What holds leaders back from creating the future?
Visions are a dime a dozen, but few people make them happen…
What separates these leaders from the rest?
Rich Russakoff is here to break down the Six C’s of Leadership.
Listen to learn:
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Why leadership = good listening
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How to get others to buy in to your vision
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Why leaders need to be lifetime learners
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How to be a proactive listener
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Why leadership isn’t transactional
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The power of questions
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Why paraphrasing is a necessary skill
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The meaning of constructive honesty
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And more
Mentioned in this episode:
Transcript
Rich Russakoff: If you take care of your people, your people will take care of your clients. And if they take care of the clients, the clients will take care of your stakeholders.
Voiceover: You’re listening to the Build a Vibrant Culture podcast with professional speaker, coach and consultant Nicole Greer.
Nicole Greer: Welcome everybody to the Build a Vibrant Culture podcast. My name is Nicole Greer, and they call me the vibrant coach and I am here today with Rich Russakoff. He is an internationally acclaimed business coach, speaker, author and serial entrepreneur. His coaching successes include seven Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards and over 100 winners of the Inc 5000 award.
Rich was a featured speaker for INC Magazine conferences, the Fortune Growth Summit and over 100 other international entrepreneurial conferences and workshops. He has also been a member on faculty on the entrepreneurial master’s program at MIT for the past 20 years. He is an Amazon number one best seller with a recent publication of his third book, People, Time and Money, Volume Two. Please welcome to the show, Rich. Hey, Rich, how are you today?
Rich: I’m doing so good. It’s such a pleasure to be with you today.
Nicole: Yeah, I’m so glad you’re here. And before we started recording Rich, and I were chatting about the fact that he’s over in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and I’m here in Concord. And we’re both big lovers of live music. So we’re gonna get this podcast done then find a concert to go to soon as we get done. That’s on our agenda. But Rich, I have a little thing I’m doing I’m trying to dial in a definition of leadership. So I’m wondering, what’s your definition of leadership?
Rich: I want to share two examples, real time in the last 10 hours. One was, I received a text message from someone who’s the operations director of a company. And what he said is, Hi, Rich, I know you’re working with my boss about his leadership skills. Is there any way, you could try to include in there, his listening skills as well. And great leaders are great listeners. So if you’re not listening, that you’re not a great leader. I just literally 10 minutes ago, finished up a Zoom call with the leadership team of a company where their people are all over the planet.
And the CEO decided going into the fourth quarter, we’re going to do a start, stop, keep exercise. And what we did was ask everybody to talk about the key things we’re doing well, and that we want to keep, what are things we need to start doing that we’re not doing? And what are things we need to stop doing that are in our way. Now, the beauty of this is the CEO realized, let’s get everyone involved. I want to listen to what you have to say, I want you to know you are heard. And I want us to work together to come up with the solutions to move forward. And by doing that, we get clarity and focus, we get alignment.
And we get buy in because you get buy in two ways. And leaders need buy in from their team. One of my favorite quotes is that success is 1% strategy 99% alignment. So that’s where our focus was. And we’ve come out of that meeting aligned for the fourth quarter. And then the key thing is, what’s our takeaways? What are we going to do? Who owns what? And how are we going to get results? And how should we measure them? To me, that’s a clear indicator of leadership in action.
Nicole: Yeah. All right. I love that. And what I like to do Rich is I like to tell people what you just said, so that they hear it twice. I mean, I don’t want to be redundant. However, I think he laid down a lot of stuff in a very short period of time, and that’s why I don’t want people to miss it. So the number one thing he said is leaders need to be listening. You need to be excellent listeners. And I think when they listen, they get the second thing you said which was buy in. And then he gave you a little formula that you can use in your leadership, which is start what are we gonna start doing what are we gonna continue doing and what are we gonna stop doing, which gives you alignment? So wow, what a great answer to the question, what is leadership. He gave them major, major nuggets in that one moment. And so will you repeat that, quote, success is 1%.
Rich: 1% strategy, 99% alignment. When all is said and done, it’s the leader’s job to make sure the company gets results. And if they don’t get results, it’s all for naught. What does it matter? So there’s a clear vision, you have everyone aligned. People understand their roles and what they need to do. You focus on having the right people in the right job, which gets to what do you really excel at? And not ask people to do things that they don’t do well, because then you’re not going to get what you want from players that really want to contribute to the team’s success.
Nicole: Yeah, absolutely. That’s fantastic. All right. Well, you’ve mentioned three things already that, you know, skills that leaders need to, you know, have one was, you know, get people in alignment, get results, get buy in, be a great listener. What else would you add to the list in terms of the skills that leaders need to have today in order to be effective?
Rich: Well, first of all, they need to be lifetime learners. Secondly, they need to care. And I want to take us down a little path here. When I was writing a little while ago about leadership, I asked myself, who that I think was the best leader in the 20th, and in my lifetime, and I came up with Nelson Mandela. And the reason I chose Nelson Mandela, is because he greatly lives what I call the six C’s of leadership.
Nicole: I love that.
Rich: Number one is competence. Leaders are visionaries. They’re decisive, they make decisions. People can depend and trust on them to make decisions. Not all decisions are going to be good. But then the leader recognizes that early and cuts their losses and moves on. They have the ability to identify, recognize and recruit great talent. You’re in the hiring, requiring, inspiring, firing, training and communications business. So you hire slow, and you fire fast, and you give your people the opportunity to succeed.
And I don’t think I’ve ever met a great leader, that isn’t a relationship builder. And that’s with all the stakeholders. And I’m going to get back to stakeholders in a little bit. So leaders lead by their ability to influence and motivate others. They recognize that they get the behavior that they exhibit, and they tolerate. Key number one, you have to know how to delegate, and delegate doesn’t mean I tell you what to do, assume you’ve got it, and then you’re going to do it. I need to follow up with you. I need to listen to make sure you know how to do it. You know what to do. And there’s a plan for success.
And leadership are, leaders are problem solvers and future focus based. I love what Reed Hastings, the CEO of Netflix says, when he said my job is not to fix problems. My job is to create the future. So a good leader earns the right to hold others to a higher standard. So that’s all under the bucket of competence. Before I move on to the next one, do you have any questions or anything you want me to ask? Or for me to elaborate on that?
Nicole: Well, I just think that this is a great competency list. And so if I was going to just kind of mirror it back again, is that like I heard a couple of times in here, that you have to be a visionary. I love the quote you gave us from the guy at Netflix. My job is to create the future. You know, I was just reading from Kouzes and Posner their book, The Leadership Challenge. And you know, they’ve done all this research, Richard, I’m sure you’re familiar with it about you know, what are the characteristics or competencies of great leader.
And they said the number one competency that they find time and time again in their research that leaders do not have and need to have is the ability to be a visionary and see into the future. I’m curious, you know, you’ve written all, you know, these three books, two of them are all about, you know, moving people forward in terms of, you know, giving them the leadership skills and tools and strategies they need. Why do you think it’s hard for leaders to create the future or get their head in the game like the guy at Netflix?
Rich: Well, first of all, it’s hard to see down the road, if I were to drive, from my house, in Chapel Hill, to your house in Concord. I go down roads I’ve never been on before, there’s going to be turns on those roads that I’m gonna have to make, I’m gonna have to make choices of staying on an interstate highway, or going on a road that’s a little slower, that’s a little more fun to me. So the vision is key. But keep in mind, visions are a dime a dozen. I hear all kinds of visions from people, it’s the ability to implement those visions. It’s the ability to get people to join, you know, I love that great quote from Martin Luther King, who said, I didn’t say I have a strategic plan. I said, I have a dream. And the idea behind that is getting buy in from people. Buying into the dream, believing in what you want to do, and then seeing that you have the competency to make it happen, and that you walk your talk, and that I get to be a part of it.
Nicole: Yeah, that’s awesome. That’s awesome. Yeah. Okay. So I agree, it’s harder to look down the road. But really, it’s sharing the dream and selling it. You know, convincing people that this is something worthwhile to get their, get their energy involved around and their genius involved around. Alright, I love it. Okay. So the first C in the six C’s is competence. And there was visionary, being an influencer, influencer, a motivator, learning how to delegate back, you said, listening again. So don’t miss that everybody that’s twice in one conversation with Rich where he’s like, he gotta be a good listener. And then getting people to join in. Alright, so that’s great. What’s our, what’s our second C?
Rich: Okay. Second one is, it’s almost a cliche, concern or care. No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care. And that as a leader, I know my leader has my back and recognizes my talent and effort and works, cares about, how’s your family? What’s going on in your life? Who are you as a person? So great leaders are not transactional in how they work with people. It’s that connection. And that’s why you’ll go through walls for a great leader.
Nicole: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So that that whole quote that you did, at the beginning there, you know that people don’t care how much he knows, they want to know how much you care. It’s been attributed to so many people. And I think it’s because we can’t help but quote it everywhere we go, because it’s so absolutely true. So talk a little bit more about it’s not transactional, in case somebody got hung up right there. What do you mean, it’s not transactional? What, it’s a connection. Talk about that?
Rich: Well, it’s funny, you should ask because I just have a client, who finished the sale of a business two weeks ago. And we’re going to write a book about his experience. And one of the things he said to me, is a great concept. Put your mask on first. You’re in an airplane, they tell you, you got to put your mask on first, before you can help a loved one or anyone else, or you’re of no value. So what he believes is that put your mask on first means people first, not profits first. If you take care of your people, your people will take care of your clients. And if they take care of the clients, the clients will take care of your stakeholders. So it’s a fascinating point. He first learned it from Southwest Airlines.
And if you go to work for him, the first thing you’ll do is receive a package of all sorts of gifts for your family. So they know wow. I’ve just joined a great team. His team is set up that I trust you that if you want to go to your child’s soccer game, do it. I know you’ll be there and you’ll catch up. If somebody’s sick, take care of them. So he’s really focused on creating an environment of a great culture, where he has very little issues with retention. People want to work there, they feel loyalty. And that’s one of the keys to success. Our employees are grateful he said to us, because we are grateful to them. And it’s a very interesting mindset.
Nicole: Yeah, I think it’s the law of reciprocity. Right? You know, so that, you know, if I take care of you, you take care of me. I scratch your back, you scratch mine, you know. There’s a lot to be said about that, you know, we’re willing to give when we know the other person is a giver, too. It’s all about again, it’s what his second C is, concern and care.
Rich: So Nicole, you see the difference between transactional, okay, you’re working here, nine to five, you got a job to do. Do your damn job. And somebody that really cares about you. Who’s going to work more for you? Who are you more willing to retain?
Nicole: Yeah. And so I would call that transformational instead of transactional. Yes. Would that be the right word?
Rich: Go to the head of the class. That’s a beautiful word. Yes.
Nicole: Yeah. Because it does, it transforms the culture, it transforms the relationship. Transforms the reason why we’re doing what we’re doing. And I think you know, the thing that you said in there that was that so important that we all know, is like the blood of an organization is that there’s trust, right? So when all this is going on, there’s trust, and trust transforms everything. There’s a very old book, everybody knows that it. The Speed of Trust, it just it does, it transforms everything when he got trust. I love that. Okay, so the first C, again, everybody was competence. The second one is concern and care. So you get a bonus C in there. What’s the third C, Richard?
Rich: Communication skills.
Nicole: Okay, this is a biggie.
Rich: Great leaders are great communicators, and they work at it. They don’t take it for granted. So they are proactive listeners. And I think maybe I can share a little bit of this right now, in terms of what is a proactive listener. We listen with our eyes, as we talk to others and establish eye contact. So we know they know we’re listening. And, Nicole, if while we’re having this conversation, I’m over here, doing an email, you know it. And, you know, I am not proactively listening to you. So communication, again, is more about listening than speaking. The old rule of you have two ears and one mouth for a reason, in terms of when you talk and when you listen. One of my clients, who is a lifetime learner was a terrible listener, and was impatient.
And I was able to get him to slow down. And he found when he truly listened, paraphrased, and asked, tell me more. He learned things that were invaluable that he never, ever would know. The next thing there is, recognize that the shortest distance between two points is clarity. Make it clear what you’re saying, make sure I know it. That’s where paraphrasing comes in. In other words, what you said is you’ve read some really good books on trust, and how important trust is for leadership. And that you recommend that anyone who wants to establish themselves as a great leader does the things that the people in their company will trust.
Nicole: So I think that’s a huge skill, paraphrasing, and I don’t think we talked about it enough.
Rich: And then it all ties into being a master of paying attention. Paying attention to your clients, how can I help you? What can we do better? What other services do you need that we might be able to provide? What are your goals? I find when a client has a meeting with one of their clients, and they ask what their goals are and where they’re going, and how we can do better, they get more business than if it’s a sales call. And again, it goes back to listening, showing you’re caring. And that gets to one other key point in communication skills, ask questions. If you ask questions in a negotiation, or of people, you’re controlling the conversation by asking questions.
But you’re also getting information, and you’re learning as a result of that. And the other key final point is communication is to get it right the first time. In most organizations, according to Peter Drucker, a 5% deficiency, in getting a message across leads to 50% of work time making up for that. So if you can get it right the first time, again, through paraphrasing, let’s get clear on what we said, let’s get clear on this is a priority. Let’s get clear on the buy when. Let’s get clear on who you need to help you. Let’s get clear on whether or not you have the bandwidth or the time to take it on. And if it’s something new, what do you have to put on hold to get it right?
Nicole: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So I just want to repeat that quote he gave us he said, Peter Drucker, and for all of you that that may not know, Peter Drucker has popped off the planet, but he has a place out in California at the Drucker Institute, you gotta get yourself there. And he wrote, he was a prolific, prolific writer. He’s almost like the godfather of modern day management theory. And he said, tell me if I get it right, Rich. A 5% deficiency in getting the message right the first time it results in a 50% amount of time of making up for that, did I get that right?
Rich: Yes. And get it down to 1%, it’s still 25%. We’re constantly if we don’t have the right systems in place, to make sure someone knows what we want them to do, dealing with communication errors that cost us time, morale, focus, and productivity.
Nicole: Yeah, 100%. Yeah, I was up. I was telling you what before we get on the call, Rich, that I was up in Wake Forest, working with a group of people and our whole day was about communication. And it’s just everywhere. Everybody needs to up their communication game. So don’t miss what Rich said, he said, you know, you’ve got to be a proactive listener. Listen with your eyes. listen more than you speak. You’ve got two ears, one mouth. And then he said the word clear or clarity, probably 15 times or more. So it’s about making sure do I understand you? Do you understand me? Okay. So communication. Huge, huge, huge. That was our third C. What’s our fourth C?
Rich: Consistency.
Nicole: All right. All right, talk about consistency. Doing the same thing, the same way over and over. What else?
Rich: Well, I swim three times a week. By the way, that’s time management. And the reason I’m able to do it is I’m a blockhead. And I block off the time on my calendar to do it. But there’s a big sign that says, consistency beats, intensity 100% of the time. And it, whether it’s exercise, whether it’s anything to do with your lifestyle, o learning or growing, it’s consistency is the key. Staying on messages. I don’t have a plan, du jour. This is where our focus is. This is our sweet spot. This is how we do business, being consistent on it, make decisions that are aligned with your core values.
Again, when your values are clear, your decisions are easy. And that goes for everybody in the organization. And sometimes that means you have to do tough things. But if you don’t shortcut it, if you stay with your values, then you’re consistent. I also believe consistency is treating everyone fairly. Don’t show favorites. Everyone deserves to be treated with dignity or respect. If they’re, if they’re an interior terrorist in your organization, you want to get them out of there. And that’s where we get to firing the interior terrorists. And give them an opportunity to learn or grow. And if they’re not there, then they’re the wrong fit. They’re the rotten apple in the barrel.
The next thing is walk your talk. So many times, a new client will show me their values, their value statement and how proud they are of it, but they’re not walking it. So it has no relevance. People see it as fluff. I just came up with a new quote, If I can find it, and you don’t have to experience the the word here. But sometimes, you know, you don’t know something is bull until you step in it.
Nicole: I love it.
Rich: So you’ve got to be able to walk your talk, and know if things are consistent with what you’re doing. So those are the key things that leaders need to do to be consistent. I need to know that I can trust you to make the decisions that are aligned with the values and are the best interest of the company and the customer.
Nicole: Yeah, absolutely. So he’s talking about being a blockhead, which means he’s blocking stuff out on his calendar. You know, using time management, getting your core values in place, and then walking the talk. And then of course, not playing favorites and treating everybody with dignity and respect. So those are fantastic things that we need to do with consistency. And here’s the thing. People can rest a little bit if their leader is predictable. And here’s what I know. The most unfavorite people to work for are the unpredictable people. It keeps everybody on edge. Right, Rich. Like, we’re all scared. We don’t know what he or she will do next. I think that’s a that’s a huge, huge idea. Consistency.
Rich: Yes, thank you. There was a study done. And I’m not sure if McKinsey did it if the Harvard Institute did it. I’m not sure who did it. But they studied the Board of Directors’ decisions at Fortune 1000 companies to determine who they hired, who they kept, excuse me as CEOs, and who got fired. And they were looking for what is the common denominator, and it was decisiveness. If you have decisiveness in a leader, that’s leadership. And then you can screw up. You can say, I screwed up. By the way, I screwed up. You didn’t screw up, Nicole, I did. I take responsibility and accountability for that.
Nicole: Yeah. All right. All right, I’m gonna go figure out where that is the study on the board of directors, I think that’d be fantastic to read. Hey, I got a little tip for everybody who’s listening in. I don’t know if you knew this. But if you go on Google, you can type in Google Scholar, you’ll be taken to an entirely different search engine that will help you look at different studies and research papers. So I use this all the time. And I want to suggest that to you. Yeah. So let’s find that study. That’s fantastic. So we got it.
Rich: Nicole, can you repeat the where we can go to find it?
Nicole: Yeah, you just gonna go to your regular old Google. And then you’re gonna type in Google Scholar, and there’ll be a link, and it’ll take you right out to Google Scholar. And then let’s say that you’re curious about this listening thing. You’re like, oh, my God, I’ve been told I need to listen. And Rich is telling me I need to listen. So I want to I want to, you know, sometimes if we know that it’s like, factual, it’s not just advice. You know, but I bet you there are 1000s and 1000s of papers about why listening is imperative in any kind of relationship, but especially at work. So you can go out to the Google Scholar and check that out. So he gave you an extra, you’re gonna get six C’s, but he just gave you a D. And the D was you got to be decisive. All right.
Rich: Now, there was another tip there. Quite often, when we say something once, like Google Scholar, I may not get it. I may not hear it. I may not remember it. You just said it five times. If I don’t have it now, shame on me. If my job was to ask you to ask the question, to not be afraid to say can you repeat that? When you did, not only you didn’t just say oh, you mean Google Scholar. You went deeper in explaining it and why it’s important and what its value is. And that’s why asking questions is so critical, because you peel the layers of the onion, and you get me to the point where, hey, I’m gonna look this up. This is a good resource for me.
Nicole: Yeah, absolutely. And hey, listeners, I had an entire podcast done with a gentleman named Bob Tiede, and it’s T i e d e. And his whole body of work is about the power of questions. So Rich is all over it. But if you want to hear more about asking questions, I would suggest you go back and take a listen to the episode with Bob. So just go in and Google up Bob Tiede. T i e d e on the Build a Vibrant Culture podcast, and his episode will pop right up. He was fantastic. And all he does is write about questions and research about questions. It’s fantastic. So Rich is on it. Okay, so we’re at number five. Number five, what is the fifth C?
Rich: Okay. Constructive candor and this is really difficult for many people. And the number one quote on this that I believe came from the book, Crucial Confrontations is honesty, without compassion is cruelty. And many leaders have said to me, you know what? I tell it like it is, and take pride in that. Now, if there’s no compassion, do you think I’m going to listen? Do you think I’m going to get the message? Do you think I’m going to defend myself? I’m going to turn it off.
Nicole: Right. Quiet quitting. You know that one, right, Rich, they’re all talking about the quiet quitting. That’ll do it every time.
Rich: Yep. And they’ll be out the door. And you won’t know why. And so it’s important, it gets back to concern and consistency, and treating people with dignity and respect. I believe, great leaders make it their goal to challenge the team to make them better, and things better. That’s what we just did, on the start, stop, keep exercise where everybody had an opportunity to share, to say what they liked. And to come out of that meeting with a clarity of how we’re going to grow, how we’re going to be better. The next is, you want to bring out the best in the team and hold them to a higher standard.
And you can’t hold others to a standard that you don’t hold yourself. So what I want to help you do, Nicole, if we’re working together is how can I help you grow? What is your greatest challenge? Do you want to rise to a higher standard with us? So I’ve asked questions. I’ve shown you I’m concerned. I’m challenging you. And we’re going to get to a point where you may say something like, Nicole, can you share an area with me where you think you want to grow and need some tools and skills and support to get there?
Nicole: That is a fantastic question.
Rich: Roleplay with me on it.
Nicole: Okay. All right, an area that I want to grow? Well, I want to grow my speaking business, the speaking side of my business.
Rich: Well, I would ask you, are you a member of The National Speakers Association?
Nicole: I am. I have been for 10 years.
Rich: Every time you go to a National Speakers Association meeting, I’d like you to go there with two or three objectives and look to see what you can learn from that. How often do you get repeat opportunities to speak?
Nicole: Well, just the summer I was really blessed. I spoke three times for the Rural Broadband Association. And then I’m asked to speak at SHRM events over and over again. So I do think I have a good keynote, I think I have something good to say. Maybe even have some skills to present.
Rich: So how do we get the message out? You see where I’m going here?
Nicole: Yeah, yeah.
Rich: Where I’m, and what am I doing? I’m asking questions. And I would like the answer to come from you. And my role is to be a sounding board for you to get there. And then I might say to you, I’d like to commit to help you do the three things that will make a difference in your speaking career as you defined it.
Nicole: Yeah. And I will tell you, I am a coach, and you know what Rich, I love to be coached. And I think I don’t know, I don’t know what number six is going to be on your on your list. I’m waiting for the drumroll in number six. But I would contend that maybe one of the C’s could be coachable. You know, like leaders have to be coachable. So I don’t know what your number six is. We didn’t talk through all of this.
Rich: That’s number one. And I’m going to give you a tie in that with that on number six. On constructive candor. Praise in public, criticize in private. We don’t want to humiliate someone. And I was on a call with a new client three weeks ago, and someone had taken over a new position. And they screwed something up. And on a call with six other people the CEO berated him and said, why didn’t you know this? Why didn’t you know this? Why didn’t you know that? At the end of the call, we had a conversation. And I said, that was the wrong message for everybody.
And that should be an opportunity for a learning moment for you and this person, not a blame game. Now, within 20 minutes, he sent out an email to his entire team that said, I want to apologize for the way I handled that. Mark is new in the position. He’s doing the best he can. And I did not approach it right. I apologized to Mark and my team. That’s when I knew he was coachable. Because he responded. And he put himself on the line there. And he realized it.
Nicole: That is fantastic. Absolutely. I think that’s imperative. Yeah. That they be coachable. Which is actually number five, you know, you got to dish out the constructive candor, but you also got to be able to take the constructive candor, right. You know, you’re my daddy would say, don’t dish it out. If you don’t dish it out, if you don’t want to eat it, right.
Rich: Your daddy is a prophet.
Nicole: Yes, absolutely. Well, I don’t know about that. But he was he was an interesting bird. That’s for sure. Okay, well, did I get number six? What is number six? I don’t want to miss it.
Rich: I thought you’d never ask, Nicole. Six is connection. Support the team and acknowledge contributions. For example, I have worked with a number in the promotion of our book, we’ve done a number of blog posts, you are the only person that sent out a package to us that shared with us in advance what the questions were. That told us about who you are, and who gave us a gift. So what I’m doing right now is acknowledging your contribution and how you stand out. And I said, thank you forth.
Nicole: Yeah, you’re welcome. It’s my pleasure.
Rich: Foster that we are all in this together. That’s what teams are. No blame games. We’re in this together for whatever our mission is, and to live our values. And the third one is, are you approachable? There are leaders I’ve worked with, who have had an open door policy, and you’re cordially welcome to go in for me to tell you you’re bothering me. What the hell do you want?
Nicole: That’s hilarious. Yeah. I think I’ve had a couple of these leaders in my life. That’s fantastic.
Rich: And by the way, if you’re coachable, you’ll get it. So that reminds me. I want to give you an example of that in terms of connection and coachability. And it’s a funny story. One of my clients was an attorney, is an attorney in the Seattle area. And what he does is he works for clients that have been denied Social Security disability, to get them the disability. And sometimes they’ll come back from a case and the judge will not have ruled favorably. And when I interviewed his people, they said, God, when Rob comes back from one of those, he’s in a nasty mood and it’s like, he’s very critical. And it’s we have a cop in the rearview mirror.
And we don’t work as well. So I shared that with Rob. And he said, I don’t want to do that, what can we do about it? And I came up with an idea, and I got buy in from their team. If you’re familiar, in soccer, if you have a penalty, you get a yellow flag. And then if you repeat it, you get a red flag. And with a red flag, you’re out of the game. So the yellow flag is a warning. So we set up a system where there was a yellow and a red flag in the office. And if he came back in one of those moods, anybody had the authority to put the yellow flag up on his door.
And if he continued the behavior, you could put up a red flag, and he had to take a timeout. So it was a funny way of him getting the message. And people feeling like they could help Rob in overcoming this. To my knowledge, they’ve never had to put up a red flag. So the next one is they believe in their team. And the team knows that. They catch them doing things, right. They thank them. They give the team credit, where credit is due.
And they build great teams, out of great individuals, great teams out of great individuals, they recognize talent, and they have systems in place to help that talent grow. e it training, be it feedback, be it a greater understanding of how the company works, they create the best out of the team members they have. And then we get back to where we started. Recognizing that success is 1% strategy and 99% alignment.
Nicole: Yeah, that’s fantastic. All right. So the thing that you said in there the best was that little story. So you know, you might be listening. And you might think to yourself, well, he just gave me six different areas, six different C’s, and then the bonus D be decisive. Right. So you know, are you competent in all the areas that rich shared vision, hiring, firing, relationship, building, influence, motivating, et cetera? Are you good at concerning care? Are you good at communication? Are you good at consistency? Are you good a constructive candor? Are you good at connection? I think everybody needs a yellow and red flag. There should be something you’re working on.
Rich: I think my wife just walked by and overheard it. And I see you’re running to the car. I imagine she’ll get, I’m getting a yellow or a red flag.
Nicole: She’s going out to get a flag. I understand. That’s fantastic. That’s fantastic. All right. Well, we are at the top of the hour, and I have had just a great time. I have taken I don’t know how many notes you’ve taken everybody. But I’ve got at least a page of notes here that I’ve been typing into the computer as we have gone along. And of course, we will have all of this in a transcript that accompanies this podcast. So this is full of nuggets that you can actually go back and put in place. So Rich before I let you go, I just one more time. I want to mention everybody that he’s got three books. His latest book is The Art of Managing People, Time and Money. And it’s the second version, right, the second volume of that. So please go out and check that out. It’s on Amazon, of course, you want to say something about that, Rich?
Rich: Yes, I like to say that the book was 50 years in the making. Three years in the writing, one day at a time. And when I talked about being a blockhead. I made it a mission and a goal, to put down what I’ve learned as a coach and an entrepreneur, through experience, and through the people that I coach. And I’ve written this in a way where each chapter is one key nugget. That’s about 500 words. So you can pick up a message generally with a story. And you can go through the book as you want. You don’t have to read it chapter by chapter, and find a nugget that will work for you and put it into play. That was my goal. And that was my challenge and the opportunity in writing.
Nicole: That’s fantastic. Yeah, so more of a resource, right, I’ve got an issue. Let me pull Rich’s book out and see if he’s got a little nugget in here for me. That’s what he’s got. All right. Well, speaking of nuggets, you know, I like to, I like to allow the folks that come on the show, you know, I know there’s like one special listener out there, like, oh, wait, don’t stop. One more thing from Rich, what little nugget would you leave them with? What’s the final thing that you would share to help our leaders build a vibrant culture?
Rich: Well, your word is your bond. If you’re going to do something, do it, and hold yourself accountable to that. And keep your promises. I have an administrative assistant. And her primary job is to keep my promises. So when I make a promise, I put it in my task list. And then I’ll go through it with her the next morning, and the promises get kept. If you don’t keep your promise to stakeholders, to customers, and to your team, you are not a leader that people will follow.
Nicole: And it’s really an integrity thing. You know, I want to follow a guy or gal I really believe in. That’s a fantastic final nugget. All right, listen everybody. Write this down, put it as your screensaver. My bond is my word. And if you have the delightful privilege of having somebody who helps you execute, I love the idea of every promise you make. Make sure you get it on a task list. That’s a wonderful like, tip. That’s fantastic. I love it. All right, well, Rich, tell everybody how they can find you. I know somebody out there is like, oh my gosh, I want this guy to coach me. I want this guy to come speak at my company event. Where can they get a hold of you?
Rich: Well, I’m Rich@coachtothebest. All letters, c o a c h t o t h e b e s t. So you can reach me at Rich@coachtothebest. And you could also go to the website, which is coachtothebest for more information. And if you have a challenge or a problem, I’d be happy to talk to you and see if I can be a help to you or a sounding board. There’s never a fee for a first time meeting.
Nicole: All right. Well that is a wonderful invitation, everybody. All right, Rich, it’s been great to talk to you on the Build a Vibrant Culture podcast. You’re just up the road for me. So the next time you’re down in Charlotte way or I’m headed over towards the Chapel Hill, Durham, Raleigh area, I’m gonna look you up and we’re gonna get it on the air. Okay, so you said you would feed me right?
Rich: Oh, there’s no way I won’t.
Nicole: And everybody knows I like I like a good, I’m a foodie. So that’s fantastic. All right, well, I’m gonna go get a free meal up in the Chapel Hill area, and everybody else give Rich a call and have a free conversation so he can help you be a sounding board and help you out with a problem. Thanks so much for being on the Build a Vibrant Culture podcast.
Rich: Thank you, Nicole.
Voiceover: Ready to build your vibrant culture? Bring Nicole Greer to speak to your leadership team, conference or organization to help them with her strategies, systems and smarts to increase clarity, accountability, energy and results. Your organization will get lit from within. Email Nicole@nicolegreer.com. And be sure to check out Nicole’s TEDx talk at nicolegreer.com.
