Podcast Summary
Clear and Direct Feedback: Prioritize clear and direct communication for effective feedback. Focus on outputs rather than hours worked to address burnout and build team capacity.
Effective feedback, particularly in high-stakes situations, should be clear and direct. Robert Glaser, a successful entrepreneur, CEO, podcast host, and author, emphasizes the importance of being clear and avoiding the "compliment sandwich" approach. Instead, focus on delivering constructive feedback that is easy to understand and actionable. Additionally, in today's society, there is a pressing need to address burnout and focus on outputs rather than hours worked. By implementing these practices, individuals and teams can elevate their performance and reach their true potential. Glaser's book, "Elevate Your Team," provides practical steps for achieving this goal. Overall, the key takeaway is to prioritize clear and direct communication, especially when it comes to delivering feedback, and to focus on outputs rather than inputs to build capacity within teams.
From product review site to affiliate marketing agency: Entrepreneurs must identify opportunities and pivot when necessary to succeed in the digital world.
Identifying opportunities in the digital world and pivoting when necessary is essential for entrepreneurs. The speaker started with a product review site, Bobby's Best, focusing on SEO and affiliate marketing. He found success but couldn't keep up with the competition and eventually let it go. He then founded Acceleration Partners, helping businesses set up affiliate programs and seeing great success with Tiny Prints and Wedding Paper Divas. Understanding when to move on and build a bigger business is crucial in the ever-evolving digital landscape.
Sharing knowledge and helping others grow: Successful entrepreneurs like Robert Glazer have a passion for sharing knowledge and helping others grow, inspiring others to do the same through various means like books, podcasts, and newsletters.
Successful entrepreneurs like Robert Glazer and myself have a passion for sharing knowledge and helping others grow. Robert built a highly successful affiliate marketing agency with nearly 300 employees, but he didn't stop there. He now focuses on teaching entrepreneurs through books, podcasts, and other means. This passion stems from his core purpose of sharing ideas and helping people grow. Robert started by sending a weekly newsletter to his team, which eventually reached a wider audience and inspired others to do the same. This experience showed him that there was a demand for this type of content outside of his company. By sharing his experiences and insights, Robert continues to make a positive impact on the entrepreneurial community.
Focus on spiritual, intellectual, physical, and emotional growth for capacity building: Balanced growth in all areas - spiritual, intellectual, physical, and emotional - leads to improved performance and success. Neglecting one area can hinder progress.
Capacity building is a crucial process for individuals to enhance their skills and abilities to reach their full potential. It involves focusing on spiritual, intellectual, physical, and emotional growth. This concept, as explained in the book "Elevates," is essential for improving performance and achieving success, rather than just doing more. When these areas are balanced and growing, they create a larger "ball" that rolls more smoothly. However, if one area is neglected, it can cause instability and hinder progress. The speaker's background in industrial psychology, which focuses on employee behavior, greatly influenced their understanding of teams and leadership, as well as their approach to capacity building.
Growth in Four Areas: Spiritual, Intellectual, Physical, and Emotional: Focusing on spiritual (self-awareness), intellectual (learning culture), physical (healthy work environment), and emotional (psychological safety) growth in individuals enhances personal and team success.
Personal growth and team success are interconnected and can be enhanced by focusing on four key areas: spiritual, intellectual, physical, and emotional capacities. Spiritual growth involves self-discovery, understanding core values, and setting personal standards. Intellectual growth is about learning, planning, and executing with discipline. Physical growth relates to health and well-being. Emotional growth involves managing reactions to challenging situations and maintaining a positive mindset. The speaker had an epiphany in 2019 that these concepts could be applied to teams as well, leading to the writing of the book "Elevate." The formula for individual growth also applies to teams, with spiritual growth focusing on teammates' self-awareness, intellectual growth on creating a culture of learning, physical and emotional growth on maintaining a healthy work environment, and emotional growth on fostering psychological safety.
Addressing Mistakes and Learning from Them vs. Ignoring Them: Entrepreneurs and businesses must choose between accepting mistakes and learning from them or ignoring them. Effective use of tools like Yahoo Finance for investment management and platforms like Shopify for business growth can lead to improved performance and success.
In business, it's essential to address mistakes and learn from them to improve. However, it can be disheartening when partners or clients don't acknowledge their errors. This is a choice that organizations must make: either accept these issues or work towards creating a culture of accountability. On a different note, managing multiple investment accounts can be time-consuming and frustrating. Yahoo Finance offers a solution by allowing users to link up all their investment accounts for a unified view of their wealth. With features like stock analyst ratings, independent research, customizable charts, and financial statement analysis, Yahoo Finance provides investors with valuable tools and data in one place. Another crucial aspect of running a business is having the right tools and platforms to support growth. Shopify is a global commerce platform that helps entrepreneurs sell at every stage, from their first product to a multi-million dollar business. With features like easy website setup, various selling options, and AI tools, Shopify enables businesses to focus on growth while handling the technical aspects. In summary, addressing mistakes and learning from them, utilizing tools like Yahoo Finance for investment management, and leveraging platforms like Shopify for business growth are essential for entrepreneurs and businesses seeking success.
Shift focus from business growth to people growth: Focus on building and growing employees for long-term success, minimize breaking and replacing processes and people.
Building a successful team that can scale requires a shift in focus from just growing the business to building and growing the people. This is especially important in today's business climate where hypergrowth and easy money are no longer the norm. Instead, companies need to help their employees build their capacity and grow with the business, creating a win-win situation. The definition of a top performer is not absolute, and people can grow into and out of those roles as the business changes. However, it's important to make hard decisions when a job is no longer the same and help employees find new opportunities if necessary. To minimize the need to break and replace processes and people every few years, focus on finding high aptitude individuals and creating a culture of introspection and learning. The goal is to build from within, like in sports, rather than relying on overpaid free agents.
Continuously improving processes and involving the team: Recognize the importance of continuously improving processes, maintaining psychological safety, and self-awareness for individual and team growth. Authentic leadership and trust-building stem from understanding past experiences.
Continuously improving processes is crucial for business growth, but it's essential to involve everyone in the process and maintain psychological safety to ensure success. The speaker emphasized the importance of reevaluating and improving processes, even when things are going well. They shared an example of how a tradition in their company lost its specialness as they grew from 10 to 75 people and had to be reinvented multiple times. Another essential component of growth is self-awareness and understanding one's core values. The speaker highlighted the impact of childhood experiences on values and behavior, using an example of how a leader's trust issues stemmed from past experiences. By recognizing and acknowledging these influences, leaders can lead authentically and build trust with their teams. In summary, continuous improvement, self-awareness, and involving the team are essential components of individual and team capacity building. By focusing on these areas, businesses can scale effectively while maintaining a strong company culture.
Defining and communicating core values is essential for effective team management: Clearly defining and communicating core values can help reduce employee attrition, improve team culture, and align employees with the company's mission. Understanding personal core values can also be beneficial.
Having a clear alignment with core values is crucial for effective team management. Hala, the speaker, emphasizes the importance of defining and communicating core values, which can help reduce employee attrition and improve team culture. She shares her experience of evolving her business, Yap, and feeling that the original culture was being lost. To address this, they went through a 3-week long workshop to establish core values, which has had a significant impact on the organization. Hala also mentions that understanding personal core values can help align employees with the company's values. She even created a course on personal core values that has been taken by over 2,000 people. Regarding evaluating employees, Hala shares her perspective that personality tests, such as DISC or Values, can be helpful for communication but not for hiring. Instead, she suggests understanding the "whys" behind people's actions and utilizing tools like Gary Sanchez's why archetypes to gain insights into the core drivers of behavior.
Fostering a culture of learning and feedback: Encourage book or podcast clubs, promote healthy routines, use SPO framework for effective feedback, keep an open door for feedback, listen actively, thank the giver, and prioritize learning and improvement
Creating a culture of learning and feedback within organizations is crucial for personal and professional growth. This can be facilitated through simple methods like book or podcast clubs, promoting healthy routines, and effective communication. Feedback is a powerful tool for improvement, but it must be given and received in a constructive and depersonalized manner. Using frameworks like SPO (Situation, Behavior, Outcome) can help make feedback more effective and productive. It's essential to make your door open for feedback, listen actively, and thank the person for sharing their thoughts. Remember, it's not about agreeing with every piece of feedback, but rather creating an environment where people feel heard and valued. By prioritizing learning and feedback, organizations can foster a culture of growth and continuous improvement.
Being clear and direct in feedback: Focus on specific behaviors, provide suggestions for improvement, and explain why it's important for growth.
When giving feedback, especially in situations where someone's job may be on the line, it's important to be clear and direct rather than using the "compliment sandwich" approach. This method, where you sandwich a criticism between two compliments, can actually make the feedback less effective. People may miss the important part of the conversation, and they may not fully understand the gravity of the situation. Instead, focus on providing precise advice about specific actions and how they can improve. Avoid making it a personal attack or labeling the person. People are more receptive to feedback when they understand why it's important for them to improve, rather than just being told they need to change because it's bothering someone else. A good example of effective feedback is addressing a specific behavior, providing suggestions for improvement, and explaining why it's important for the person's professional growth. This approach fosters a growth mindset and helps people improve in their roles.
Bridging the strategic gap and supporting team growth: Effective leaders share the big picture, provide context, give supportive feedback, develop employees, focus on character and reliability in hiring, and prioritize employee health and wellness.
Effective leadership involves providing strategic guidance and constructive feedback to help team members grow and improve. During a discussion, it was highlighted that sometimes team members may lack strategic understanding, and as a leader, it's essential to bridge that gap by sharing the big picture and providing context. Additionally, giving feedback, even if it's about a weakness, can be a strength when delivered in a supportive and thoughtful manner. The leader's role is to develop employees and help them succeed in their careers. A personal anecdote shared that even the most productive team members need to be reminded to be nice and considerate to foster positive team dynamics. Furthermore, when hiring, focusing on character, attitude, and reliability in addition to core skills can lead to a stronger team. Lastly, promoting employee health and wellness is crucial for achieving work-life balance and fostering a positive work environment.
Focusing on outcomes, not hours worked: Leaders can foster a healthy work environment by prioritizing outputs, modeling rest, using communication tools effectively, setting clear expectations, and balancing flexibility and accountability.
Focusing on outputs rather than hours worked or inputs is crucial for productivity and preventing burnout in the workplace. Marissa Meyer's experience at Yahoo serves as a cautionary tale of the dangers of overworking and the importance of setting boundaries. Leaders play a significant role in modeling this behavior and encouraging rest and relaxation. Simple practices, such as delayed email delivery, using communication tools effectively, and setting clear expectations, can help create a healthier work environment. It's essential to strike a balance between flexibility and accountability, recognizing that there will be times when deadlines require weekend work. Overall, prioritizing outcomes and fostering a culture that values work-life balance is essential for maintaining a motivated and energized team.
Building emotional capacity within teams: Prioritizing emotional capacity fosters a culture of trust, vulnerability, and psychological safety, leading to better business outcomes.
Building emotional capacity within a team is crucial for a business to thrive. This means treating team members with respect, creating a psychologically safe environment, and focusing on what is within the team's control. Psychological safety is the trust that allows team members to feel comfortable sharing vulnerabilities and providing feedback. Vulnerability and sharing are two key ways to build this trust. Leaders who prioritize emotional capacity foster a culture where team members feel valued and are willing to go the extra mile when needed. In contrast, teams with low emotional capacity may blame external factors for their failures and lack the ability to learn from their mistakes. By focusing on emotional capacity, teams can respond effectively to challenges, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, and ultimately drive better business outcomes.
Exercise: One Last Talk for Building Emotional Capacity: Incorporating vulnerable storytelling can foster deeper connections and emotional capacity in the workplace, but requires a high degree of psychological safety
Emotional capacity is crucial in both personal and professional relationships. The speaker shared an experience of a business conflict where one party falsely accused another of taking kickbacks, instead of addressing the real issues. To build emotional capacity and foster vulnerability, the speaker introduced an exercise called "one last talk." In this exercise, employees share deeply emotional and vulnerable stories in front of their colleagues, creating a ripple effect of open communication and deeper connections. However, it's important to note that this exercise requires a high degree of psychological safety in an organization. By incorporating human elements into our interactions, we can create a more empathetic and understanding work environment.
Effective communication and understanding within teams: Daily huddles, open conversations, clear job descriptions, behavioral-based interviews, evaluating aptitude and values, thorough reference checks, and attention to detail during hiring process can lead to successful hires and strong team dynamics.
Effective communication and understanding within teams are crucial for building a successful business. Daily huddles and open conversations can help uncover personal issues or concerns that might otherwise go unnoticed, leading to misunderstandings or strained relationships. When it comes to hiring, making smart decisions is essential, as it can significantly impact a company's growth. Jeff Smart's book, "Who?", is a valuable resource for best practices, emphasizing the importance of clear job descriptions, behavioral-based interviews, and evaluating both aptitude and values. Additionally, thorough reference checks and paying attention to small details during the hiring process can help ensure a good fit for the team.
Hiring for success: Look for promotions, learners, and strong networks: Consider candidates with a track record of promotions, a passion for learning, and a robust professional network to raise the bar for your organization. Focus on the 80/20 rule to increase profitability.
When hiring new team members, it's essential to consider if they will raise the bar for the organization. Robert Glazer emphasizes looking for individuals who have been promoted from within, are voracious learners, and have a solid network. Additionally, focusing on the 80/20 rule, where 20% of your efforts yield 80% of the results, can lead to increased profitability. Regarding personal success, Glazer emphasizes the importance of creating mutually beneficial outcomes. His podcast, Elevate, offers insights from both CEOs and experts on various aspects of performance. To learn more about Glazer and his work, visit robertglazerglazer.com.
Recognizing and adapting to changes in team performance: Top performers may not always remain at the top, find the right people with high aptitude and a culture of learning to help your business adapt. Nurture your team, be respectful, and give straightforward feedback for improved satisfaction and performance.
Recognizing and adapting to changes in your team's performance is crucial for business growth. Top performers may not always remain at the top, and it's essential to find the right people with high aptitude and a culture of learning to help your business adapt to new pressures. Additionally, nurturing your team, treating them with respect, and being straightforward with feedback can significantly improve their satisfaction and performance. Remember, your team will be more willing to help you if you're not constantly creating problems. Lastly, don't forget to share this episode with someone who could benefit from it and leave a review on Apple Podcasts to help reach more people. A big thank you to my production team, and this is your host, Hala Taha, signing off.
