Episode 7 Review - Connections Before Content: Mike Hohnen’s Leadership Advice for Managing Managers

We look back at our guest, Mike Hohnen, with his extensive experience in management roles and how to manage emotional engagement for effective leadership. He shares tips to foster true employee engagement and insights into creating a more balanced and engaging work environment that values both productivity and strong relationships.

Episode Transcript

Matt Best (00:00):
Hello and welcome to the growth workshop podcast.
Jonny, what a fantastic conversationwe just had with Mike Hohnen.
He's such an inspirational speaker.
The energy again.
We've been so fortunate on the podcastrecently having these bundles of
energy come and join us and to teachand inspire us and our audience.
As has become customaryon, on this podcast, right?
Let's reflect.
So what was your key takeawayfrom the conversation with Mike?

Jonny Adams (00:23):
Thanks Matt.
And I echo the sentiment that you sharedthere really did enjoy the conversation
with Mike and when you've had a andmeaningful conversation with someone when
you're taking a walk or you're thinkingand reflecting that days after some of
the points that Mike mentioned to us stillring in my ear and I resonate with that.

(00:44):
The critical one for me wasabout how effective leadership
involves balancing task orientationwith relationship building.
And I then think about my own leadershipor my own relationships with clients.
And I think, a lot of thetime I'm task oriented.
I'm ticking things off as I go throughthis list throughout this day or
Friday, have I done my to do list?

(01:05):
Oh, it's Monday morning.
What is my to do list?
So that's really resonated with mebecause actually indexing more on
the relationships that will then helpsolve challenges or opportunities
down the line, as I said, Matt,it really did resonate with me.
So thanks for asking that.
What about you, Matt?

Matt Best (01:22):
Yeah, I couldn't agree more, Jonny, with that thought process
as you're walking along, walking tothe shops or whatever you're doing.
And you think, I think a lot ofwhat Mike shared with us is so
applicable in a business context,but also in a personal context.
I think that was the key thing for me.
And I asked him about, about balance.
And his sort of immediate reaction was toshake his head and say that doesn't exist.
And actually, it's about understandingand managing the polarity between

(01:46):
and that applies to what you justshared there as we think about
that sort of task orientation andrelationship building orientation.
But it also, I think.
Really comes into play when we thinkabout the polarities in being, in
management more broadly, and not alwaysfocusing on the problems to be solved.
And I think particularly for thosemiddle managers, it's, navigating

(02:08):
these polarities, seeing thesethings as distinct things, but
also in your own professional life.
And I think that was a key takeaway forme is not seeing, not trying to search for
this mystical balance that never exists,but just to think about the different
polarities and understand and see that.
So I think that was really interesting.
And probably my key takeawayfrom the conversation.

(02:28):
And I think, what Mike shared withus across the board really touched on
some critical things in leadership andmanagement and organizational structure
and everything we think about whatwe're trying to do to drive our teams
towards effectiveness, what we'retrying to do to create a real sort of
supportive culture within our businessthat drives the outcomes that we want.

(02:48):
And he shared a lot of reallyinsightful bits around that.
I am focusing on the teams mental being,thinking about employee engagement
and thinking about how important thoserelationships are with customers, with
your employees first to drive the rightrelationships with your customers.
So thanks again, Mike for joining usand to everybody listening out there.

(03:10):
We hope that you found it asinsightful as we did, and we're
really looking forward to youjoining us again on our next episode.
For more insights, makesure you subscribe.
And if you enjoy the journey,don't forget to leave us a review.
Your feedback fuels our growth.
Until next time, keep up thatforward thinking mindset.
Goodbye.