results of the study almost fell over. It says 65% of people would rather be working for somebody else. That's a sad statement, okay. Now, as the generations kept repeating them, replicating themselves, gallup organization in 1990 started to produce a statistic. The statistic says this 85% of employees are not fully engaged in their work, which means only 15% are. Now, okay, the statistic is stated, but it's been reported every year for 33 years and it's basically unchanged. And so something's not happening. And so, when you dig into the details and it's one of the things that the partner that I have that we got together and started Beyond Resilience. She worked on a study, what we've been working on actively between the two of us for a year and a half. She started earlier and she held 2,400 interviews with people across the country while she was doing seminar training for one of the big seminar organizations. In these 2,400 conversations she identified 12 of the biggest pain points that employees have. So that's significant in and of itself, especially when you dig into what the list is.

Speaker 3: 12:30

Now. Let's just back up a second. So when you take a business that has the 85% statistic, you have employees that are basically stagnant, and the stagnant state was created by the leadership team because of these, generally speaking, these 12 different items that leadership are falling flat on. But nobody's ever told them Either. Nobody ever made it made a significant deal about the fact that these 12 issues go on and you know you pick up on one here and there. You cannot Be successful in changing a leadership style, because that's what this requires. It requires changing your mindset on how you're going to lead people, and that doesn't happen unless two things happen, and if either one is missing, forget it. It's gonna be another year at 85% and it comes down to this in our opinion. I think, based on my history, it's very accurate.

Speaker 3: 13:29

Number one business leaders really don't know what their employees think. Business leaders think they know what their employees think. So perceptions, reality until proven otherwise. So if the leadership thing team thinks everything is great and rosy and they're really not, nothing will ever change Because they don't know what's really going on. So what they do is they're. They suffer really with a continually stagnating Employee team. Now what happens when an employee gets stagnant? Unfortunately, the highlight of their day is punching out. And when you consider that employees, full-time anyway, spent eight to nine hours a day with their business leaders, and if the highlight of their day is going home, that's a sad state. Most people are not enjoying their life and I can tell you from experience, when people enjoy their work and enjoy working together Skies a limit. What can be accomplished? So the first thing is leaders need to know what the status is. Then, number two you need an action plan to change it. If either one are missing, nothing happens and 85% continues on. So that's a long answer to your question.

Speaker 1: 14:37

That's yeah that's a great answer. Actually I'm just taking copious notes here on the, on everything you were talked about and if you have a few, you know a few thoughts I want to run by. I I know of an organization that by annually runs an employee engagement survey Believe it or not, that's what they call it and it's done by a mate like a mat, very large firm, and it's done by a third-party firm and it gives opportunity for employees to check different levels of Engagement and peace. And one of the things that that I hear from from people there is that you know one is that while the management team may be aware of where the pain points, and in it's done by a departmental Wise, as well as that, rolling it into the organization as a whole, the lack of an action plan. So to hear you say they need two things it's one thing to know that that there's something that's, that's a rye, but if we don't even address it and you're not even not implementing plans to make the change, how do the organization expect Productivity to change?

Speaker 1: 15:41

And I know to hear that number at 85 percent. You know, at first I was just sitting there going well, are there 85 percent? Too many people? Because somehow 15 percent are driving the business. But it's not really about that, is it? It's really about the out of the 85, that maximum value of the effort that they're putting in, because obviously you need the whole team. You wouldn't have the organization at that size without, without having all those players. So what are your thoughts about those types of organizations that do those employee engagement surveys but still struggle to have that engagement?

Speaker 3: 16:12

Well, you actually answered the question, and that is, you get the information, will do anything with it. Now, ups. Ups does an annual employee relations index survey and it is really effective if you do something with it, because and we did things with it Did we do it as well as could have been done? Probably not right, yeah, but it was a very good tool for Leaders to know where they stood and at least individually, they could do something. If the organization didn't have a big movement, that's did put the focus on it. So it went pretty well, but it could have been better, because Again, I don't want you to sound like I'm bragging, but this, this is just a fact Because of the way I led people, my results were higher than anybody else's and it was significant, and it's, but it proves it can be done. All you got to do is treat people right and lead them along the right journey.

Speaker 3: 17:12

The let's see. What else, did you ask me? Oh, by Well, if they don't do anything, nothing, nothing changes. There's no question about that and in fact, I have to accuse the leaders. They are walking around blinders on because they've been given valuable information. Now it's interesting these third-party organizations. They do a really good job of these assessments because, let's face it, if it turned into a war between the employees and the leadership team, those 30 third-party groups will not be there anymore.

Speaker 3: 17:40

But so they're pretty good at it and you know as a leader, you have to take the results For what the message is. Yeah, you can't get too hung up on it. A number one way or the other. You know two percentage points. Forget it. You need to go with what is the broad picture that's given based on the results, tried to figure out what might be out of whack. But here's the thing if you have and this is how you can stay ahead of the curve First. So you got to take a, make a move to get ahead of the curve. First of all, if you have Open dialogue with your people to the degree that they trust you, when these surveys come around, there aren't any surprises because the if the employees respect the leadership team, they will tell you what you need to know Somehow or other.

Speaker 3: 18:25

It always seemed that if something was going crazy in my work groups, somebody would stick their head in the door and say did you know this was happening? And I'll have to say no, but thanks for telling me. So at least leaders can react to fix whatever might be crazy. Whatever it is. Yes, but the Relationship with your people is the key to staying ahead of the curve. They don't want to wait for an annual survey if they respect you and they're not afraid to talk to you. And that's one of our roles. We have to inspire two-way conversation, and Let me just throw this out there just for a thought. There are some people that avoid the two-way conversation thing. For one thing, they're afraid of what the employee might say. Or, number two, they're afraid they don't have an answer. But that's okay, it's just a matter of getting used to it. The fact that leaders would just have the dialogue is a huge step forward. And then if the comfort of the world will develop over time if somebody's not doing it, I completely agree.

Speaker 1: 19:27

I think, as leaders, we tend to forget and think that we have this mindset that we have to have all the answers or come to the table for the answers. And really, but you know, in my experience, is that in leading small and larger teams, is that we come prepared to ask good questions and to listen to what's being said, we're more effective. And you know, because really, I think what you're, the underlying thing I believe that you're talking about, is that leadership is really about having a foundational set of values, right and when we have that, then it reveals who we are, and I think that's where we get an opportunity for people to To buy into who we are.

Speaker 1: 20:05

So have you found in your work that there, that there are a set of values that seem to strengthen and increase engagement and other values that Detract from that?

Speaker 3: 20:17

Well, my focus has always been on the positive values. In fact, when we work with, with leaders, that's the first place we start. We start with the with the management people themselves. I don't talk about employees until I get through the first round, which is talking about exactly. You just said what are your values, management, foundational characteristics and traits and they're not surprising, but they can be missed or forgotten, like honesty, integrity, sincerity. The focus is on your employees.

Speaker 3: 20:49

I like to describe it this way if leaders would simply take care when I say simply, I mean Just consider it this way would simply take care of the groups that I refer to as the inner circle, everybody has, generally speaking, three groups in their inner circle. Number one is their family. Your family is your family, regardless of what happens. You know you can't hire or let go of a son or a daughter Just because they do something crazy and then call them back when they are heroes right, they're always a family. Number two your best friends. Your best friends are your friends in thick and thin. They're not event driven friends, they're heart friends and we cherish those people, right, because if something goes crazy, we can get on the phone, whatever, and have a chat. Now the third group are your direct reports in your business Now. Granted, your direct reports will change over time, but they're fixed at any point in time, so if we would if everybody would simply take care of the people that report to them directly.

Speaker 3: 21:52

So you could be CEO at UPS, which has 500,000 employees. Now they probably she probably has maybe 14 people. That's in the C-suite. And if she takes care of the C-suite, the C-suite takes care of the vice presidents. The vice presidents take care of the region managers who take care of the. You know, just go down the line and take care of those people that report to you.

Speaker 3: 22:15

Now, when I say take care, I mean know them, listen to what they say. If they're brand new in the management team, that's a challenge. If you're in the C-suite, that's a challenge. But the person everybody reports to, if that person would take care of them, things would be quite smooth, because people respect and appreciate being appreciated and cared for and developed, develop for growth, future opportunities. So that is, to me, the key taking care of our employees. I like. Oh, getting back to the characteristics, one of the things that I describe is that leaders need to be willing to provide their employees with the best work environment possible, which basically means we are serving them so that they can be the most successful. When we give them the best environment and then train them to be successful. They're gonna do it. It's a winning situation. Other characteristics don't be afraid to admit a mistake.

Speaker 3: 23:18

Pass on a compliments, share them with people, focus on the positive. If you have a negative situation, do it behind the door. Don't make a spectacle in front of people or other people. That is ugly, and I always one of the things. If leaders would always remember that they need to put themselves in the place of their employees and look at things from their perspective, because we do dumb stuff, dumb things once in a while, right, but so if we'll always, almost subconsciously, think of what the person's gonna hear based on what I say and this is where the perception thing can come in I've learned a lesson on this one. I'll just tell you a story. I was just promoted to a manager's role at UPS and I was in the accounting department in Wisconsin, which is where I was at the time, and the office had three manager level people.

Speaker 3: 24:11

One of them was the guy that was gonna be there forever, because he was the real solid person be around forever. I walked by the door one day, just as an example of how things can go crazy. I walked by his door and he asked me to come into his office. So I went in. He says I heard something about you. I said you have a nickname and I said okay, now, keep in mind, this is how things can change. The people that I was now managing over. I used to supervise, so I knew the people right. So I got promoted and somebody else came in and took my place. Well, he told me this. He says you have a nickname. I said okay, what is it? He says Turner the tyrant, and I said why? What did you hear? And he told me what it was. I don't even remember what it was anymore, but the point is I gave the classical answer. I said I didn't mean that, and he told me something that I would never forget. He said it doesn't matter what you meant, but matters is what they see.

Speaker 1: 25:06

Yes.

Speaker 3: 25:07

So we always have to be aware of perception and if we have a good relationship, somebody else sooner or later the people in the office are gonna come in and tell me that I that that's you know made a mistake and the mistake and here's a lesson for managers, for managers, leading managers when the new supervisor came in and take my place, I didn't train her well enough on how to learn the business, because she was brand new in the department Listen to my instruction and how to hand it over to the employees. Because all she said was this Steve said this, steve said this, steve said this. So she didn't perform her role. So we have to make sure we train people so that they can be successful in their role.

Speaker 1: 25:52

That's another long answer here Russian.

Speaker 1: 25:54

But it makes so much sense, steven, to hear you say that, and I think that's the part of the challenge that we face as leaders, and regardless of whether our business is large or just ourselves or maybe two or three people, whatever scope it is the challenge is that if we're showing up incorrectly and we're not aware of what's happening with our teammates and I really like how you had the three sets of inner circles family, best friends and your direct reports and I think all of us can relate to that that some point in our careers where we've had that experience of having people report to us and we might have been Turner the Tyrant, it could have been Al the A-hole or whatever and it tells you how you're showing up it can be difficult for us to see what's happening, and so that kind of leads me into this next piece.

Speaker 1: 26:47

I was looking on your website and you have an article or two there talking about the traps or the mistakes that leaders can fall into, and I wanted to get into that piece a bit, and one of them I think you've already touched on, is that lack of understanding, of perspective or perception of who we are. What are you finding out? Are the things that the more common mistakes that leaders are making and engaging or not being able to engage with their staff.

Speaker 3: 27:16

Well, one of them is a standard situation, and that is failing to plan and, once you put a plan together, failing to put a project plan together to have milestones to accomplish the task.

Speaker 3: 27:29

That's a standard one for most people. Now, when I talk about this, I usually look at it from the employee perspective, and focusing on the negative I mentioned before is one of them, because we want to focus on the positive, thinking it's all about me. The fact that we are in the office, it's not all about us, it's all about me. It's all about the people that do the work, because we are only as successful as they are. That's it. We can't do the work by ourselves.

Speaker 3: 27:55

If we could, we wouldn't have being afraid to take on challenges is another one. In fact, one of the 12 issues that was identified in this series of interviews was poor problem solving or not no problem solving abilities and skills. So if people don't think that a problem can be resolved, they won't even bring it to you. Now we're living in a dream world Because we're seeing the world through rose-colored glasses. All our employees are dealing with issues Right. So failing to talk, failing to listen? We have two ears and one mouth. We should use them proportionally. We learn more by listening than talking.

Speaker 1: 28:34

Yeah, I totally agree with that and I think that's so important. I think the other thing that I noticed and picked up out of the article you talked about losing focus, I think, of my career and some of the leaders that I've worked with there was one particular leader. I just knew that if I just waited 24 hours, the direction would most likely change. And fortunately, that's just the way it was with this particular individual, Because another piece of information would come in and then they would change. It didn't seem like there was a real depth of decision making and planning and it was always just move on to the next thing.

Speaker 1: 29:10

But I learned that that was one challenge for sure, and I can see that being pretty prevalent in the organization as a whole. And I think you talked about being able for us really to really understand and know our people and know what makes them tick, what brings them, what motivates them, what gets them that really gets their batteries charged. And I think when we can be leaders like that you're really talking about, I believe, is really about this new idea of what's not really that new but it's still fairly new the idea of being a servant leader, but being even more than a servant leader and really taking it to that next level, but being more of an observational leader that's there to serve, and so what are your thoughts on that piece?

Speaker 3: 29:52

The fact, that we are, and this is becoming more prevalent, as you said, and more necessary, partly because of social media, actually, and the fact that there's so much information available. We have to be good listeners and we have to engage in the practice of listening, because the generations changed and if you look at a description of each of the different generations the baby boomers, the GenXs, the Leni, whatever if you look at a description of each of them, you can see how the one was created from the previous one. It's really an amazing natural progression of the way people look at things. They are reacting to what had just happened. We can stay ahead of the curve and I've made that reference once before that if we take the time to listen, we will know the issues. In fact, they will be volunteered to us. So if we're in that position and we have that relationship, I mean I remember I would sit.

Speaker 3: 30:52

My first full-time management responsibility assignment at UP was in one of our billing and offices payroll and all those kinds of things that accounting groups do and I learned something very valuable there. It was the first time I had led ladies and women have an entire different perspective of topics of conversation in the lunch room than men do. I'd been in the men's environment all the way up to this point and now I'm spending my lunch and breaks listening to what's important on the ladies' perspective, and that was educational. But the point was I had to sit and listen. I had to take the time to listen so I understood what was important to them Now as a result of it.

Speaker 3: 31:33

I'll give you an example Specifically wives and mothers don't like too much over time because when they get done their work, their day isn't done. They're going home to fix dinner, get the kids ready for bed and all those kinds of things. So the fact that I heard that and I knew it and when again, I'm just telling you what happens. When I started in that office, there were one to two hours of overtime on everybody. So you can see that if that's the case, that's the complaint and it just keeps fueling the fire, right. So we sat down and we rescheduled everything in the office, redid the whole thing, and there was lots of things going on in there.

Speaker 3: 32:17

It wasn't just one job done, it was lots of different things. And we sat down, we mapped it out the manager in the office and I and redid everything. And then we got everybody together and I told them what we had just done, because I know that the overtime is an issue, and we rescheduled this and we've gotten we believe we've gotten rid of the overtime. This one lady came into my office and she says this has been tried before. It's never worked. I'm not expecting it to work. And I said well, just give it a chance.

Speaker 3: 32:47

It worked on day one and worked every day thereafter. For two reasons. Number one, the plan was put together. We spent a lot of time putting it together. But number two, they wanted it to succeed.

Speaker 1: 32:59

Yes.

Speaker 3: 33:00

So they saw an opportunity for an issue to be wiped away and it was gone.

Speaker 3: 33:05

It was at the end of the first week it was over and the lady came into my office and apologized for her negative tone, but I wouldn't have known that if I hadn't heard it. So we need to listen to find out what's important to people, and when we do, we can do things in advance. If we sit down with a group of people, we ask them you'll give us your opinion on this, that or whatever, or any pains you're dealing with on a day-to-day basis. Now, the first time somebody does this, they may not speak too much, Because this is not natural for that leader to be asking me this question. So they're going to try you on it first. They may not say much. Ok, it's going to be a short meeting. Get together a month later. Do it again. Now they're going to get used to it. Find something that the employees say that you can put into place to demonstrate that you're listening and acting on their good recommendations. I'll tell you what. The river flows quickly. They all unload their life on you.

Speaker 1: 34:05

You'll pick the good thing. They both trust him, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3: 34:08

Totally agree. It all starts with listening and taking action on something that they can see.

Speaker 1: 34:15

Yeah, I completely agree with you. Now, we've focused so far quite a bit of our conversation really about in the workplace, but I also you know, you know also talked a little bit about this also matters at home, and you mentioned that inner circle being the family. Tell us, talk a little bit about how we could implement some of the strategies that we would be used in our workplace and how we could be better leaders at home, as fathers and in the home front.

Speaker 3: 34:42

Let me tell you what's what will come out of this good environment in the office, or whatever the workplace is, if employees enjoy what they're doing and their highlight of the day is not punching out. It's always nice to go home that's not the point. But if they had a good day, they're going to walk in the front door of their house. There's significant others going to ask them a question how was your day, dear? If you give them a positive answer, can you imagine the impact that has on the evening conversation thereafter? Instead of unloading a terrible day and throwing up on your wife or husband, you're going to spend the time talking about the victories the kids have. You're going to talk about let's do this over the weekend right? It's a positive conversation there because it's a positive environment right here. That is a win-win scenario.

Speaker 1: 35:30

Absolutely, Completely agree Now. So if there's a, if there's a, maybe there's a leader right now who's listening to this and this episode, this podcast, and they're struggling right now. They have a low performing team and they're struggling. What encouragement would you offer?

Speaker 3: 35:45

these leaders. Well, the first thing that anybody should do is sit down and have a chat with their team. Now they got to set it up. I describe it this way, as brutal as this might sound, if you're not used, if you don't have a good relationship with your team, and all of a sudden you sit down and pretend, take your black cloak off and put a white one on, they're not going to believe you. But you can put on white tennis shoes. Just take small steps to where they can see you really want to hear what they have to say, and again they're going to test you. So that's one. But number two, it's the individual development of an employee, and that is a whole other conversation for another hour.

Speaker 3: 36:25

The bottom line is this when people start, when we start training employees, we want to get to the point where we are asking them this question. Now you may train them for their initial work. Yep got that down pat. So now that they're running efficiently, take a moment and ask them a question what would you like to do in three to five years? I guarantee you you'll get a deer in the headlights. Look the first time because nobody's asking the question. But by asking the question. They may say I don't know, I never thought of it and I said, well, give it some thought. The next time we chat I'll ask you the question again and I might pick. You know, I might meet with them again in a couple of weeks. Now they're going to say something. Regardless of what it is, they're going to say something. But what have I just demonstrated? I've demonstrated that I am concerned for them as individuals, instead of an employee to do a job. Now, when people realize that the people they report to their leaders are leaders, not managers leaders because they want to help develop the person as an individual, that's another one of those skies the limit deals. They're going to love it.

Speaker 3: 37:29

And one of the five employee needs actually is the third one in the list I talk about is the ability to do something more. When people we can think of ourselves, in this case, in any job we've ever had, have we become more confident in ourselves if we know we have the ability to do more? And that comes out of this what would you like to do in the future? Type of thing, like I might ask you that question and then I'm going to say is there anything going on around here in the time you've been here, that you might like to get involved in. Oh yeah, I'd like to do that. Okay, and you can talk about it. If you need cross training in that area, there is an opportunity. But these are all things that help develop the person as an individual. That last, that goes a long ways.

Speaker 3: 38:12

And here's the example I can use Richard Branson on this one. He made this statement, the Richard Branson from the UK. He said and I love this he says train people so they have the ability to leave. In other words, they've learned things but treat them so that they don't want to. That is so true Because one of the key elements here and one of the signs that there's a problem is your turnover rate. When you have people leaving, they're not leaving the company, they're leaving you, the manager. Now, if people enjoy working with you and want to be there, they're not going to leave. Once employees understand that there's a new drift in the office, there's a new attitude, their thought of leaving will probably stop because they're looking for what the leader hasn't supplied Personal developments.

Speaker 3: 39:04

Care about me and I'll care. I'll take care of you. I say this we need to take care of our people and they will take care of us. I have never, ever seen it not happen anywhere. In any assignment, in any job, there's operations, finance and accounting. I was in the technology group when I came back from my years in Europe. It works all the time with everybody in every place, because people are the same all over. Cultures vary, but hearts do not.

Speaker 1: 39:32

Man just love that. That was so awesome, Steve, thank you so much for spending time with me today, and you've been able to help us understand what it really takes for us to be leaders, and really you're talking about patience and practice putting things into practice and so thank you for giving us a few tools and some ideas on what we can do to implement and become better leaders. So if men who are listening to this podcast are interested in getting a whole of you or participating in one of your programs, what's the best way for them to do that?

Speaker 3: 39:59

Well, you can call me. You can call the office. Our number is 267-753-5568. That's 267-753-5568. You can find me at LinkedIn. My extension is forward slash SW Turner. There's lots of Steve Turner's in LinkedIn. You need the right one. Sw Turner, you can send us an email. You can email me directly at Steve at flow-business-solution-singular, just like you said dot com, and that'll come to me directly. If you go to our website, which is where I just said flow-business-solutioncom, you can. There's also the contact method in there as well.

Speaker 1: 40:43

Absolutely.

Speaker 3: 40:44

And we're here for you.

Speaker 1: 40:45

Love it. I want to make sure that information is in our show notes for today's episodes. I want to say once again thank you so much, steven. It was a great conversation. We probably could go on for another hour. A couple hours here, really dive into the meats and potatoes, but I think we've been able to leave it some groundwork here for folks to chew on a little bit and get a chance to get out there and spend some time with you. So thank you once again for being on the show. I really appreciated it.

Speaker 3: 41:08

Thank you for inviting me. It was a great time.

Speaker 2: 41:17

Thank you for listening to the Revolutionary man podcast. Are you ready to own your destiny, to become more of the man you're destined to be? Join the brotherhood that is the Awakened man at TheAwakendMannet and start forging a new destiny today.