Dave Braun
00:00:00
Hello again, everyone. Welcome to the HireMyVA Team and Business Building Podcast, where we help you to reclaim your freedom through hiring and thriving with Virtual Assistants without breaking the bank, without breaking your bank, which is the most important bank. And I’m Dave Braun. I’m here with my partner, a great friend, and Bosom buddy, Larry Broughton. Larry—
Larry Broughton
00:00:18
Bosom Buddy.
Dave Braun
00:00:21
Remember that show, Bosom Buddies?
Larry Broughton
00:00:24
Yes.
Dave Braun
00:00:26
Who would’ve ever thought Tom Hanks would have ascended to the star who meets—
Larry Broughton
00:00:31
Crazy, right? Crazy.
Dave Braun
00:00:33
Oh my gosh.
Larry Broughton
00:00:34
Well, how are you, Dave?
Dave Braun
00:00:36
I’m doing fantastic.
Larry Broughton
00:00:36
Good to see you. Thank you for being in my life. Thanks for being a great friend.
Dave Braun
00:00:40
Yes. Thank you, also. We have some good times together. All right. Well, speaking of good times, let’s talk about—
Larry Broughton
00:00:49
Another TV, another TV show.
Dave Braun
00:00:50
Bosom buddies. Good times. Yeah, that was a fun one. All right, let’s get down to business. You ready for this one?
Larry Broughton
00:00:58
Yes.
Dave Braun
00:00:59
All right. So here’s a question from a recent flashpoint. We asked the question at the beginning. Do you really pick the team or does the pick, let me back up, do you really pick the team or does the team pick you? That’s the question at the beginning of the flashpoint. Now, let me read the whole thing to provide some context and—
Larry Broughton
00:01:20
Pause right there. Some people may not know what a flashpoint is. A flashpoint is from this book from several years ago that you helped me get across the finish line. And they’re basically about 130 word daily missives to get you thinking. So that’s what a flashpoint is. And if you want to get it, shameless plug, you got Store.yoogozi.com to pick it up or you can go to Amazon.com and get it the next thing.
Dave Braun
00:01:49
That’s not shameless. That was an awesome plug.
Larry Broughton
00:01:53
Right. So go ahead— We could do what we want.
Dave Braun
00:01:58
All right. Well, okay.
Larry Broughton
00:02:00
So do we pick the team or the team pick us?
Dave Braun
00:02:02
Yeah. So let me read what it says or what we say in it. It’s a delicate balance between being of service to those we lead and them being of service to our goals and expectations. The question becomes, who really keeps our team going? We’re often the pillar and seen by most as the key component to our highly functioning team but without the team members, we don’t have anyone to lead and a one-legged stool will quickly tip over. So while it may seem that we’re the ones holding it all together, remember, that without the respect and participation of our team, we won’t go very far. And when they pick us, not because of money or security, but because they believe in us. Life can be, oh, so sweet. So here is the question. How can you ensure your team will pick you over and over again? What say ye Larry?
Larry Broughton
00:02:58
Yeah, boy. I was deep that day, man. Well, here’s the dealio. It starts from that word, Team. One of the things that drives me nuts, Dave, I’m on all kinds of different online forms for managers, leaders, owners, hotel operators, and one of the things that is like nails on the chalkboard for me, because I know it is for a lot of team members is when a manager says my employees.
speaker 2
00:03:38
Oh yeah.
Larry Broughton
00:03:39
Or they even think they’re being conned to say “My team” like they own these people. And we don’t. Most states in this country are at-will employment and they could walk any day of the week, without giving you any kind of notice. And so we have to be respectful of them. I do know that there have been times in my career when I’ve been really clear on the vision of the organization, I was really clear on what type of team I wanted to build. And more than the position I was trying to fill, I was saline, here is where we’re going as an organization. And so I do a casting call, basically looking for rock stars to fill a particular position like senior leadership positions.
Larry Broughton
00:04:37
And people were choosing us like, Hey, I wanna work for you. Not just because they needed a job. They have gotten a job anywhere. But they really subscribed to the vision that we had in the organization. They really subscribed to the culture that we are trying to build in the organization. Now, depending on where you are in the economic cycle, it’s easier sometimes than others, to find these people. But if you go through a couple of cycles here, people really do pick you. You know, there’s a mantra out there and it’s a little bit, not a mantra. There’s a saying out there that’s a little bit harsh, is that people don’t quit their jobs, they quit their managers.
speaker 2
00:05:21
Yeah.
Larry Broughton
00:05:23
Ugh. That hurts sometimes. Because people quit our organization too, you know. And so what I have to do is like, okay, what part of their leaving is due to my failings? Like not giving them what they need. Were they not professionally developed enough? Were they not given enough freedom? Were they not given enough encouragement? Were they not given enough compensation? Did I not offer them a bright enough future? What is it? Because sometimes people outgrow their organization and that’s okay too. But it is a time that we have to stop and reflect. So I do think that people need to understand that in the US, not everywhere in the world, but we are blessed in the US that for the most part, people get to pick what team they’re gonna go on. So I think we could talk about that first and then talk about like, what do we need to provide in order for them? So I wanted to make sure I got that preamble out the way first though. Is that all right?
Dave Braun
00:06:26
Yeah. I think that makes sense. So that’s one of the reasons why you’re in our program. What do we start with? The prepare section. And we start with your vision and your mission in your core values, right? You gotta know yourself and know where you’re gonna go to be able to track folks who are looking at, yeah, everybody’s looking for the paycheck to a certain extent, of course. But you wanna provide more than that, right? You want to provide that vision like you said, so people know where you’re going and they can subscribe to that themselves.
Larry Broughton
00:06:59
Yeah. So the question is, how do we assure that they choose us over and over again? There’s a variety of ways. Then we’ll make sure that they’re fairly compensated. People usually start there. But right now that is not the primary reason people stay with their jobs. You have to make sure that you’re treating people with dignity and respect as well. Make sure that they’re being professionally developed. That’s really important. About 68% American workforce feels like they’re not being professionally developed. And so they go work someplace else. Most people are looking for a positive, upbeat work environment in today’s environment. More and more particularly among Gen Xers and millennials, they’re looking for a sense of mission. That the organization that they’re working with, doing good in the world. That’s really important to a lot of people. And how do you do that? Boy, we could talk about that all day long. But just doing little volunteer things as an organization is one way to keep people inspired to do that. What else? Treating people fairly, not the same. Don’t treat everybody the same, but treating everyone fairly, is really important, I think. Many people are looking for diverse workforces and I’m not talking about just diversity in ethnicity in diversity and sexuality. I’m talking about diversity of ideas, people want to be challenged.
Larry Broughton
00:08:28
And most people that I know, Dave, top performers, aren’t looking for the role. Something role, they do the same thing day in and day out over and over again. They like a little bit of variety in their lives. So all of this though comes with—You don’t know this unless you actually communicate with your team. You and I have done enough coaching at this point together where we’ve seen people who come to us and have horror stories about the organization that they’ve been in with in the past, where a manager or a leader or a business owner just treats them like a fricking indentured servant at best. And absolutely disrespectful and belligerent and tyrannical at worst. And all those things you can generally control. You know, there are TV shows that are built on this, following people like these. Some of these reality shows, like one of ’em that comes to mind, I was watching on the plane, back from a flight a few days ago was Kitchen Nightmares, where Gordon Ramsay goes in and some of the restaurant owner was keeping the tips from the wait staff because he felt like he was paying them enough.
Dave Braun
00:09:53
Oh.
Larry Broughton
00:09:54
So he was taking their tips from them and he fired somebody because he thinks, he thought that she kept a $5 bill, pocketed a $5 bill that was on one of the tables.
Dave Braun
01:10:05
Oh my gosh.
Larry Broughton
01:10:07
And it was just a hostile work environment. Toxic was the word they used. But don’t do that stuff.
Dave Braun
01:10:16
Yeah.
Larry Broughton
01:10:17
Don’t do that. So I think, there’s a handful of ways that if we do these things, catch people doing things right. There are a handful of ways to help people choose you over and over again. If you do those things, Dave, that we had listed. Sense of mission, catch people doing things right, offer a performance review, have people work in their strengths, all those types of things and they still don’t choose you. Then probably, there’s a better place for them to feel free and fly without you. But we are not gonna satisfy every team member that we hire and expect them to be around for five years. A lot of industries have a hundred percent turnover each year. A lot of ’em do.
Dave Braun
01:11:01
Yeah. And if they choose, they don’t choose you and you’ve done, what you think you can do, then like you said, it’s okay. It’s okay. Use that opportunity as something to learn from. If you actually think you’ve got a rock star that they’re going more else for whatever reason. I mean, that’s why we’ve got, the exit interview template. It’s up to you. You gotta know that and try to figure out, okay, what can I do? What can I do better? Yeah.
Larry Broughton
01:11:31
In my hotel company, I should say we’re an incubator for entrepreneurs. And then it would piss me off when we attract entrepreneurs and they’d go somewhere else after a while. It’s like, you can’t have it both ways, dude. But it does hurt. Like loyalty is very important to me. And it does personally hurt when somebody leaves the organization. I admit it, I’m not perfect. I’m flawed as well. And sometimes we just can’t offer the compensation package that someone needs or deserves after a period of time. So I understand it. I don’t like it necessarily but I do understand it. And I would just remind folks that if you’re a business owner or you’re a leader, or you’re a manager of folks, you have a moral obligation to treat them with dignity and respect.
Larry Broughton
01:12:21
And just to build a positive work environment. I think that’s really important. And if you just do that and you ask questions of your team members. Do you have the tools to do your job? How could we improve? And you’re not just walking around and doing edicts, do this, do that. You’re more likely to shallow or lessen the team member turnover because that’s really important. Now, if I’m gonna be your mentor or coach for a minute, you wanna limit the amount of turnover you have in your organization, just because it’s so damn costly—
Dave Braun
01:12:59
Oh, that’s true.
Larry Broughton
01:13:00
to have high turnover in an organization. And if we’re trying to help people have freedom, economic freedom is one of those things. And that means we need to run more profitable businesses. The more turnover you have—It usually, it’s an indicator of a couple of things. You probably don’t have enough systems in place. If you have a high turnover, right? It could be that your product is not up to par. And so they’re dealing with a lot of guest complaints. So, there are a lot of things. So if you have a lot of high turnover, you might wanna raise your hand and say, Hey Dave, Hey Larry, can I get some of your time, so we can talk about what’s really going on in the organization. But high turnover is a lagging indicator that something’s going on in your business.
Dave Braun
01:13:45
Right? Yeah, absolutely. And we’re not talking about when you’re the type of leader for your team, where they walk over you, do whatever they want, it’s like, of course, they’d wanna stay, I get to do whatever I want. And that’s not what we’re talking about. Right? It’s about thinking from the perspective of, okay, what is in the best interest of the person that’s working with us, not for, that’s working with us and then the organization. Looking at those two things and having the right balance. Because I think it is a balance, right?
Larry Broughton
01:14:23
Yeah. What’s coming to mind right now is, I can think of like, some college coaches, athletic coaches, who really try to invest in making the student-athletes, not just great athletes, but great human beings.
Dave Braun
01:14:37
Human beings. Yeah.
Larry Broughton
01:14:39
And you can think of stories that these people go on and do, they become CEOs and Titans of industry or they become world-class athletes. And they’re still talking, 30 years later about this coach who invested in them.
Dave Braun
01:14:51
Yeah.
Larry Broughton
01:14:51
Well business ownership and transformational leadership is very much the same way. I get so thrilled because it happens from time to time, I’ll get a Facebook message or I’ll get an email or somebody had looked me up, Hey, I worked with you 30 years ago. It happened that somebody worked, like the first hotel where I was a general manager, and said, oh my gosh, you taught me so much, and here’s what I’m doing now. Like, they still remember some of the lessons, and that just like builds me up because you know, now they’re married, with children and they’re teaching the same things I taught to them. You know, there’s an obligation that we have for this. But sometimes we’re so concerned Dave, about covering that next payroll, that we forget that there’s a bigger mission out there.
Dave Braun
01:15:36
Yeah. Those are great points. And so I think, doing what’s in the best interest of your team—Sometimes that means challenging in them, challenging them, getting them to step out of their comfort zone. We’ve done, one of the things that we do regularly is we’ve done, like a lunch and learn or snack and study. And we’ve got one of our team members, oh my gosh, he was so uncomfortable doing this, but he put together a presentation and talked about it and it was actually pretty good. And so I think the level of self-confidence that he got was like, Hey, I can do this, I don’t have to be stuck to where I’m at, I can learn new things, I can get outside my comfort zone and really expand and grow. And so, it’s really good as managers and leaders to challenge our folks in the right way and the push.
Larry Broughton
01:16:34
Yeah. You’re absolutely right. And that’s one of the things that was coming to mind when I was thinking about some of these college athletic coaches. Is that part of the story is, yeah, this person was really hard on me, this person pushed me, I was way outside my comfort zone, but I’m a better person, I was a better athlete because of it. And if you got team members— Now, once they’re settled in, I’m not talking about pushing them constantly, like standing over them with a whip to get more outta them. I’m talking about giving them, pushing them outside their comfort zone, as far as developing their skill set, that will ultimately boost their confidence. If we’re not doing that, we’re doing the whole organization a disservice, not just the team member, a disservice, but the entire organization. And conversely, if you have team members that don’t want to get outside their comfort zone, they’re probably not the best people for your organization, either. Not in the long term for sure. And that’s a different conversation that you have to have with people. It’s like, Hey, I know this is uncomfortable for you, I know it, but you’ll be a better professional, you’ll be a better person if you stretch, if you allow me to stretch you a little bit. It takes time to have those conversations.
Dave Braun
01:17:49
It does. And I think maybe the last point, and then we’ll close this up is, the way we show up as leaders, you mentioned positivity, but you know, I’m still having an excitement and the passion for what we’re doing in our organization. And people want to work for people who have energy, who are excited about what they’re doing. And if you are a leader that’s not in that mode, your team is gonna be, let’s say, they’ll start reflecting you. And they’ll eventually wanna potentially go somewhere else.
Larry Broughton
01:18:28
Dave, you’re so right. Listen, enthusiasm counts. One of the things I wanna say is you can’t light a fire with a wet match. Don’t be a wet match. Be enthusiastic, be excited, speak positivity, and possibility to your team members. They like that. No one wants a leader who’s dour and pessimistic.
Dave Braun
01:18:55
Yeah. That’s right. And as a leader, it’s up to us to fuel, keep that fuel going. And it doesn’t mean we’re gonna be like that a hundred percent of the time. That’s not what we’re talking about. There’s gonna be times where it’s like, oh my gosh, and when you talk to your team, you’re gonna be down. We’re human beings, right? We gotta give ourselves a break, but we’ve gotta be responsible and think about, okay, I’m leading my team in my meeting this week, how do I want to show up? How would they want me to show up in that meeting?
Larry Broughton
01:19:27
That’s a great point. Yeah. Good.
Dave Braun
01:19:30
All right. Anything else, sir?
Larry Broughton
01:19:34
No, I think that’s good. I think we did well on that one.
Dave Braun
01:19:39
Okay. Awesome.
Larry Broughton
01:19:39
Congratulations to us.
Dave Braun
01:19:42
Yeah. Congratulations. Let me give you a pat on the back virtually here, Larry. All right. Well folks, I’ll give you guys a pat on the back virtually. Thanks for joining us today, and being with us. It’s fun to have you along on this journey with us. And remember building a team is the way to reclaim your freedom and we are here to help you. So three things we’d love for you to do and we’d really, really appreciate it, from the bottom of our hearts. Number one, subscribe to this podcast if you haven’t already done so. Number two, give us a rating and we’d love to have a five star on that. Number three though, go to Hiremyva.com for more information on our products, our course, and one of the most powerful things is our community. Because it’s through that community and how you really gonna learn, that even without experience, you can prepare for hire and thrive with Virtual Assistants. And we’re still helping people in there. We’d love to help you grow your organization and really fulfill your vision and your mission for your life and your business. So we want to help you, but for more information, just go to Hiremyva.com for more information, again.
Larry Broughton
02:20:50
That’s right. Okay, friends. Do yourself a favor. Do the world a favor. Go do something absolutely significant today. God bless you. God hold you. God keep you. All right, my friends. Go get ’em. We’ll see you next time.
Dave Braun
02:21:01
All Right. Take care.
Larry Broughton
02:21:02
Bye bye.
