Dave Braun
00:00:00
Welcome everyone, 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. And what that means, is it means your bank. I’m Dave Braun, and I’m here with my partner and co-host, my friend, oh man, we just got done talking for about our business for a while, my mentor and coach. I mean, I don’t know what else I can say, Larry, welcome, Larry Broughton.
Larry Broughton
00:00:26
David Braun.
Dave Braun
00:00:28
Yeah.
Larry Broughton
00:00:29
It’s good to see you, my friend. How are you?
Dave Braun
00:00:32
I am doing fantastic.
Larry Broughton
00:00:33
Well, listen, I appreciate you so much. I love you. I’m glad you’re in my life. Thank you for keeping me on the straight narrow from time to time.
Dave Braun
00:00:41
Oh, that’s a tough job. Nobody’s gotta do it.
Larry Broughton
00:00:46
But Hey, what you just said, I think is a good reminder for all of us. We need to take time each week to work on our business and not on our business. And yeah, we just got done doing that.
Dave Braun
00:00:57
It was good. Yeah.
Larry Broughton
00:00:58
Let’s go.
Dave Braun
00:00:59
All right. Well, without further ado, here’s our quest for today. Why is it necessary for me to take the top 5 Cliftonstrengths and the Kolbe A index assessments? This is what we recommend as part of our program with all of our coaching clients. Part of the question also is, do I really need to have my team do this also?
Larry Broughton
00:01:23
Yeah, we do talk about this in the prepare section. You don’t have to do anything.
Larry Broughton
00:01:28
You don’t even need to do this program. Is it the wise thing to do? Yes, it’s the wise thing to do. Dave, let me take just a quick stab and I’m gonna hand it over to you. So why do we do it? You know, they’re a saying “Know Thyself”, and so yes, I’m a believer that we have to step out of our own mess sometimes and do a little bit of self-analysis. You know, they used to say like, stare at the Naval a little bit, but you got the cognitive brain, you got the conative brain, there are different types of the brain. What I love about combining the Cliftonstrengths, it used to be called Strengthsfinder 2.0 and it’s morphed over the years. And Kolbe is that it measures different parts of the brain. The conative brain I’m fascinated with. The conative brain is what early Stoics used to talk about, Aristotle used to talk about the conative brain. And basically, that’s how do we respond to stimuli? It doesn’t take into effect, you know, there’s the affect of brain as well, but it doesn’t take into effect schooling or job responsibilities. The conative brain is how do we respond. So that’s the great thing about the Kolbe. The Clifton measures take into a lot of things about, training, skillset, education, all that kind of stuff.
Larry Broughton
00:02:54
If we don’t know ourselves and you know, there are a lot of them. We could be taking the disc. We could be taking Myers Briggs. There are a lot of assessments. Octa Graham. Exactly. There’s a lot of them out there. The key is this, making sure that we’re building a team where our natural strengths and weaknesses are augmented and supported by other team members, strengths and weaknesses. So whatever tools you use, make sure that you’re combining them. And also that people that you’re hiring, their strengths are supportive of the role that they are in. So if I’m looking for somebody who’s really creative, I wanna make sure that they’re natural strengths maximize that role, right? Like I don’t need creative people in my accounting department. I need analytical people in my accounting department. So that’s why we do this. This is why I think it’s pretty important. That’s kind of a general overview, but let’s dive into us a little bit deeper, Dave.
Dave Braun
00:04:02
Yeah. And I think that one of the things is that you’re right, we don’t wanna create normally mini-me’s in our business. We feel so comfortable with ourselves a lot of times, and so we think, oh, if we hire somebody just like me, they’ll be able to do all my stuff and they can, but that’s probably not the gonna be what you want on your first hire. Maybe at some point you do, but not initially.
Larry Broughton
00:04:28
Yeah. Now there are—let’s say that you’re building a business like you have a web business, you’re gonna see a lot of commonality in your business because there’s a lot of—you need a lot of quick starts, you need a lot of people who are a analytics in that in an organization like mine on the hotel side, there are certain roles that need certain skill sets. So you’re right, avoid hiring a bunch of mini-mes. Sometimes you need a mini-me. Sometimes you do, but you can’t have all mini-me. Because otherwise all the great stuff, maybe all the fun stuff that you enjoy doing will get done. But all those things where you really suck, that stuff’s not gonna get done and that’s gonna catch up with you very quickly.
Dave Braun
00:05:15
Yeah. Well, maybe what we can do is talk about a couple of examples. So let’s talk about the things I love, and this is when we’ve got an interview with Keith Baldwin.
Larry Broughton
00:05:26
Right.
Dave Braun
00:05:26
See about strengths, he’s a certified strengths finder coach. He’s, oh my gosh, we just love him. He bought these for us where he has our top— you guys may not be able to see this if you’re listening only, but it just gives my top 5 strengths.
Larry Broughton
00:05:46
It’s a Coffee Mug by the way.
Dave Braun
00:05:47
My Coffee mug that says learner analytical, intellection, related discipline and so there’s a certain definition of those things. But the thing is one of the things he says is you want to embrace your strengths and when you have a problem or a task or something that you want to do, you want to use your strengths to accomplish it. Because even if it may not be a task that you think on the surface is suited to you, you can turn it around and say, I’m gonna apply my strength to it. For example, I mean, I’m so far away from a woo, which is somebody who likes to kind of be out there. Right?
Larry Broughton
00:06:23
Yeah. Winning others over, by the way, is what that means.
Dave Braun
00:06:25
Yeah. And, and I mean, it’s like, you’re out there and talking to a bunch of people and kind of on the surface and, and just bringing, having a great time with a lot of people, while I like to do that to a certain extent, it’s not a strength. And so, to do some of those things that a woo requires is, you know, I have to use some of my other strengths, like use my discipline. It’s like, okay, I’m gonna discipline myself when I go to this party to meet 10 people or something. So that’s kind of how you want to use some of your strengths to accomplish something. And if you don’t know your strengths, then how can you use them?
Larry Broughton
00:07:06
Exactly. And so let’s say for instance, you’re trying to hire a business development person or a salesperson.
Dave Braun
00:07:13
Yeah.
Larry Broughton
00:07:13
You’ve heard at this point in your life that there are some people who just interview really well. You might hire somebody who can show up really well to do the interview. But if you don’t know that inherently, this salesperson or this business development is a woo, who likes to get out there, who likes to engage, who likes to build a relationship, then they’re gonna be working against their strength for most of their career and they’re gonna get burned out on it.
Dave Braun
00:07:39
Right.
Larry Broughton
00:07:41
So that’s one area on the Gallup. Another thing is on the Kolbe side. Well, actually let’s finish up on the Gallup for instance. So I’m kind of an ideas person. I’ve got a lot of experience in business, between my own personal experience, between interviewing rockstar entrepreneurs, and between coaching and mentoring people. And one of my strengths is I’m strategic. I can see a big picture of stuff. I can make complex ideas, simple for people but when it comes to putting developing systems for that, I can talk conceptually about it, but I am not the person with the systems in place. So how does this work with you and I, Dave, in our business? I have a former business partner in my former coaching business and we were like clones both on the Strengthfinders or the, what’s now called the Cliftonstrengths and on Kolbe. So we could come up with ideas all day long, but we couldn’t get Jack squat done. Cause there was nobody implementing or developing systems for it. You and I are built pretty differently. But we share core values. So that’s really key. But like on the Kolbe, I think you’re a 7832. And I’m not gonna go into great detail about what each of those operating modes mean, but I’ll just of folks this, there are four operating modes in the Kolbe.
Dave Braun
00:09:20
Want me to share my screen while you’re talking about that? Let me do that. I’ll pull up my results. I don’t mind. Of course. If you are just listening, you won’t be able to see it, but we’ll describe it to you. So you see it Larry, right?
Larry Broughton
00:09:32
Yeah. That’s right. So the 4 action modes are fact finder, follow thru, quick start, and implementer. And I was right, you’re 7832 on this. Now I, on the other hand, am a 5293. Okay. So I’m mid-range. You are also a mid-range. But on the follow-through, I’m a 2, I don’t like systems. You can put systems in place and I still won’t use them, I’m resistant to systems. You are an initiating systems person, right?
Dave Braun
01:10:11
Absolutely. Yeah.
Larry Broughton
01:10:13
When it comes to ideation and going with my gut, you’re an engineer. Show me the facts.
Larry Broughton
01:10:23
Right. You’re resistant to it. I’m a 9 I’ll stand at the edge of the building, jump off and build the airplane on the way down. And so we compliment each other. And since you and I have known each other for so many years, when conflict does arrive, we’re committed to the relationship and we work through it. Whereas most people, if you have most people and we share the same core values and everything else. Most people, when they have that many points of departure, you’re a 3, I’m a 9, if usually, that’s 5 or more, there’s gonna be conflict in that area. We have worked through it over all these years. So that’s on the Kolbe side. On the Clifton side, you and Melissa in particular are great at taking my ideas and putting form to them. So what’s great with you guys is that you might, we’ll sit down, we’ll come up with an idea. You guys will get the systems and ideation. I mean, the systems informed to about 80% or 85% or 90%. And then I use my maximizer strengths, which is one of my Cliftonstrengths to get it across the finish line, to really take something that’s a B+ product into an A+ product.
Dave Braun
01:11:41
Absolutely.
Larry Broughton
01:11:43
So that’s how you would use your strengths and the strengths of your team. So can you run your business without doing strengths finders and Kolbe? Yes, of course, you can. People do it every day of the week. But I will tell you this, those elite organizations that I’ve spoken to, like the Chick-fil-A of the world. This is what you do, you identify, what are your strengths? Can you work with them and build teams around these. It will make your life a whole lot easier if you do. People will find more joy. You’ll see productivity increase. You will find more freedom in your life. If you don’t want that stuff fine.
Larry Broughton
01:12:28
Don’t do it. But if you want increased productivity, if you want increased morale, if you want more joy in the workplace, if you want more freedom, I encourage you to use the Cliftonstrengths finders and the StrengthFinders and the Kolbe. Identify what your strengths are and what are the strengths of your team members, key team members. You don’t need to do it for everybody. If you’ve got 500 people in your organization, you don’t need to do it for everybody, but certainly key team members. You do, I believe.
Dave Braun
01:13:01
Yeah. And one of the things that I loved about what you did, Larry is in your home office, when, you know, we were all in offices, you had a little placard outside of everybody’s office or that had their strengths and their Kolbe A and I think you had a couple of other things there as well.
Larry Broughton
01:13:20
Yeah. So if some people took more, like I had Myers Brigg, Octagram, Disc, and Anagram. I had all of them. So why the heck would you do that, Larry? So that people know how to adjust their communication style. They’re going to talk to somebody. So a reminder, okay, I’m going into somebody who’s high in command, which is one of the strengths in the Cliftonstrength finders. If you have somebody who’s high in command, you don’t need to go on tiptoe and dillydally around with a piece of news. You go in and you just give them the news and they accept it and they work with it. It drives them nuts if I go in and not give them the punchline, like, oh times are really bad, so we gotta, you know. Give them the punchline. They love that. And they work with it. It just frustrates them when you don’t. So that’s why I do it.
Dave Braun
01:14:16
Yeah. And so it’s important to—well, I’ll use it from my perspective, set up a system. Set up a system to remind yourself, maybe it’s once a month, maybe it’s before every major team meeting or quarter the meeting or every week, just take a quick look at your team’s strengths and remind yourself, oh, Larry, you’re showing your—what was on your wall, like the plaque. Where you’ve got—If you guys can see it, he’s got his Kolbe A. He’s got his Octagram appreciation languages. Oh, we could talk about that too. Myers Briggs and your Cliftonstrengths in order. That’s cool and I think one of the messages is once you do this. Because I’ve seen this in organizations, Larry, where they do all of this stuff. They get it, and then they have this, okay, we gotta learn, we gotta use it, etc. But then if they don’t review it on a regular basis, it’s almost like wasting time.
Larry Broughton
01:15:16
Yeah. It’s interesting that once you’re running your business for a while and you start identifying the best practices or what are the personality traits of who are the rock stars in this role in the past. How are they built? Who are the people we hired? What were their strengths? And that didn’t actually do very well. You start to see a pattern in their strengths. But what they say is what’s measured is improved. So you gotta keep track of it. Yeah. It frustrates me too when people spend all their time in money to do assessments and do nothing with it. That’s frustrating.
Dave Braun
01:15:53
I agree. So I guess the overall point is you don’t have to do these of course, but we appreciate it. We say you want to do it because, like Larry said, you want to have more freedom in your life, more productivity, and more enjoyment. When you’re working on your strengths and understand your modes, your cognitive, and all that kind of stuff, then you’ll have a lot more fun. And you can come across to the same task and approach it a little bit different way, so that it’s more enjoyable and you’ll you get it done faster and better.
Larry Broughton
01:16:27
Yeah. We do a webinar on this. I’m just trying to be really breezy about this right now, but we have kind of a very wonkish webinar on this, where we go into much more detail instead of a quick, 15,000 foot perspective, we get kind of into the weeds a little bit if you are actually interested in it. If you are interested in it, send us a message, Hey, I would love to see that webinar. And we’ll dig it up and send it over.
Dave Braun
01:16:56
Okay. Perfect. Good idea. Anything else, sir?
Larry Broughton
01:17:01
Not for me.
Dave Braun
01:17:02
Okay. Well, everybody, we’re gonna bring this one to a close. Thanks for joining us today. And remember building a team. And we talked about doing that with the Cliftonstrengths finder assessment, as well as the Kolbe A index. But building a team is the way to reclaim your freedom. And we’re here to help you. Three things we’d love for you to do and we’d really, really appreciate it. Number one, subscribe to this podcast if you haven’t already done so. And number two, give us a rating. We’d love five stars, but do what you need to do or leave a comment below this video.
Larry Broughton
01:17:35
Yes, leave a comment.
Dave Braun
01:17:35
Do that. Any comment, and then it will help us to get the word out. And then number three is, to go to Hiremyva.com for more information on our course and community. We’ve got checklists, all that kind of stuff there that you can get for free. So remember, even without experience, you’ll learn how to prepare for hire and thrive with Virtual Assistants when you are in our course and community. Larry and I have helped a lot of folks. We’d love to help you out too. So just go to Hiremyva.com for more information.
Larry Broughton
01:18:03
That’s right. Folks, do yourself a favor. Do the world a favor. Go do something significant today. All right. So, God bless you. God, keep you. God, hold you. All right, my friends. Go get them.
Dave Braun
01:18:15
All right. Bye, everybody.
