Episode 56 Podcast Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):

Commit to how you want to show up, commit to the tone you’re going to set with and do it no matter what happens. No matter what comes up, no matter what’s going on, put it all to one side, set the tone, show up and actually execute with that tone in mind, and then watch what happens from there.

Speaker 2 (00:21):

Hi everyone. Rob Kropp and Dan Stone’s here from Pravar Group and welcome back to another episode of The Trade Den, how are you Dan?

Speaker 1 (00:29):

Hi, Rob. I’m very well, thank you. Looking forward to this. I love a Good Leadership Matters episode, which is what we’ve got today.

Speaker 2 (00:36):

Teams and leadership’s your jam, isn’t it?

Speaker 1 (00:38):

It is. Before we even started at Pravar or before I started at Pravar, I actually ran my own coaching business, dealing with teams and how to build teams and travelling the world, actually speaking to hundreds of them about how you can actually develop a cohesive team and all the elements of team dynamics. So I absolutely love this stuff and whenever I get a chance to talk about it, I get really excited. So look out today.

Speaker 2 (01:05):

Good stuff. Should we get into it?

Speaker 1 (01:06):

Yeah, let’s do it. Where I thought we’d start today is first of all, why does this conversation matter so much? I mean, it’s such a pivotal thing. We could spend weeks camping out on this, but why do you think it matters so much to us to talk about leadership?

Speaker 2 (01:21):

There’s a time in business when you’re running your trades business that it’s not to get to the next level and to achieve operational freedom, time freedom, and make leverage profit, there’s a time in a business where you have to accept. It’s not about how long and hard you work, it’s your ability to become a great leader within your organisation. A lot of trades businesses hit that moment in time where they get a couple of guys in around them, they’re starting to phase themselves off the tools and they hit this glass ceiling. They can’t get to the next level, and they have to accept that what got them there isn’t what’s going to get them to where they want to go. And the thing that fundamentally has to shift is it’s no longer about being a great tradesman anymore. It’s about being a great leader of a great team of your trades business. Slight distinction, huge difference.

Speaker 1 (02:24):

Yeah, absolutely. I think that the idea of as bigger, the bigger the business gets, the more it grows, the more people that are involved. That’s such just one part of the puzzle. Without good leadership, you’re destined to have things. Fracture cracks appear, things start to go sideways. It revolves around not you being able to bring more in, even if it’s more sales, more people, whatever you might be that you’re looking at, if you neglect your development as a leader, you will hit that ceiling and the sooner you can accept that, the sooner you step up, the sooner you get to understand how to set the standard and build a crew that’s there but follows your lead, not because they have to, not because you are sitting there cracking the whip every day, but because they want to. They’re genuinely inspired. They pick up on what you’re putting down. That’s where you start to see the transformations happen.

Speaker 2 (03:14):

Yeah, I think when you’re a smaller business, when you’re a one man band or maybe one or two people around you, when you’re on site all the time with the guys in the crew working alongside them, your leadership style is more of a hands-on leader. You’re doing the work with them, have to do a lot of, there’s not a lot of management. There’s not a lot of leadership because it’s like, come on boys, let’s go or lead by showing you how hard I can work. But that style only gets you so far in business, especially if you start building a team in around you. And as the business definitely gets bigger if you carry that style going forward with you, no wonder so many business owners blame their team, blame under performance, the culture’s shit, they’re not showing up. Young guys these days don’t want to work. They don’t care anymore. All those throw off comments that they do, make sure some of it might be true, but if we want to face the facts around it, a lot of that is a reflection of the leader, not necessarily of the true performance of the team. And that’s sometimes a bitter pill to swallow.

Speaker 1 (04:21):

It is. It’s another face the facts moment, as we call it a big one, a real big one. If we bring it back, and you sort of said it there, let’s go back to our story that we introduced at the top and let’s talk around, well, what actually did happen, because I think that paints the picture beautifully. As I said, there was two boat crews that were running in this Navy Seals training, boat Crew two, let’s call it was almost guaranteed to come in first place. Every race boat crew six was guaranteed to come in last place. And this is where the guys, Jocko and his partner Leaf, they said that they watched this and over time what they did was watch this guy in boat Crew six, he was inexperienced, he didn’t know what to do. He’d lose his call almost every single time and it’d be almost be unacceptable to keep him going.

(05:10):

But he had to learn his lessons obviously. But what they did was they did this experiment before the start of the very next race, they called timeout, announced that the leaders of crews two and six were going to swap teams. So what happened was the way the struggling crew leader, he felt like, how good is this? I’m going to go from the worst team to the best team. This is going to be amazing. Now you’ll see what I’m about. This is going to be really cool. What actually happened was over the next hour or so of the races that they then did, boat crew two performed okay, but never again took first place. Boat Cruise six, the one that had supposedly the underperformance, not the good people, the ones that were struggling, they won nearly every single race. And the minute they go on to talk about that, they talk about all the frustration, all the, I suppose, bad energy. There was a lot of, I think from memory, a lot of cursing, a lot of frustration, a lot of blame. All of that disappeared and all of that just transformed into this new level of performance. The only thing that changed though was the two leaders. So I think that sort of paints that picture precisely what you were talking about at the start.

Speaker 2 (06:25):

Yeah. Isn’t it interesting that the leader that was underperforming in there, he was very quick to blame the team. It was their fault. They’re the problem. This is why we are not winning. But he wasn’t willing to look himself in the mirror to be able to go, well, how is it that I’m showing up? What is it that I’m doing? Where am I falling short? How can I take some responsibility for this? It was all this external blaming rather than internal ownership. Hence why the book called Extreme Ownership.

Speaker 1 (06:59):

Yeah, exactly. Right. And I find it so good, not just so much what the reflection on the leaders, but the way the teams fell into line, the way that they we’re going to talk about this today, the way that the whole tone shifted as a result of changing the leader. But the way that the culture of that team, if you like, that cleared up almost immediately. The second a different leader came in.

Speaker 2 (07:27):

Yeah, it comes back to this saying, which I love, and it says that in leadership, the fish rots from the head down. And I know it sounds a bit rough, but what it’s saying is that everything starts and stops with you as the leader. Everything starts and stops. The fish rots from the head down, and it’s the tone you set, the vibe that you bring, the culture that’s bred everything, the standards, the expectation, everything comes from you as the leader. And that’s why Dan, you asked at the top how reflect on how is your leadership showing up in the results you’re getting right now? Because some businesses and some business owners aren’t doing so well right now, and they’re looking for other people and other things to blame for those results. Yet it’s a hard thing to be able to look yourself in the mirror to be able to go, well, how is it that I’m contributing to things not going well right now? And what is it that I’ve got to change rather than expecting the people around me to change?

Speaker 1 (08:41):

And it’s hard for people to do that, that have that level of self-reflection. Sometimes they struggle to have that sort of moment to face the facts, which is why we do so many reps of facing the facts at Pravar. But at the same time, that question around, we’ll think about the results you’re getting and how is your leadership reflected in that? If you look hard enough and you really answer that question, you’ll see the ripples of your leadership in there. And it’s a good way to do it. If you are a bit taken aback or it feels a bit too confronting for it, just explore the results. What are you actually achieving? And then revert back from what’s happening out there in the field, on the ground, in the office, whatever it is. How is that a reflection of my leadership? And if people are the culture, if you like, if it is negative, if it is people blaming, if it is that, reflect on that and see how you go about doing things in your world.

(09:30):

And you’d be amazed to see the reflection coming straight back onto you when you have that moment of clarity. It’s always there, isn’t it? So let’s keep going on this idea of setting the tone. This is where we want to camp out for the rest of this episode. What do we mean by tone and how do you find a tone and how do you set a tone as a leader? That’s what we want to sort of really focus on. So Rob, I think the first one, it’s near and dear to your heart around presence is probably what we mean by tone, but talk a little bit more about what presence means to you in your mind.

Speaker 2 (10:00):

Yeah, saying that’s always stuck with me for a very long time and came from Gav Houston, a business partner. He said to me earlier in my journey, he said, Rob, never underestimate the power of your presence. And that saying has stuck with me for my whole time as I’ve developed my own leadership style and my own and gone on my own leadership journey. And what it’s always doing is reminding me around how I show up as a leader, how I communicate, the way that I say things, the way that I react and respond to certain things. Just my general presence regardless of what’s going on in my business and personal life, just my presence and my energy, which I know we want to talk a little bit about, but just the energy that I bring to the team and to the overall coaching group. And so I think as a leader, we can never underestimate the power of our presence and how we show up on a day-to-day basis and what that does to set the tone, set the standards, and set the expectations around the results that we drive within our organisations.

Speaker 1 (11:11):

Yeah, I love that. I think the way you led with communication is really important. What you say is such a critical thing. It doesn’t mean though that you are not saying that you have to be a great communicator and that’s the be all and end all of leadership, as you said, and you blended it in beautifully. Then it comes down to more than just the words you’re using as important as they are. But your energy, your energy is contagious, is something I like to keep coming back to. What are you putting out there as energy when you show up and people pick up on that vibe, they know the minute they see you, if you’re in a good mood or a bad mood, if you’ve got a really poor poker face as a leader, sometimes it gets really hard to get away with anything, and no matter what you try, you’d never get the reaction you want from your team or the response that you want because your mood, your morale, all of that is reflected in the energy that you’re putting out to the team before you’ve even set foot in the door. They’ll see you walking in and know what sort of mood you’re in. It’s like, I like to think of it like little kids are really good at reading people, but body language of parents, they’re experts at it, right? They know how to react and respond. People that work with you are the same. The energy that we put out, there’s contagious. Whether you realise it or not, you’re doing a lot more than just using your words as a leader, that’s for sure.

Speaker 2 (12:22):

And it’s hard as a leader, isn’t it? Because even as a leader, we’ve got challenges that we go through, and in business there’s team challenges, there’s cashflow problems, there’s growth issues. You may have just lost a big sale and you lose that sale and you’ve got to go straight into a toolbox talk, and that’s what you’re talking around energy. It’s your ability to have some level of a poker face to be able to go, okay, I’ve got that shit going on in my world. I’ve kind of got to park that for a moment and show up to this toolbox tool in the right manner, isn’t it?

Speaker 1 (12:54):

Yeah. You can’t be stressed, overwhelmed, and show up and think you’re going to get the best result out of your team. If that’s visible, it’s shown and it’s seeping through from everything. You’ll look distracted, you’ll act distracted, you won’t have the same level of presence in the language you’re using and the way you’re conducting yourself. There’ll be almost like a leak off to the side and it’s like, where are you? You really here? That sort of conversation. So there’s probably a big thing around this, an extra episode that we’ll be looking at doing, but what you’re really talking about is the power of being able to compartmentalise.

Speaker 2 (13:27):

Yeah, definitely. Definitely. We can’t cover it off on today, but we will in the future. One thing I do want to talk around about this whole thing is around standards and culture. Another big topic, but this whole thing about standards and culture is it comes from you as the leader whether you like it or not. And if you lack self-accountability where you don’t do what you say you’re going to do, guess what the culture is going to be within your business? Your team won’t do what they say they’re going to do and they’re going to have a low levels of self-accountability. If as a leader you don’t take responsibility for things, guess what? Your team won’t take responsibility for things. If as a leader, you cut corners, guess what? You’re going to show that your team, it’s okay for them to cut corners. If you take the piss in terms of the way that you show up as a leader, guess what your team are going to do that as well.

(14:19):

The way that you communicate to your customers and the way that you refer to them and communicate to them, guess what? That’s the way that your team are going to communicate to them as well. And so this is why we’re talking about this today because what you say, what you do, how you show up and the standards and the culture that you’ve got in your organisation, whether you like it or not, is a reflection of what you do on a daily, weekly, monthly basis. Your team are matching and mirroring that, and I think that’s the point we’re trying to hit home, isn’t it, Dan? This whole matching mirroring thing. We’ve got to be so aware of it as a leader because what we do and what we say shows up every single day in our team’s behaviour.

Speaker 1 (15:05):

It does, and I think the word you used was awareness in there, and I really like that. I think being aware of what it is, life goes on, right? Everyone’s got lives, like you said, there’s challenges all the time. You dunno what’s going on in anyone’s world really if you really look at it. But it’s your ability and leadership to lead well, to be able to bring the best part of you forward, authentically every time. That’s really the aim of the game that you’re going to show up that way in the most positive sense, and that’s what we want to challenge you with as we wrap up today, is being able to raise your awareness and actually choose the tone that you want to set with your team. It’s no good wishing that your team was, they were more bought in, focused on the job at hand.

(15:47):

They were more positive about what we were doing, and you’re moping around, but you do that because you haven’t actually set the tone. What you do is you just go with whatever’s showing up in your world and you rock up and whatever shows up in that meeting, that toolbox talk. That’s what you get for the day. But being able to set that awareness and set that tone, that’s what we want to challenge you to do. Just do it once and see how you go. Do one rep and see how that feels. And then the next thing you go to, how many times can you get to setting a tone with awareness and focus? So before stepping out of your car today to go into the toolbox, talk to the meeting, whatever it is, commit to how you want to show up, commit to the tone you’re going to set with and do it no matter what happens, no matter what comes up, no matter what’s going on, put it all to one side, set the tone, show up and actually execute with that tone in mind, and then watch what happens from there.

Speaker 2 (16:41):

If you know that you’re in that phase of business where you want to take your business and life to the next level, but you recognise that developing your management leadership skills is something that you’ve got to go on that journey and develop by just being a better tradesman, but become a better leader in your trades business and you’re ready to make that change, jump across to strategysession.com.au. Fill in the form book in a time in our diary. Let’s have a really great chat to talk a bit about your journey forward, and let’s see how we can help you develop your leadership and management skills to be able to become the leader you’re destined to be, and also build the business that you’re also capable of building.

Speaker 1 (17:19):

Yeah, your business and your team need it, so please do reach out. Well, that’s it for another Leadership Matters episode. If something here sparked a thought, gave you an insight, please do let us know. If you think of anyone, maybe someone who’s leading you that might need to listen to this and could do with a little bit of help, be friendly and share it with them. We’d love to get the podcast out to as many people as possible, but we’d love to hear from you. So until next time, thanks for joining us. We’ll see you on the next one.

Speaker 2 (17:45):

See you soon.