June 30, 2025 • 49 mins
Creating effective team cultures is challenging in the easiest of times, but creating an effective team culture in a remote setting is much more daunting. The irony is that a strong team culture is even more important when people aren’t regularly meeting in-person.
You’ll hear from Monique Lindner, AKA: The Time Alchemist, a coach/consultant for Holistic High Performance, Leadership & Lifestyle Design who will offer her expertise and advice to help emerging leaders create strong, impactful, and meaningful remote team cultures.
Monique’s Episode Links:
- https://thetimealchemist.co/#foryou - This is my website with my free offering including a guide to the 11 traits of an impactful leader as well as a guide to the Perfect Morning routine for busy leaders
- https://facebook.com/thetimealchemist - My public FB profile for people to follow me and receive free value
Monique’s Recommended Book/Movie/Podcast List:
Books:
- The courage to be disliked by Ichiro Kishimi & Fumitake Koga
- The T.I.M.E. Method by Monique Lindner https://www.thetimemethod.com/
Podcasts:
1. The diaries of a CEO - Steven Bartlett https://open.spotify.com/episode/1dBnMUeFd0nqX6j4q7KQK5?si=vW6TnCViTNWmrG2FuipA7Q
2. Huberman Lab - Andrew Huberman
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3RWeArnFqgOOE62oJnDt0r?si=L9lp4LOFSUevc823cM5HXA
Trench Leadership: A Podcast From the Front is humbled to have been named #5 in the Top 20 for Best Canadian Leadership-themed podcasts for 2025.
Connect to Trench Leadership:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYnaqOp1UvqTJhATzcizowA
Trench Leadership Website: www.trenchleadership.ca
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/trench-leadership-a-podcast-from-the-front/?viewAsMember=true
Are you looking for a podcast editor/producer? Do you enjoy the quality of the show? The editor of Trench Leadership, Jennifer Lee, is taking new clients. Reach out at https://www.itsalegitbusiness.com.
Reviews are the best way for the show to know what is working, what needs improvement, and what to talk about in the future.
If you have a topic that you're passionate to hear more about, feel free to reach out at simonk@trenchleadership.ca to connect and share your ideas.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
I would like to begin this episode by acknowledging
that I am located in Ottawa,Ontario, Canada, and I am
privileged and honoured to liveand learn on the unceded,
unsurrendered territory of theAnishinaabe Algonquin Nation.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hello, you're listening to Trench Leadership,
a podcast from the front, a showfor emerging leaders from all
professions to hear from otherleaders who have led from the
front, made the mistakes, hadthe triumphs and are still
learning along the way.
Produced by Jennifer Lee atit's a Legit Business, a podcast
(00:44):
launch and management company.
And now here's your host, simonCardinal.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Hello and welcome to Trench Leadership, a podcast
from the front, a show foremerging leaders.
Creating effective teamcultures is challenging in the
easiest of times, but creatingan effective team culture in a
remote setting is much moredaunting.
The irony is that a strong teamculture is even more important
(01:12):
when people aren't regularlymeeting in person.
In this episode, you'll hearfrom Monique Lindner Also.
I'll try that again.
In this episode, you'll hearfrom Monique Lindner, also known
as the Time Alchemist, a coachand consultant for holistic,
high performance leadership andlifestyle design.
Monique will offer herexpertise and advice to help
(01:33):
emerging leaders create strong,impactful and meaningful remote
team cultures.
But, as always, it's not aboutme, it's about the guests.
So I'm just going to go aheadand try and be quiet and welcome
my good friend Monique all theway out in Thailand.
Hey Monique, how's it going outthere?
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Thank you so much, Simon.
It's wonderful.
We have a great time here.
It's fresh and green and verylush to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Oh, that's fantastic, and it's, I guess it's.
It's all like what an 11 hourtime difference there.
It's 6.30 in the evening foryou right now.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Yeah, about that time 6.45,.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
It's 7.45 in the morning here, so there's a
significant time differencethere, but thank you very much
for giving us a part of yourevening after what was probably
a very long work day, and you'restill working, so thank you so
much for that.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Thank you, simon, I'm so excited to be here.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Oh, for that.
Thank you, simon.
I'm so excited to be here.
Oh, this is going to be great.
We've been trying to get tothis point for a few times.
We've had to reschedule for acouple of different reasons, but
we made it, and that's all thatmatters.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Well, listen, before we get into different things,
I'd like to go ahead and do thevisual introduction.
And for myself, that means thatI'm wearing a green t-shirt.
Normally I have a black golfshirt with the Trench Leadership
logo, but it apparently is oneof my favorite t-shirts to spill
coffee on.
So here I am right now wearingthis green t-shirt.
My microphone is in front of me.
Today I happen to be wearing aset of white earbuds in for some
(02:56):
speakers.
My glasses are still with theblack rim.
I still have way too much grayhair on the sides of my head.
The screen in the background isa screenshot of a stone wall
with the Trench Leadership logo.
The logo is white with purplehighlights around it.
Again, every time I mention it,the logo is actually meant to
be red, but this is what happenswhen you go ahead and buy
(03:18):
something on Amazon and don'treally pay attention before you
hit buy now.
But that's okay, I still lovethe look of it.
And here we are.
Monique, before we get going,would you like to offer your
visual introduction?
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Yeah, I would love to Thank you.
So today I'm wearing yellow, ayellow shirt, and you would not
see me without yellow.
So that is somewhat a signaturefor me.
I have long hair, dark hairactually, and it's put up in a
little bun like a ballerina kindof bun, and I'm wearing very
colorful earrings, which is alsoa signature.
They're handmade in Thailandand I have a whole collection of
them.
So today they're in colors likered and orange and green and
(03:59):
yellow and they're somewhat adiamond form, I I would say, and
they're pretty big and fluffy.
So in my background you see awhole mess of a room because I'm
about to move.
So you see my shelf with all ofmy handbags on my left side and
you see the sofa and I coveredthe boxes with my favorite
yellow blanket.
(04:20):
So it's not too big of a mess.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Well, it looks fantastic.
Honestly, if you hadn't saidyou were getting ready to go, it
looks really, really organized,so you're clearly have a plan
as you're getting ready to move,so that's perfect.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Thank you yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Well, listen, before we get right into the meat of
all of this, do you mind justtaking a moment and telling us a
little bit about yourself, yourjourney and, ultimately, how we
got to this point?
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Absolutely, I would love to.
So I'm born in former EastGermany.
If you don't know about theseparation of Germany, you can
Google it or you can ask Alexa,maybe, about it.
I don't know if she knows muchabout it, but you can try.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
That'd be a fun question.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Right.
Hey, Alexa, tell me about theseparation of germany um in the
1960s and anyway.
So I was born in former eastgermany and it comes with the
background of this being a partof the country that was ruled by
the former soviet union,meaning we've been as communist
socialist country, and that hasreally formed a lot of my
(05:25):
mindset and a lot of my culturalbackground as well, because
it's very different from theformer best part of Germany.
I started working really earlyin my life, by the age I was 13
years old, and I started to workin different type of jobs and
really fast got into teamleadership without me actually
(05:47):
trying.
I was just put into these rolesby the age of 15, I already had
a small team.
I was a shift leader at apetrol station, actually.
The things you do when you'reyoung.
I also had a team of what wewould call street marketing.
I don't know if you remember theflyers and the pamphlets to
(06:08):
give out and sell tickets on thestreet, and I was doing that,
yeah, I was doing that, and Ihad a team of eight people that
I needed to organize and tobring to the right places on the
street and to actually coachthem on how to do certain things
, and this expanded.
I was still in school, by theway, by the time I was in high
(06:29):
school, but I would work afterschool on the weekends and all
of my vacations for over sixyears without taking a day off,
so by the age of 19, that becamea little too much because I
already was in university by theage of 19.
It also started to become athing where I just worked so
(06:50):
much that I didn't sleep a lotLike I didn't sleep more than
two hours a night for many years, unfortunately, and the some
hours in the weekend I did have,I went to party because I was
still young.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
And I didn't know anything.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Yeah, I didn't know anything about life, and that
turned into a real punch in thegut by me dying of a cardiac
arrest Should I have said apunch in the chest?
My heart stopped beatingthroughout one of my migraine
and epileptic seizure attacks.
So which I have mentionedbefore I was born with
(07:25):
life-threatening diseases kidneyfailure, and those neurological
disorders basically turned intomigraines and epileptic
seizures.
So I died of this cardiacarrest and I was clinically dead
for 25 seconds and when I cameback, the first thing I thought
was wow, I lived my life so farfor everyone else, not for
(07:50):
myself, not for what I want, butI was in rebellion to what
people told me.
Right, they told me don't dothis, don't do that, we want to
do this, we want you to do that,and I would always do the
opposite most of the times.
Um, and I felt like it wassomething I had to prove other
people.
And so this cardiac arrest puton a real big switch and it was
(08:13):
as if I got a second chance atlife and basically the universe
telling me hey, you can't keepgoing like this, you have to
change something.
And from this point forward, Ireally changed my life.
So often it's it's um, not inmy, in my way of counting
anymore, um.
(08:34):
I changed careers many times,but I always came back to high
performance, project managementsystems and so on, but they
evolved throughout my lifebecause I understood that what I
learned in terms of work ethicis not sustainable, and what
most of the world has nowadopted as like the hustle
(08:54):
culture and like micromanagingand team management instead of
leadership, has never turned outwell and it's always been
usually at the expense for theteam members, and so I wanted to
create a different version.
I wanted to work more humancentered and create an
(09:17):
environment where people can betheir unique selves and are
appreciated for their skills andtheir efforts and their
knowledge and everyone can havea win-win scenario.
And that's what I do with mywork now, and that's why I'm
here.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Oh, that's amazing.
Thank you so much for that.
It's interesting.
As you were talking about allof that, I was thinking about
some of the different gueststhat I've had on the show over
the years, and one of them thatreally stuck out was a gentleman
by the name of fred rootman,and he was actually my guest for
episode 53, called title.
The title of that episode wasshit happens, learning from
mistakes, and basically he wherethat.
(09:54):
The idea was that fred had dieda couple of dozen times for
different reasons and and he'slike okay, one of the times he
walks, okay, I need to adjustthe way I'm living my life
because these things keephappening, and some of it was
through no fault of his own orthings just happen,
unfortunately.
But it's interesting how youhad that similar shift, and
(10:14):
sometimes it takes something asextreme as dying to realize okay
, I need to make this shift.
And it's interesting how youchose to hold on to that and
keep going forward and and how.
I think that relates to today'stopic, where we'll be talking
about team culture, is a lot oforganizations have often talked
(10:36):
about the need to have a working, healthy, effective team
culture, and some are better.
Some organizations are betterthan others that actually living
up to doing that.
One of the things that one ofthe great things that came out
of covid is almost universallyagreed upon is the understanding
of the value of a team cultureand understanding that it's not
something that's just going tonaturally happen.
(10:58):
And when everyone was forcedinto a remote setup, it became
very clear how authentic theorganization had actually
created that culture, becausethe cultures that were strong,
they were able to weather theirway through and adjust more
easily to the new reality, thenew temporary reality, whereas
the cultures and organizationsthat didn't necessarily have the
(11:21):
strongest cultures, they andit's there's a lot of research
that's starting to flow outabout that, and that's really
the point of this episode is inyour expertise is to talk about
how to create and manage healthy, effective team cultures in a
remote setting, and so I wouldlike to offer.
I went, I went onto theinternet and I found I looked up
(11:44):
definitions of team culture,and so I found one that they are
.
They're all very similar, so Ifound one that I kind of liked,
and I'd like to just read thatto you really quickly.
It's just one sentence and then, if it's okay with you, I'd
like to get your definition ofteam culture, and then we'll
just kind of go from there.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Yeah, let's do it.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Excellent, yeah, let's do it Excellent, excellent
, all right.
So the definition that I foundis that team culture consists of
shared values, attributes andbeliefs among the employees
within an organization.
Now, that's very, very broadstroke.
I recognize that, but this isalso the point of talking about
a team culture.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
So I'd like to know what you think about that
definition and then maybe youcould offer your definition.
Yeah, absolutely so.
Just to preface very quickly,because I forgot to mention that
before, but we talked about itthe reason why I learned a lot
about team culture is because Itraveled to 45 plus countries
already in my life and I livedin nine of them, and in those
nine countries I would also workwithin this environment, and so
I learned so much aboutdifferent work ethics, cultural
(12:51):
backgrounds, core values,communication differences that
are huge and other culturalinfluences that we tend to
ignore if we work within our ownculture.
And so, as a definition, that'swhy I would say that a good and
healthy team culture definitelyconsists on shared core values
(13:13):
that are implemented through theleadership and set as a
fundamental, like a foundation,to help um create the team
culture.
But what needs to be um, whatneeds to be looked at as well
(13:35):
and taken consideration, isevery person's individual
cultural background, traditions,communication styles, ethics
and understanding of differenttraits that we bring to the
table, and, in my eyes, teamculture is supporting all of
(13:56):
this and keeping the uniquenessof the individual while creating
a loyal, supportive and I don'twant to say safe but somewhat
good-feeling environment,because safe spaces are hard to
create at times and there'salways something that can
trigger us.
(14:16):
But I feel like it's one of thetasks from creating a team
culture to bring as much safetyto the environment as possible
so people can actually bethemselves sorry about that.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
I was muted.
Uh, that has to be a bigchallenge.
I love how you talked about oneof the the most important
values inside creating aneffective team culture is
respecting and maintaining theindividual's own values while at
the same time, driving forwardwith the organization's values
and goals, because, at the endof the day, every organization
(14:55):
has something they want toachieve, so that's a fine
balance between the two.
For the leader to have tofigure that out and as a new
leader, it's even more difficultbecause maybe, uh, you're
either new to that team, so youdon't know anyone, so it's going
to take time to figure out howto learn about your people or,
at the same token, maybe you theday before you were a drinking
(15:17):
buddy with everyone and now allof a sudden you're in charge.
But that shift matters.
So you might think you knowsomeone, but all of a sudden
they're treating you differentlybecause all of a sudden you're
the leader.
That's a challenge.
Do you have any thoughts onthat at all?
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Yeah, absolutely.
You know, I believe that teamculture starts with hiring and I
have created a hiring processfor my clients that shows them
how to hire, based on the corevalues and not necessarily only
based on skills.
So you want to look at theskills about 30% of the hiring
(15:54):
process and what I mean is, likeyou want to have a fundamental
um baseline that you need peopleto know or bring in skills, and
from there they can alwayslearn more, because as humans we
tend to learn skills and we canturn knowledge into action.
But changing our core values isvery, very difficult and
(16:18):
usually it doesn't work becausethey're deeply ingrained from so
many different areas right,cultural background, traditions,
religion, faith, spirituality,where you grew up, how you grew
up and what you were told thefirst seven years in your life.
So it's a whole different setupand to unlearn and relearn this
is very difficult, if ever wedon't actually do it because we
(16:41):
also kind of identify with thesecore values.
And so in the hiring process youwant to look 70% at core values
and you can actually test themout by setting up different
scenarios that you check onduring an interview, where
people don't know what they'rebeing asked and they have to
react or respond in the moment,and those scenarios would be
(17:03):
written out based on your corevalues.
So if you have a core value oftrust, for example, you set up a
scenario where you ask theinterviewee about a scenario
that would show if they trustyou and if you can trust them,
and their answer is there's noright or wrong answer, it's just
their answer right.
(17:23):
We don't judge by right orwrong, we just look at does the
response fit to who we want tohire into this position?
And that's the first thing thatwe check basically.
So in the hiring process westart with a form where they
fill out skills and knowledgeand everything and tick boxes or
not, and then the interviewwill be knowing that they have
(17:47):
all the skills we need and theycan still expand.
And so we test and ask on corevalues.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Well, and that's the thing.
If someone's getting to theinterview point, the resume
tends.
My experience has been that theresume tends to be very similar
to everyone else that is goingto apply for that role.
They may have an expertise in adifferent section than someone
else, but at its core, if youmake it to the interview stage,
you've got the skills.
But often I think that's alsowe're now checking for a
(18:15):
personality fit and when.
As a new team leader.
I'm curious how could a newteam leader, when they're
working with a new team, forexample, how could they check to
see if all the team members aregoing to be able to work
together?
Speaker 3 (18:29):
And how do?
Speaker 1 (18:29):
they do that in a remote setting Because often
it's a gut feeling, but it'sdifferent over Zoom.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
Yeah, that's a great question.
So when I was a new team leader, I had a team of 160 people 155
of them were men and they wereat least double as old as me and
I was in IT for SiemensEnterprise Networks.
And I was very young, I was 22years old and I was thrown
basically in this positionbecause I used to work for the
(18:59):
same company that served SiemensEnterprise Networks, although
we were hired directly by themand but I hadn't yet.
That was my first team leaderposition in a formal
professional setting, although Iwas a team leader before, right
in the petrol station, whatnotbut for this type of environment
and with so many people.
I didn't have as many peoplebefore.
(19:21):
So my technique was and Iimproved it over time obviously
because it's a little bit ago,but the the most important thing
is really getting to knowpeople and getting to know them
also on a personal levelsomewhat.
So my first month I scheduledgetting to know meetings with
everyone in my team and I satdown for at least half an hour
(19:43):
and, instead of asking them whatthey do here, I asked them what
they like to do in their lives,how they live their lives, if
they have a family or not, howthey, you know like to do
certain things.
What?
How they you know like to docertain things If they're being
late, and why?
Because sometimes that matterstoo.
Right If they have.
For example, because we tend tojudge people just by what
(20:06):
happens.
So, oh, you're being late, youdid this wrong.
But what if this person is asingle parent and they had to
run to school and then they wereholed up there and whatever?
And it sometimes matters, youknow, to be able to judge a
certain behavior or patternsdifferently than what you would
be judged for or by, basically.
(20:29):
And so now, in a remote setting,I do the same thing with a new
team leader and a team.
We set up coffee chats and wegive the team leader prompts
that the team member doesn'tknow to find out something
personal about every single ofthis person and to bring it back
, basically, to either the CEOor the founder of the company or
(20:50):
however.
And that means that they needto ask good questions to get to
know about this thing.
They can't just ask like, oh,what's your favorite movie?
Because those things we wantthem to find out is not
necessarily something you canstraight up ask.
You need to dig a little deeperand that's one exercise we do
(21:11):
in order for the team lead toget to know the team members.
But we also give the team leada prompt to share something
about themselves with the teammembers.
So it's a reciprocalconversation basically.
And that's the start of it, andlater on what we do is really
we are going to set up the corevalues and have obviously the
(21:34):
team lead go through the corevalue training and everything
and make them observe people andthat's possible on like group
calls, co-working calls, teamculture, setup calls and just
observe how these core valuesshow up in different ways
without having to necessarilylook at the work setting.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
That's a big challenge in that because more
often than not, especially inprofit-driven organizations well
, actually that's not even trueat all.
I'm going to completelybackpedal.
Organizations have goals andwhether or not that goal is to
make money or whatever it may be, more often than not the old
saying of time is money or timeis, as I like to often say, is
time is getting things done.
You know it's not very quicklittle saying but time is.
(22:22):
There's a cost to that.
When we're taking the time toactually get to know our people
and understand them and people,it's easy to forget that that's
actually an investment inhelping the team be stronger by
getting to know everyone, and Ithink it also builds trust, a
two-way level of trust People,the team members will see that.
Okay, simon's actually going tosit down and not focus only on
(22:44):
getting through whatever.
Take him more than just sayinga hello in the morning as he's
walking to his office or, inthis case, you know, in a remote
setting, saying, hey, how'severyone doing today?
A quick hello through in theZoom room and then get right to
the topic at hand.
It's challenging, it's tough, Iget that, but that's the thing
about creating these healthyenvironments for people to see
(23:06):
that the leader actually isgoing to take that time to hear
what people have to say.
And then once my my perceptionis once people are willing to
realize or not realize, butwilling to see that the
authentic, the leader, isauthentic.
In that there's my experienceshave been people are going to be
tend to be a little more openabout how things are going,
(23:26):
especially if things aren'tgoing well, because they know
they can.
They can speak in anenvironment that is healthy and
safe.
Does that make sense at all?
Am I really going anywhere withthat an environment?
Speaker 2 (23:36):
that is healthy and safe.
Does that make sense at all?
Am I really going anywhere withthat?
Oh, hello there, it's Glenn,the voiceover artist, and if
you're hearing me, that meanswe're at the midpoint of this
episode.
Are you considering startingyour own podcast?
Are you confused or overwhelmedand don't know where to start?
Well, Jennifer at it's a LegitBusiness is a podcast wizard who
(23:56):
can help you get started,provide advice, consultation and
help you along the way.
Trench Leadership has beenusing it's a Legit Business for
over a year and Jennifer offerspersonalized service catering to
the podcast's unique needs anddesires, truly hearing Simon's
requests and being instrumentalin realizing Trench Leadership's
(24:17):
vision for each episode.
If you want to get started,contact Jennifer at jennifer at
itsalegitbusinesscom and she'llhelp you realize your dreams.
Trench Leadership is alwaysstriving to improve our content
and provide valuable insightsfor leaders across all
professions, and to do this,your feedback is crucial.
(24:39):
So drop us a note at simonk attrenchleadershipca and let us
know what's working and what canbe improved.
And now back to the show.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
No, I totally agree.
The thing is that I alwaysexplain to the business owners
that work with me that this is along term investment.
Especially the leadership teamis going to work differently
than their team members.
Teach people over profit.
(25:13):
It's a concept, basically, thatwe actually care about the
person, that we sometimes andthat doesn't mean we need to do
this all the time but when thecircumstances ask for it, that
we give grace and compassion andthat we maybe offer different
versions of support during timesof need.
(25:34):
So when there is crisis, forexample, or someone in the
family maybe passed away whichunfortunately happened during
COVID a lot right and we offersupport differently and we're
not looking at the numbersbehind it, because we know if we
can offer the support and ifwe're really authentically and
genuinely caring about our team,we actually get back more in
(25:57):
the long term because they'realso more willing to invest into
our mission and vision of thecompany.
They're also willing to supportand help out when someone else
needs help and the team has aless usually the rates are less
in turnovers.
So you're saving a lot of money.
With hiring the right peopleand then creating this team
(26:20):
culture, you're not only savingmoney but actually also time and
energy, and those are even morevaluable than money at times,
although a lot of people don'twant to believe that yet, but we
get to it, and so I totallyagree with you.
It's definitely a long-terminvestment, and we should look
at leadership not from theperspective of get as much out
(26:41):
of the people as you can, buttake care and foster, as much as
you possibly can, anenvironment where people want to
be, because what we've seenover the last decades is work
environments where people aretrying to run away from and they
(27:03):
are trying to run away fromtoxic environments or just
stressful environments orenvironments that doesn't help
them grow, and so that's what wereally do with leadership.
It's not about bouncing all thenumbers and, you know, being
like on the butt of people tokick them.
(27:24):
That's not what we're trying todo.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
No, no, I mean, sometimes the leader does need
to step in and be okay, Listen,everyone.
Here's a little kick in therear end to get going.
But I think, and based off ofwhat I've heard, is that if the
leader invests the time to workwith the team and be genuine and
authentic in what they'retrying to say and do, then when
things are a little tough,people are going to be a little
(27:49):
more open to working throughthose tough times and, as you
mentioned, there actually is amonetary value attached to
taking the time to do thesethings because of that long-term
investment dropping theturnover rate I think of.
If I could offer an example ofthat, would that be okay?
Speaker 3 (28:05):
Yeah, please.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
So I lived in a little city called
Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, whichis near Montreal, in Quebec,
canada here, and my favorite andMontreal loves the breakfast
restaurant, so they specializeon breakfast type items.
So my favorite restaurant ofall time is this place called Le
Feu de Ré, which is French forgolden egg, and they make these
(28:30):
house potatoes that are.
It's actually a family recipe.
They don't want to tell us whatit is, but it's amazing what
they put in these things.
But that's not the point of thestory.
But Le Feu de Ré inSaint-Jean-sur-Richelieu if you
ever get a chance to come toCanada, we'll have to go and
visit it.
It will blow your mind away.
But the point of this example isthat I was talking to the owner
(28:50):
one time and he was explainingto me that in this restaurant
the turnover rate of for all thewaiters and waitresses was
eight years, that someone tendedto stay at that restaurant,
which, considering it theindustry, that's a long time for
someone to stay in location.
And, and according to the ownerand I actually ended up asking
some of the different serverswhy do they stay it's because
(29:12):
there is a family culture thereand it happens to be a family
run restaurant, which is helpful, but the culture is such that
it's okay that they have to workquickly and very, very hard,
because the restaurant's alwaysfull, it's never not busy, but
because of the culture that hasbeen created there, it's not
(29:32):
work with finger quotations.
They enjoy going and that sayssomething about an industry
where traditionally the turnoveris quite high and there's
something in that.
There's definitely a lesson inthere.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Do you have any?
Speaker 1 (29:43):
type of lessons or sorry examples that you would
like to offer, or talking aboutstrong or maybe not so strong
teams.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
Yeah, you know, I mean, I've been in a lot of
teams that, unfortunately,weren't well led and the team
culture was non-existent almost.
So my experience comes a lotfrom seeing what doesn't work
and then figuring out how we canbalance this out.
And so what I recently learnedwith well, not I didn't learn it
(30:13):
, but, like one of my clientswent through hiring and then you
know, setting up the teamculture and what we've seen
together is what's one veryimportant thing is to understand
, as a team leader, thedifference between kind and nice
, because a lot of team leadersthey because they think they
want to be setting up afamily-like team culture, which
(30:38):
I just want to mention that wewant them to feel like a team
really, but we don't want tomake it like family, and I
explained why in a little bit,and so he was being really nice
to them.
But nice is people pleasing,nice is not being firm and it's
not being a leader, right, andwe have to switch that to being
(31:00):
kind.
We need to sometimes be firmand, as you said before, right,
like kicking their rear ends,but we can do this in a kind way
and a lot of times I've seenmany team managers and whatnot
to become an unbearable person.
I'm trying to not swear.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
Oh, swear away.
I've seen a bunch of assholesin my career, so it's totally
all right.
Speaker 3 (31:27):
Yeah, really.
But sometimes I was looking atthem like, how did they even get
into this position, right?
Looking at them like how didthey even get into this position
, right?
But that's how they were.
They are literally using theirpower or control over people and
I'm putting this in likefingers, because they don't
actually have control or power,but they try to with being such
(31:48):
an unbearable person and whathappens then is that there's no
team culture and the team fallsapart easily, and so you want to
be kind but not nice, and it'ssuper important to know the
difference.
Now, why do we also not want tocreate a family setting?
Here's why, again, I lived inso many different cultures.
I experienced so many differentbackgrounds, and there are a
(32:11):
lot of countries in this worldwhere family has the first
priority, and it's important toknow their backgrounds and to
also maybe ask about familysometimes.
But when we create a culturethat is like a family, we are
creating a connection.
For them, that means that theycannot detach from work anymore
(32:35):
and they would work throughweekends and nights and
everything, and we don't wantthat because that's going and
falling back into hustle culture, right?
So while we want a really safeteam environment, and I think
that's what the restaurant alsodid, right um, is that we want
to create this space wherepeople feel safe to open, to
(32:56):
share, to work through hardtimes, but also to be open about
their tough times and receivesupport.
But we don't want them to thinkthey're now in a family setting
where their commitment is atotally different one, based on
their cultural or upbringing orreligion or whatever, and so I
(33:18):
think it's important to makethis distinction too, and that
was a very big learning over allof the years that I had because
I went, I had different teamleadership roles in different
countries some in Asiancountries, some in Latin
American countries, in the UK,in Germany, in all of these
countries and it's verydifferent how people relate to
(33:42):
being in a family right, butthere are certainly countries
where family is the first thing.
So if you even say we want tobe a family at work, they commit
very differently and it can beunhealthy again.
Yeah well.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
so, as you were talking about that, I was
thinking about the, the valueand the challenges that come
with being in one of the as afamily style, and I completely
agree.
How many, how many families areout there and the culture is
such inside the family thatthings are kind of dysfunctional
.
I think most families liveinside of that environment.
You know so to say, well, weneed to create this family
(34:20):
environment.
Well, do we?
Or do we need to remind people?
Also, I'll remember thatleaders are leaders and they are
in charge.
It's knowing when to step inand be the authoritarian version
and knowing when to step in andremind people that you're still
a human being.
One of my favorite sayings isthat everyone poops, you know,
that's just the way of it.
It favorite sayings is thateveryone poops, you know, that's
(34:47):
just the way of it.
It doesn't matter who you are,we all go to the bathroom and
it's easy to forget thatsometimes.
And it's a challenge to whenwe're trying to create those
cultures.
Now, in a remote setting,that's even more difficult.
And do you have any type ofadvice to help for leaders to
know how to create a healthy,effective team culture in a
remote setting?
Speaker 3 (35:00):
Yeah, definitely so.
As a leader, you do want toembody those core values.
That means that if the companyhas a core value of, for example
, integrity and trust and maybea commitment to work or
something like this, you want tobe the one commitment to work
(35:21):
or something like this.
You want to be the one and I'mnot meaning to lead by example,
because that can create a formof wanting to do it best and
better than everyone, and that'snot the case of it.
What I mean is just embody whatyou want the others to also
embody.
Basically, right, and you don'tneed to be better.
You can be human, you can makemistakes and everything, but
(35:42):
just show up in the way thatthose core values ask you to
show up.
Now, to integrate the team withthese core values and also
creating this team culture.
I recommend a set of differentthings.
So you want to have a placewhere people can chat about
different things and be incontact at all times during
(36:05):
working hours.
For most companies, they useSlack, for example not an ad
word, just what happens to bethe one of the favorites so far
and we can use different Slackintegrations and they're called
apps, I think or add-ons thathelp with that.
For example, one of ourfavorites is the hey Taco add-on
(36:26):
, where when people didsomething that you want to
reward or just point out, theyget a digital taco and then, by
the end, you can reward themwith like team member of the
month, or things like this.
And to do rewarding in a waythat it's not damaging is to
find things that everyone canparticipate in, and that's
(36:52):
mostly like soft skills or youknow core values.
So you could be like hey, uh,team member a, you have
supported our team this month.
Uh, specifically with theserough times, whatever, here are
tacos and, and thank you forthat, you know.
And another one could be likehey, your communication style
was great and we loved how youhelped us in meetings.
(37:13):
To get to the point, thingslike this, right, um.
So other add-ons would be thatuh, maybe I don't have the
correct names for it, but Ithink there's geekbot, and this
one is something that you canset up, for example, with a
daily reminder that isautomatically sent to your team,
(37:34):
and ask them like hey, how areyou doing today?
What?
How do you feel?
How did you wake up thismorning?
Is everything okay, you know?
And the core of this is thatwhen you get these responses,
you do want to obviously readthem and not just be like, oh,
it's an automation.
No, you do want to read them.
And if someone said like,honestly, I feel really shit
(37:56):
today and I have like pain andwhatnot, and I have my, my kids
are all over the place and mydog pooped all over the house
and whatnot Everything's justgoing wrong today Then you can
reach out and be like, hey, howcan we support you today?
What can we do to make this alittle bit better and to make
this day a little bit brighter?
Right, and then see what comesup.
(38:17):
So it's really a tool.
But also, if someone says like,oh my God, I have an amazing
day, you just say like, oh myGod, yeah, let's celebrate that
you have an amazing day.
Like, sometimes it's just theselittle interactions, because
that's how people like toconnect and you want those bits
for connections to be answeredfrom the leader, right.
And other things are that weset up team culture calls, so
(38:41):
calls specifically that havenothing to do with work, where
we either chat about what you'vedone on the weekend or someone
shares what happened in theirlife or if they had a new
achievement or whatever, andthey can also be mental health
check-ins.
They can also be things, forexample, that you offer in your
company as a benefit, like abook club or a podcast club or a
(39:04):
little mastermind where you canall together go through like
personal development that theteam votes for.
There are so many options, butthis specific call and it can be
like an hour or two every weekor just every two weeks for a
little bit longer to check inand just get closer and really
just chat about what's reallyinteresting to the people.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
That's a big part of it is because I'm going to
backpedal just a little tiny bitwhat I've heard in that is what
you're.
Ok, I'm going to start thatfrom the beginning again,
because I've got three thoughtsgoing on in my mind at the same
time.
From the beginning again,because I've got three thoughts
going on in my mind at the sametime, you've offered some very
tactical examples and ways thatleaders can go about getting to
know their team in theseenvironments and really, at the
core of it, what I've heard andcorrect me if I'm wrong, but
(39:50):
what I'm hearing is it's talkingabout fostering trust,
communication, activelylistening.
I am a huge, huge proponent ofactive listening, actually
taking the time and lettingsomeone finish their thought.
Let them finish speaking, takea moment, think about it and
then respond.
Let the person know thatthey're actually being heard.
That is so invaluable for theleader to take that moment.
(40:15):
Time is value.
It's invaluable.
Time, rather, is valued.
It's an invaluable time, rather, and and this is what I'm
hearing the examples that you'reusing will allow the leader the
opportunity to actually stopand hear what's being said and,
a lot of times, what's not beingsaid.
That's that's invaluable.
Does that make sense?
Speaker 3 (40:31):
Absolutely, and I love that.
And I just want to throw in onesingle thing, because I have a
different perspective on theactive listening part.
As an autistic person, Ipersonally have issues to read
in between lines and to readsocial cues.
I can read the energy of theroom really well, but if you
(40:52):
tell me you're fine but you'renot, I won't get it.
I take everything literal getit.
I take everything literal.
So me, as a leader, I tend to uh, foster an environment where
everyone also is very honest anddirect and kind, while they are
direct and honest.
So it's not like radicalhonesty or brutal honesty or
(41:13):
something, because I don'tbelieve in that and if you don't
tell me the things that youactually want me to know, I
won't be able to find them out.
So we also um, try to, becausewe talked about access
accessibility in the beginning,right, we want to foster an
environment where everyone canactually open up and share and
(41:34):
share in a way that they'rebeing heard, and that sometimes
needs practice with differentmethods and tools, because if
you have neurotypical people,they may tend to share in
between the lines yeah, I'm okay, you know, but yeah, actually,
oh no, I think I'm fine, butthen they're not, and some
(41:55):
people may not get it, like me,I don't get it.
You tell me you're fine andmaybe, and okay.
Then I think like, okay, you'rekind of fine.
And so I tend to ask again andI tend to then share about
myself.
First that's a little bitautistic.
I say, you know, actually myday is not going really well.
If that's the case, I'm only.
(42:17):
If that's the case, obviously,like I got up on the wrong foot
and now I feel like really stiffand painful and oh, and I
didn't want to actually doanything and so I'm being really
lame today.
So are you sure you're fine?
Is like how did you get up thismorning?
You know like.
So I'm asking a differentquestion then to in order for
them to have the opportunity toshare.
(42:38):
But I totally agree with you,it's very much about active
listening and you know we'recoming back to having everyone
being unique and theirindividual selves and those
needs being met as much aspossible.
You can't meet them all,probably, but just to show
(42:59):
attention and care genuinely foreveryone in the team.
Speaker 1 (43:05):
So I have a whole bunch of thoughts on this and I
think that one of the things Iheard from you that I think is
very, very strong in this isthat it's not just the leader's
responsibility to create andfoster a healthy team.
It's everyone's role to do that.
Everyone has to speak up andfeel a healthy team.
It's everyone's role to do that.
Everyone has to speak up andfeel and do that.
The leader's responsibility andI'd like to know your thoughts
on this the leader'sresponsibility is to create the
(43:29):
safe space where people feel asthough they can speak up and say
whatever.
The team member's role in all ofthis is to tell people what
they want to see and hear, notjust what they think the leader
wants to hear.
You know, if and I guess that'smy my long winded way of saying
don't make assumptions aboutwhat the leader wants, and the
leader shouldn't be makingassumptions about what the team
members want.
Dialogue matters and we have toreally hear each other, even if
(43:52):
we don't want to hear whatwe're about to hear, cause
sometimes it's today, we'reworking hard and I don't have
time for a conversation, but I'mbeing pressed with a heavy
deadline and I need to get at ittoday.
So we got to go press.
Am I hearing that correctly inwhat you were saying earlier, or
am I just making?
Speaker 3 (44:09):
something up?
No, absolutely Absolutely.
You're very good at activelistening.
You reflect this back, becausehearing your words and the and
basically the language that youuse it makes it more
understandable for everyone,because we have different ways
of saying these things.
So I really love that, and youknow, what just came up for me
when you shared that was, um,that while the team leader needs
(44:33):
to create the safe space, it'salso for everyone involved the
responsibility to not useanything against a team member
or the leader that they've hurt,because that's what makes it
safe.
Right, that you know you can bein the room and say things and
you won't be judged.
You're being taken seriously.
(44:57):
But also you need to know thatthese people are not going to
throw this back at you when shithits the fan, and that's
something that needs to bepracticed, and I think we have a
society unfortunately at leastwell, I think, around the world,
honestly where this is prettycommon.
You know like, oh, rememberthat thing you've done, like
five and a half months ago onthis date, at this time.
(45:18):
Remember that thing you've donelike five and a half months ago
on this date, at this time.
You know, if you don't say itin the moment.
That is your problem.
Everyone's involved.
So if you're not saying it inthe moment, or as timely
connected to the event aspossible, and you don't talk
about what maybe disturbed youor what didn't go well or how
you would like it to bedifferent, or whatever maybe
(45:39):
disturbed you or what didn't gowell or how you would like it to
be different, or whatever, youbasically lost the right after a
while to talk about it, becausenow you have to move through
this yourself.
So I recommend really to bringthings up in the moment is a
practice.
That won't happen at thebeginning, but it's a practice
and that's where the leaderreally I like to say he's a
guide, he, she, they are a guide, they're a guide for the whole
(46:03):
team and guiding through thissometimes very uncomfortable
environment that is needed inorder to have hard conversations
and then fantastic outcomes foreveryone.
Speaker 1 (46:19):
Just writing a whole bunch of notes about that
Fantastic.
Well, this has been anabsolutely fantastic chat.
You know we've talked a lotabout the importance of team
cultures, what they are, whythey're important, how to create
them and, specifically in aremote location.
I am curious if people want toreach out to you, if they want
to engage more in a conversationwith you, how might they do
(46:41):
that?
Speaker 3 (46:42):
Yeah, thank you for asking.
The best way to find a lot ofthe things is my website and
it's called the time alchemistcothe time alchemistco, and you
can find me with the same nameall at once, basically on
Facebook.
So facebookcom slash the timealchemist and you'll find my
(47:05):
public profile, and those twoplaces are where I post a lot
about my personal journey as anautistic person, as a leader,
and I give a lot of tangibletips and stories that help you
maybe cross the concept or ideathat I'm trying to share more.
So these two spaces and mynewsletter that you can sign up
(47:27):
for on the website are the bestplaces to be in.
Speaker 1 (47:30):
Thanks so much for that and that has been a
fantastic episode, monique.
This has been so fantastic.
Thank you so much for your timetoday and actually, in your
case, rounding up into the laterin the evening.
So thanks again, and I'mexcited for us to chat about
another topic down the road.
Speaker 3 (47:47):
Yeah, thank you so much, Simon.
It was amazing and I'm sograteful to have been able to
share a little bit.
Speaker 1 (47:54):
Perfect.
Thanks a lot.
Take care.
Well, that's a wrap from thefront.
In this episode we talked aboutteam cultures in a remote
setting.
We talked about the need tounderstand that paying attention
to your team, both individuallyand as the team, requires
understanding, shared corevalues, considering all the
regional and personal stylesthat exist.
Now, that's not easy, butyou're the leader.
(48:17):
We also talked about theunderstanding that it's
everyone's responsibility tocreate a healthy team
environment, but, as the leader,it's your role to guide that
team to the safe space so thateveryone can help foster that
special team.
Thanks for tuning in andremember leadership without
passion is the depth of yourvision of your vision.
Speaker 2 (48:42):
Be sure to join us next week with your host, Simon
Cardinal, for another episode ofTrench Leadership, a podcast
from the front Produced by.
It's a Legit Business Musicprovided by Ashamal of Music.
Never miss an episode byfollowing us wherever you get
your podcasts.
While you're there, pleaseconsider leaving us a review and
(49:03):
rating Hint, we love five starsand let us know what topics you
would like to hear about.
I would like to begin this episode by acknowledging
that I am located in Ottawa,Ontario, Canada, and I am
privileged and honoured to liveand learn on the unceded,
unsurrendered territory of theAnishinaabe Algonquin Nation.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hello, you're listening to Trench Leadership,
a podcast from the front, a showfor emerging leaders from all
professions to hear from otherleaders who have led from the
front, made the mistakes, hadthe triumphs and are still
learning along the way.
Produced by Jennifer Lee atit's a Legit Business, a podcast
(00:44):
launch and management company.
And now here's your host, simonCardinal.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Hello and welcome to Trench Leadership, a podcast
from the front, a show foremerging leaders.
Creating effective teamcultures is challenging in the
easiest of times, but creatingan effective team culture in a
remote setting is much moredaunting.
The irony is that a strong teamculture is even more important
(01:12):
when people aren't regularlymeeting in person.
In this episode, you'll hearfrom Monique Lindner Also.
I'll try that again.
In this episode, you'll hearfrom Monique Lindner, also known
as the Time Alchemist, a coachand consultant for holistic,
high performance leadership andlifestyle design.
Monique will offer herexpertise and advice to help
(01:33):
emerging leaders create strong,impactful and meaningful remote
team cultures.
But, as always, it's not aboutme, it's about the guests.
So I'm just going to go aheadand try and be quiet and welcome
my good friend Monique all theway out in Thailand.
Hey Monique, how's it going outthere?
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Thank you so much, Simon.
It's wonderful.
We have a great time here.
It's fresh and green and verylush to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Oh, that's fantastic, and it's, I guess it's.
It's all like what an 11 hourtime difference there.
It's 6.30 in the evening foryou right now.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Yeah, about that time 6.45,.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
It's 7.45 in the morning here, so there's a
significant time differencethere, but thank you very much
for giving us a part of yourevening after what was probably
a very long work day, and you'restill working, so thank you so
much for that.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Thank you, simon, I'm so excited to be here.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Oh, for that.
Thank you, simon.
I'm so excited to be here.
Oh, this is going to be great.
We've been trying to get tothis point for a few times.
We've had to reschedule for acouple of different reasons, but
we made it, and that's all thatmatters.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Well, listen, before we get into different things,
I'd like to go ahead and do thevisual introduction.
And for myself, that means thatI'm wearing a green t-shirt.
Normally I have a black golfshirt with the Trench Leadership
logo, but it apparently is oneof my favorite t-shirts to spill
coffee on.
So here I am right now wearingthis green t-shirt.
My microphone is in front of me.
Today I happen to be wearing aset of white earbuds in for some
(02:56):
speakers.
My glasses are still with theblack rim.
I still have way too much grayhair on the sides of my head.
The screen in the background isa screenshot of a stone wall
with the Trench Leadership logo.
The logo is white with purplehighlights around it.
Again, every time I mention it,the logo is actually meant to
be red, but this is what happenswhen you go ahead and buy
(03:18):
something on Amazon and don'treally pay attention before you
hit buy now.
But that's okay, I still lovethe look of it.
And here we are.
Monique, before we get going,would you like to offer your
visual introduction?
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Yeah, I would love to Thank you.
So today I'm wearing yellow, ayellow shirt, and you would not
see me without yellow.
So that is somewhat a signaturefor me.
I have long hair, dark hairactually, and it's put up in a
little bun like a ballerina kindof bun, and I'm wearing very
colorful earrings, which is alsoa signature.
They're handmade in Thailandand I have a whole collection of
them.
So today they're in colors likered and orange and green and
(03:59):
yellow and they're somewhat adiamond form, I I would say, and
they're pretty big and fluffy.
So in my background you see awhole mess of a room because I'm
about to move.
So you see my shelf with all ofmy handbags on my left side and
you see the sofa and I coveredthe boxes with my favorite
yellow blanket.
(04:20):
So it's not too big of a mess.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Well, it looks fantastic.
Honestly, if you hadn't saidyou were getting ready to go, it
looks really, really organized,so you're clearly have a plan
as you're getting ready to move,so that's perfect.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Thank you yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Well, listen, before we get right into the meat of
all of this, do you mind justtaking a moment and telling us a
little bit about yourself, yourjourney and, ultimately, how we
got to this point?
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Absolutely, I would love to.
So I'm born in former EastGermany.
If you don't know about theseparation of Germany, you can
Google it or you can ask Alexa,maybe, about it.
I don't know if she knows muchabout it, but you can try.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
That'd be a fun question.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Right.
Hey, Alexa, tell me about theseparation of germany um in the
1960s and anyway.
So I was born in former eastgermany and it comes with the
background of this being a partof the country that was ruled by
the former soviet union,meaning we've been as communist
socialist country, and that hasreally formed a lot of my
(05:25):
mindset and a lot of my culturalbackground as well, because
it's very different from theformer best part of Germany.
I started working really earlyin my life, by the age I was 13
years old, and I started to workin different type of jobs and
really fast got into teamleadership without me actually
(05:47):
trying.
I was just put into these rolesby the age of 15, I already had
a small team.
I was a shift leader at apetrol station, actually.
The things you do when you'reyoung.
I also had a team of what wewould call street marketing.
I don't know if you remember theflyers and the pamphlets to
(06:08):
give out and sell tickets on thestreet, and I was doing that,
yeah, I was doing that, and Ihad a team of eight people that
I needed to organize and tobring to the right places on the
street and to actually coachthem on how to do certain things
, and this expanded.
I was still in school, by theway, by the time I was in high
(06:29):
school, but I would work afterschool on the weekends and all
of my vacations for over sixyears without taking a day off,
so by the age of 19, that becamea little too much because I
already was in university by theage of 19.
It also started to become athing where I just worked so
(06:50):
much that I didn't sleep a lotLike I didn't sleep more than
two hours a night for many years, unfortunately, and the some
hours in the weekend I did have,I went to party because I was
still young.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
And I didn't know anything.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Yeah, I didn't know anything about life, and that
turned into a real punch in thegut by me dying of a cardiac
arrest Should I have said apunch in the chest?
My heart stopped beatingthroughout one of my migraine
and epileptic seizure attacks.
So which I have mentionedbefore I was born with
(07:25):
life-threatening diseases kidneyfailure, and those neurological
disorders basically turned intomigraines and epileptic
seizures.
So I died of this cardiacarrest and I was clinically dead
for 25 seconds and when I cameback, the first thing I thought
was wow, I lived my life so farfor everyone else, not for
(07:50):
myself, not for what I want, butI was in rebellion to what
people told me.
Right, they told me don't dothis, don't do that, we want to
do this, we want you to do that,and I would always do the
opposite most of the times.
Um, and I felt like it wassomething I had to prove other
people.
And so this cardiac arrest puton a real big switch and it was
(08:13):
as if I got a second chance atlife and basically the universe
telling me hey, you can't keepgoing like this, you have to
change something.
And from this point forward, Ireally changed my life.
So often it's it's um, not inmy, in my way of counting
anymore, um.
(08:34):
I changed careers many times,but I always came back to high
performance, project managementsystems and so on, but they
evolved throughout my lifebecause I understood that what I
learned in terms of work ethicis not sustainable, and what
most of the world has nowadopted as like the hustle
(08:54):
culture and like micromanagingand team management instead of
leadership, has never turned outwell and it's always been
usually at the expense for theteam members, and so I wanted to
create a different version.
I wanted to work more humancentered and create an
(09:17):
environment where people can betheir unique selves and are
appreciated for their skills andtheir efforts and their
knowledge and everyone can havea win-win scenario.
And that's what I do with mywork now, and that's why I'm
here.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Oh, that's amazing.
Thank you so much for that.
It's interesting.
As you were talking about allof that, I was thinking about
some of the different gueststhat I've had on the show over
the years, and one of them thatreally stuck out was a gentleman
by the name of fred rootman,and he was actually my guest for
episode 53, called title.
The title of that episode wasshit happens, learning from
mistakes, and basically he wherethat.
(09:54):
The idea was that fred had dieda couple of dozen times for
different reasons and and he'slike okay, one of the times he
walks, okay, I need to adjustthe way I'm living my life
because these things keephappening, and some of it was
through no fault of his own orthings just happen,
unfortunately.
But it's interesting how youhad that similar shift, and
(10:14):
sometimes it takes something asextreme as dying to realize okay
, I need to make this shift.
And it's interesting how youchose to hold on to that and
keep going forward and and how.
I think that relates to today'stopic, where we'll be talking
about team culture, is a lot oforganizations have often talked
(10:36):
about the need to have a working, healthy, effective team
culture, and some are better.
Some organizations are betterthan others that actually living
up to doing that.
One of the things that one ofthe great things that came out
of covid is almost universallyagreed upon is the understanding
of the value of a team cultureand understanding that it's not
something that's just going tonaturally happen.
(10:58):
And when everyone was forcedinto a remote setup, it became
very clear how authentic theorganization had actually
created that culture, becausethe cultures that were strong,
they were able to weather theirway through and adjust more
easily to the new reality, thenew temporary reality, whereas
the cultures and organizationsthat didn't necessarily have the
(11:21):
strongest cultures, they andit's there's a lot of research
that's starting to flow outabout that, and that's really
the point of this episode is inyour expertise is to talk about
how to create and manage healthy, effective team cultures in a
remote setting, and so I wouldlike to offer.
I went, I went onto theinternet and I found I looked up
(11:44):
definitions of team culture,and so I found one that they are
.
They're all very similar, so Ifound one that I kind of liked,
and I'd like to just read thatto you really quickly.
It's just one sentence and then, if it's okay with you, I'd
like to get your definition ofteam culture, and then we'll
just kind of go from there.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Yeah, let's do it.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Excellent, yeah, let's do it Excellent, excellent
, all right.
So the definition that I foundis that team culture consists of
shared values, attributes andbeliefs among the employees
within an organization.
Now, that's very, very broadstroke.
I recognize that, but this isalso the point of talking about
a team culture.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
So I'd like to know what you think about that
definition and then maybe youcould offer your definition.
Yeah, absolutely so.
Just to preface very quickly,because I forgot to mention that
before, but we talked about itthe reason why I learned a lot
about team culture is because Itraveled to 45 plus countries
already in my life and I livedin nine of them, and in those
nine countries I would also workwithin this environment, and so
I learned so much aboutdifferent work ethics, cultural
(12:51):
backgrounds, core values,communication differences that
are huge and other culturalinfluences that we tend to
ignore if we work within our ownculture.
And so, as a definition, that'swhy I would say that a good and
healthy team culture definitelyconsists on shared core values
(13:13):
that are implemented through theleadership and set as a
fundamental, like a foundation,to help um create the team
culture.
But what needs to be um, whatneeds to be looked at as well
(13:35):
and taken consideration, isevery person's individual
cultural background, traditions,communication styles, ethics
and understanding of differenttraits that we bring to the
table, and, in my eyes, teamculture is supporting all of
(13:56):
this and keeping the uniquenessof the individual while creating
a loyal, supportive and I don'twant to say safe but somewhat
good-feeling environment,because safe spaces are hard to
create at times and there'salways something that can
trigger us.
(14:16):
But I feel like it's one of thetasks from creating a team
culture to bring as much safetyto the environment as possible
so people can actually bethemselves sorry about that.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
I was muted.
Uh, that has to be a bigchallenge.
I love how you talked about oneof the the most important
values inside creating aneffective team culture is
respecting and maintaining theindividual's own values while at
the same time, driving forwardwith the organization's values
and goals, because, at the endof the day, every organization
(14:55):
has something they want toachieve, so that's a fine
balance between the two.
For the leader to have tofigure that out and as a new
leader, it's even more difficultbecause maybe, uh, you're
either new to that team, so youdon't know anyone, so it's going
to take time to figure out howto learn about your people or,
at the same token, maybe you theday before you were a drinking
(15:17):
buddy with everyone and now allof a sudden you're in charge.
But that shift matters.
So you might think you knowsomeone, but all of a sudden
they're treating you differentlybecause all of a sudden you're
the leader.
That's a challenge.
Do you have any thoughts onthat at all?
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Yeah, absolutely.
You know, I believe that teamculture starts with hiring and I
have created a hiring processfor my clients that shows them
how to hire, based on the corevalues and not necessarily only
based on skills.
So you want to look at theskills about 30% of the hiring
(15:54):
process and what I mean is, likeyou want to have a fundamental
um baseline that you need peopleto know or bring in skills, and
from there they can alwayslearn more, because as humans we
tend to learn skills and we canturn knowledge into action.
But changing our core values isvery, very difficult and
(16:18):
usually it doesn't work becausethey're deeply ingrained from so
many different areas right,cultural background, traditions,
religion, faith, spirituality,where you grew up, how you grew
up and what you were told thefirst seven years in your life.
So it's a whole different setupand to unlearn and relearn this
is very difficult, if ever wedon't actually do it because we
(16:41):
also kind of identify with thesecore values.
And so in the hiring process youwant to look 70% at core values
and you can actually test themout by setting up different
scenarios that you check onduring an interview, where
people don't know what they'rebeing asked and they have to
react or respond in the moment,and those scenarios would be
(17:03):
written out based on your corevalues.
So if you have a core value oftrust, for example, you set up a
scenario where you ask theinterviewee about a scenario
that would show if they trustyou and if you can trust them,
and their answer is there's noright or wrong answer, it's just
their answer right.
(17:23):
We don't judge by right orwrong, we just look at does the
response fit to who we want tohire into this position?
And that's the first thing thatwe check basically.
So in the hiring process westart with a form where they
fill out skills and knowledgeand everything and tick boxes or
not, and then the interviewwill be knowing that they have
(17:47):
all the skills we need and theycan still expand.
And so we test and ask on corevalues.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Well, and that's the thing.
If someone's getting to theinterview point, the resume
tends.
My experience has been that theresume tends to be very similar
to everyone else that is goingto apply for that role.
They may have an expertise in adifferent section than someone
else, but at its core, if youmake it to the interview stage,
you've got the skills.
But often I think that's alsowe're now checking for a
(18:15):
personality fit and when.
As a new team leader.
I'm curious how could a newteam leader, when they're
working with a new team, forexample, how could they check to
see if all the team members aregoing to be able to work
together?
Speaker 3 (18:29):
And how do?
Speaker 1 (18:29):
they do that in a remote setting Because often
it's a gut feeling, but it'sdifferent over Zoom.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
Yeah, that's a great question.
So when I was a new team leader, I had a team of 160 people 155
of them were men and they wereat least double as old as me and
I was in IT for SiemensEnterprise Networks.
And I was very young, I was 22years old and I was thrown
basically in this positionbecause I used to work for the
(18:59):
same company that served SiemensEnterprise Networks, although
we were hired directly by themand but I hadn't yet.
That was my first team leaderposition in a formal
professional setting, although Iwas a team leader before, right
in the petrol station, whatnotbut for this type of environment
and with so many people.
I didn't have as many peoplebefore.
(19:21):
So my technique was and Iimproved it over time obviously
because it's a little bit ago,but the the most important thing
is really getting to knowpeople and getting to know them
also on a personal levelsomewhat.
So my first month I scheduledgetting to know meetings with
everyone in my team and I satdown for at least half an hour
(19:43):
and, instead of asking them whatthey do here, I asked them what
they like to do in their lives,how they live their lives, if
they have a family or not, howthey, you know like to do
certain things.
What?
How they you know like to docertain things If they're being
late, and why?
Because sometimes that matterstoo.
Right If they have.
For example, because we tend tojudge people just by what
(20:06):
happens.
So, oh, you're being late, youdid this wrong.
But what if this person is asingle parent and they had to
run to school and then they wereholed up there and whatever?
And it sometimes matters, youknow, to be able to judge a
certain behavior or patternsdifferently than what you would
be judged for or by, basically.
(20:29):
And so now, in a remote setting,I do the same thing with a new
team leader and a team.
We set up coffee chats and wegive the team leader prompts
that the team member doesn'tknow to find out something
personal about every single ofthis person and to bring it back
, basically, to either the CEOor the founder of the company or
(20:50):
however.
And that means that they needto ask good questions to get to
know about this thing.
They can't just ask like, oh,what's your favorite movie?
Because those things we wantthem to find out is not
necessarily something you canstraight up ask.
You need to dig a little deeperand that's one exercise we do
(21:11):
in order for the team lead toget to know the team members.
But we also give the team leada prompt to share something
about themselves with the teammembers.
So it's a reciprocalconversation basically.
And that's the start of it, andlater on what we do is really
we are going to set up the corevalues and have obviously the
(21:34):
team lead go through the corevalue training and everything
and make them observe people andthat's possible on like group
calls, co-working calls, teamculture, setup calls and just
observe how these core valuesshow up in different ways
without having to necessarilylook at the work setting.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
That's a big challenge in that because more
often than not, especially inprofit-driven organizations well
, actually that's not even trueat all.
I'm going to completelybackpedal.
Organizations have goals andwhether or not that goal is to
make money or whatever it may be, more often than not the old
saying of time is money or timeis, as I like to often say, is
time is getting things done.
You know it's not very quicklittle saying but time is.
(22:22):
There's a cost to that.
When we're taking the time toactually get to know our people
and understand them and people,it's easy to forget that that's
actually an investment inhelping the team be stronger by
getting to know everyone, and Ithink it also builds trust, a
two-way level of trust People,the team members will see that.
Okay, simon's actually going tosit down and not focus only on
(22:44):
getting through whatever.
Take him more than just sayinga hello in the morning as he's
walking to his office or, inthis case, you know, in a remote
setting, saying, hey, how'severyone doing today?
A quick hello through in theZoom room and then get right to
the topic at hand.
It's challenging, it's tough, Iget that, but that's the thing
about creating these healthyenvironments for people to see
(23:06):
that the leader actually isgoing to take that time to hear
what people have to say.
And then once my my perceptionis once people are willing to
realize or not realize, butwilling to see that the
authentic, the leader, isauthentic.
In that there's my experienceshave been people are going to be
tend to be a little more openabout how things are going,
(23:26):
especially if things aren'tgoing well, because they know
they can.
They can speak in anenvironment that is healthy and
safe.
Does that make sense at all?
Am I really going anywhere withthat an environment?
Speaker 2 (23:36):
that is healthy and safe.
Does that make sense at all?
Am I really going anywhere withthat?
Oh, hello there, it's Glenn,the voiceover artist, and if
you're hearing me, that meanswe're at the midpoint of this
episode.
Are you considering startingyour own podcast?
Are you confused or overwhelmedand don't know where to start?
Well, Jennifer at it's a LegitBusiness is a podcast wizard who
(23:56):
can help you get started,provide advice, consultation and
help you along the way.
Trench Leadership has beenusing it's a Legit Business for
over a year and Jennifer offerspersonalized service catering to
the podcast's unique needs anddesires, truly hearing Simon's
requests and being instrumentalin realizing Trench Leadership's
(24:17):
vision for each episode.
If you want to get started,contact Jennifer at jennifer at
itsalegitbusinesscom and she'llhelp you realize your dreams.
Trench Leadership is alwaysstriving to improve our content
and provide valuable insightsfor leaders across all
professions, and to do this,your feedback is crucial.
(24:39):
So drop us a note at simonk attrenchleadershipca and let us
know what's working and what canbe improved.
And now back to the show.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
No, I totally agree.
The thing is that I alwaysexplain to the business owners
that work with me that this is along term investment.
Especially the leadership teamis going to work differently
than their team members.
Teach people over profit.
(25:13):
It's a concept, basically, thatwe actually care about the
person, that we sometimes andthat doesn't mean we need to do
this all the time but when thecircumstances ask for it, that
we give grace and compassion andthat we maybe offer different
versions of support during timesof need.
(25:34):
So when there is crisis, forexample, or someone in the
family maybe passed away whichunfortunately happened during
COVID a lot right and we offersupport differently and we're
not looking at the numbersbehind it, because we know if we
can offer the support and ifwe're really authentically and
genuinely caring about our team,we actually get back more in
(25:57):
the long term because they'realso more willing to invest into
our mission and vision of thecompany.
They're also willing to supportand help out when someone else
needs help and the team has aless usually the rates are less
in turnovers.
So you're saving a lot of money.
With hiring the right peopleand then creating this team
(26:20):
culture, you're not only savingmoney but actually also time and
energy, and those are even morevaluable than money at times,
although a lot of people don'twant to believe that yet, but we
get to it, and so I totallyagree with you.
It's definitely a long-terminvestment, and we should look
at leadership not from theperspective of get as much out
(26:41):
of the people as you can, buttake care and foster, as much as
you possibly can, anenvironment where people want to
be, because what we've seenover the last decades is work
environments where people aretrying to run away from and they
(27:03):
are trying to run away fromtoxic environments or just
stressful environments orenvironments that doesn't help
them grow, and so that's what wereally do with leadership.
It's not about bouncing all thenumbers and, you know, being
like on the butt of people tokick them.
(27:24):
That's not what we're trying todo.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
No, no, I mean, sometimes the leader does need
to step in and be okay, Listen,everyone.
Here's a little kick in therear end to get going.
But I think, and based off ofwhat I've heard, is that if the
leader invests the time to workwith the team and be genuine and
authentic in what they'retrying to say and do, then when
things are a little tough,people are going to be a little
(27:49):
more open to working throughthose tough times and, as you
mentioned, there actually is amonetary value attached to
taking the time to do thesethings because of that long-term
investment dropping theturnover rate I think of.
If I could offer an example ofthat, would that be okay?
Speaker 3 (28:05):
Yeah, please.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
So I lived in a little city called
Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, whichis near Montreal, in Quebec,
canada here, and my favorite andMontreal loves the breakfast
restaurant, so they specializeon breakfast type items.
So my favorite restaurant ofall time is this place called Le
Feu de Ré, which is French forgolden egg, and they make these
(28:30):
house potatoes that are.
It's actually a family recipe.
They don't want to tell us whatit is, but it's amazing what
they put in these things.
But that's not the point of thestory.
But Le Feu de Ré inSaint-Jean-sur-Richelieu if you
ever get a chance to come toCanada, we'll have to go and
visit it.
It will blow your mind away.
But the point of this example isthat I was talking to the owner
(28:50):
one time and he was explainingto me that in this restaurant
the turnover rate of for all thewaiters and waitresses was
eight years, that someone tendedto stay at that restaurant,
which, considering it theindustry, that's a long time for
someone to stay in location.
And, and according to the ownerand I actually ended up asking
some of the different serverswhy do they stay it's because
(29:12):
there is a family culture thereand it happens to be a family
run restaurant, which is helpful, but the culture is such that
it's okay that they have to workquickly and very, very hard,
because the restaurant's alwaysfull, it's never not busy, but
because of the culture that hasbeen created there, it's not
(29:32):
work with finger quotations.
They enjoy going and that sayssomething about an industry
where traditionally the turnoveris quite high and there's
something in that.
There's definitely a lesson inthere.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Do you have any?
Speaker 1 (29:43):
type of lessons or sorry examples that you would
like to offer, or talking aboutstrong or maybe not so strong
teams.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
Yeah, you know, I mean, I've been in a lot of
teams that, unfortunately,weren't well led and the team
culture was non-existent almost.
So my experience comes a lotfrom seeing what doesn't work
and then figuring out how we canbalance this out.
And so what I recently learnedwith well, not I didn't learn it
(30:13):
, but, like one of my clientswent through hiring and then you
know, setting up the teamculture and what we've seen
together is what's one veryimportant thing is to understand
, as a team leader, thedifference between kind and nice
, because a lot of team leadersthey because they think they
want to be setting up afamily-like team culture, which
(30:38):
I just want to mention that wewant them to feel like a team
really, but we don't want tomake it like family, and I
explained why in a little bit,and so he was being really nice
to them.
But nice is people pleasing,nice is not being firm and it's
not being a leader, right, andwe have to switch that to being
(31:00):
kind.
We need to sometimes be firmand, as you said before, right,
like kicking their rear ends,but we can do this in a kind way
and a lot of times I've seenmany team managers and whatnot
to become an unbearable person.
I'm trying to not swear.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
Oh, swear away.
I've seen a bunch of assholesin my career, so it's totally
all right.
Speaker 3 (31:27):
Yeah, really.
But sometimes I was looking atthem like, how did they even get
into this position, right?
Looking at them like how didthey even get into this position
, right?
But that's how they were.
They are literally using theirpower or control over people and
I'm putting this in likefingers, because they don't
actually have control or power,but they try to with being such
(31:48):
an unbearable person and whathappens then is that there's no
team culture and the team fallsapart easily, and so you want to
be kind but not nice, and it'ssuper important to know the
difference.
Now, why do we also not want tocreate a family setting?
Here's why, again, I lived inso many different cultures.
I experienced so many differentbackgrounds, and there are a
(32:11):
lot of countries in this worldwhere family has the first
priority, and it's important toknow their backgrounds and to
also maybe ask about familysometimes.
But when we create a culturethat is like a family, we are
creating a connection.
For them, that means that theycannot detach from work anymore
(32:35):
and they would work throughweekends and nights and
everything, and we don't wantthat because that's going and
falling back into hustle culture, right?
So while we want a really safeteam environment, and I think
that's what the restaurant alsodid, right um, is that we want
to create this space wherepeople feel safe to open, to
(32:56):
share, to work through hardtimes, but also to be open about
their tough times and receivesupport.
But we don't want them to thinkthey're now in a family setting
where their commitment is atotally different one, based on
their cultural or upbringing orreligion or whatever, and so I
(33:18):
think it's important to makethis distinction too, and that
was a very big learning over allof the years that I had because
I went, I had different teamleadership roles in different
countries some in Asiancountries, some in Latin
American countries, in the UK,in Germany, in all of these
countries and it's verydifferent how people relate to
(33:42):
being in a family right, butthere are certainly countries
where family is the first thing.
So if you even say we want tobe a family at work, they commit
very differently and it can beunhealthy again.
Yeah well.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
so, as you were talking about that, I was
thinking about the, the valueand the challenges that come
with being in one of the as afamily style, and I completely
agree.
How many, how many families areout there and the culture is
such inside the family thatthings are kind of dysfunctional
.
I think most families liveinside of that environment.
You know so to say, well, weneed to create this family
(34:20):
environment.
Well, do we?
Or do we need to remind people?
Also, I'll remember thatleaders are leaders and they are
in charge.
It's knowing when to step inand be the authoritarian version
and knowing when to step in andremind people that you're still
a human being.
One of my favorite sayings isthat everyone poops, you know,
that's just the way of it.
It favorite sayings is thateveryone poops, you know, that's
(34:47):
just the way of it.
It doesn't matter who you are,we all go to the bathroom and
it's easy to forget thatsometimes.
And it's a challenge to whenwe're trying to create those
cultures.
Now, in a remote setting,that's even more difficult.
And do you have any type ofadvice to help for leaders to
know how to create a healthy,effective team culture in a
remote setting?
Speaker 3 (35:00):
Yeah, definitely so.
As a leader, you do want toembody those core values.
That means that if the companyhas a core value of, for example
, integrity and trust and maybea commitment to work or
something like this, you want tobe the one commitment to work
(35:21):
or something like this.
You want to be the one and I'mnot meaning to lead by example,
because that can create a formof wanting to do it best and
better than everyone, and that'snot the case of it.
What I mean is just embody whatyou want the others to also
embody.
Basically, right, and you don'tneed to be better.
You can be human, you can makemistakes and everything, but
(35:42):
just show up in the way thatthose core values ask you to
show up.
Now, to integrate the team withthese core values and also
creating this team culture.
I recommend a set of differentthings.
So you want to have a placewhere people can chat about
different things and be incontact at all times during
(36:05):
working hours.
For most companies, they useSlack, for example not an ad
word, just what happens to bethe one of the favorites so far
and we can use different Slackintegrations and they're called
apps, I think or add-ons thathelp with that.
For example, one of ourfavorites is the hey Taco add-on
(36:26):
, where when people didsomething that you want to
reward or just point out, theyget a digital taco and then, by
the end, you can reward themwith like team member of the
month, or things like this.
And to do rewarding in a waythat it's not damaging is to
find things that everyone canparticipate in, and that's
(36:52):
mostly like soft skills or youknow core values.
So you could be like hey, uh,team member a, you have
supported our team this month.
Uh, specifically with theserough times, whatever, here are
tacos and, and thank you forthat, you know.
And another one could be likehey, your communication style
was great and we loved how youhelped us in meetings.
(37:13):
To get to the point, thingslike this, right, um.
So other add-ons would be thatuh, maybe I don't have the
correct names for it, but Ithink there's geekbot, and this
one is something that you canset up, for example, with a
daily reminder that isautomatically sent to your team,
(37:34):
and ask them like hey, how areyou doing today?
What?
How do you feel?
How did you wake up thismorning?
Is everything okay, you know?
And the core of this is thatwhen you get these responses,
you do want to obviously readthem and not just be like, oh,
it's an automation.
No, you do want to read them.
And if someone said like,honestly, I feel really shit
(37:56):
today and I have like pain andwhatnot, and I have my, my kids
are all over the place and mydog pooped all over the house
and whatnot Everything's justgoing wrong today Then you can
reach out and be like, hey, howcan we support you today?
What can we do to make this alittle bit better and to make
this day a little bit brighter?
Right, and then see what comesup.
(38:17):
So it's really a tool.
But also, if someone says like,oh my God, I have an amazing
day, you just say like, oh myGod, yeah, let's celebrate that
you have an amazing day.
Like, sometimes it's just theselittle interactions, because
that's how people like toconnect and you want those bits
for connections to be answeredfrom the leader, right.
And other things are that weset up team culture calls, so
(38:41):
calls specifically that havenothing to do with work, where
we either chat about what you'vedone on the weekend or someone
shares what happened in theirlife or if they had a new
achievement or whatever, andthey can also be mental health
check-ins.
They can also be things, forexample, that you offer in your
company as a benefit, like abook club or a podcast club or a
(39:04):
little mastermind where you canall together go through like
personal development that theteam votes for.
There are so many options, butthis specific call and it can be
like an hour or two every weekor just every two weeks for a
little bit longer to check inand just get closer and really
just chat about what's reallyinteresting to the people.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
That's a big part of it is because I'm going to
backpedal just a little tiny bitwhat I've heard in that is what
you're.
Ok, I'm going to start thatfrom the beginning again,
because I've got three thoughtsgoing on in my mind at the same
time.
From the beginning again,because I've got three thoughts
going on in my mind at the sametime, you've offered some very
tactical examples and ways thatleaders can go about getting to
know their team in theseenvironments and really, at the
core of it, what I've heard andcorrect me if I'm wrong, but
(39:50):
what I'm hearing is it's talkingabout fostering trust,
communication, activelylistening.
I am a huge, huge proponent ofactive listening, actually
taking the time and lettingsomeone finish their thought.
Let them finish speaking, takea moment, think about it and
then respond.
Let the person know thatthey're actually being heard.
That is so invaluable for theleader to take that moment.
(40:15):
Time is value.
It's invaluable.
Time, rather, is valued.
It's an invaluable time, rather, and and this is what I'm
hearing the examples that you'reusing will allow the leader the
opportunity to actually stopand hear what's being said and,
a lot of times, what's not beingsaid.
That's that's invaluable.
Does that make sense?
Speaker 3 (40:31):
Absolutely, and I love that.
And I just want to throw in onesingle thing, because I have a
different perspective on theactive listening part.
As an autistic person, Ipersonally have issues to read
in between lines and to readsocial cues.
I can read the energy of theroom really well, but if you
(40:52):
tell me you're fine but you'renot, I won't get it.
I take everything literal getit.
I take everything literal.
So me, as a leader, I tend to uh, foster an environment where
everyone also is very honest anddirect and kind, while they are
direct and honest.
So it's not like radicalhonesty or brutal honesty or
(41:13):
something, because I don'tbelieve in that and if you don't
tell me the things that youactually want me to know, I
won't be able to find them out.
So we also um, try to, becausewe talked about access
accessibility in the beginning,right, we want to foster an
environment where everyone canactually open up and share and
(41:34):
share in a way that they'rebeing heard, and that sometimes
needs practice with differentmethods and tools, because if
you have neurotypical people,they may tend to share in
between the lines yeah, I'm okay, you know, but yeah, actually,
oh no, I think I'm fine, butthen they're not, and some
(41:55):
people may not get it, like me,I don't get it.
You tell me you're fine andmaybe, and okay.
Then I think like, okay, you'rekind of fine.
And so I tend to ask again andI tend to then share about
myself.
First that's a little bitautistic.
I say, you know, actually myday is not going really well.
If that's the case, I'm only.
(42:17):
If that's the case, obviously,like I got up on the wrong foot
and now I feel like really stiffand painful and oh, and I
didn't want to actually doanything and so I'm being really
lame today.
So are you sure you're fine?
Is like how did you get up thismorning?
You know like.
So I'm asking a differentquestion then to in order for
them to have the opportunity toshare.
(42:38):
But I totally agree with you,it's very much about active
listening and you know we'recoming back to having everyone
being unique and theirindividual selves and those
needs being met as much aspossible.
You can't meet them all,probably, but just to show
(42:59):
attention and care genuinely foreveryone in the team.
Speaker 1 (43:05):
So I have a whole bunch of thoughts on this and I
think that one of the things Iheard from you that I think is
very, very strong in this isthat it's not just the leader's
responsibility to create andfoster a healthy team.
It's everyone's role to do that.
Everyone has to speak up andfeel a healthy team.
It's everyone's role to do that.
Everyone has to speak up andfeel and do that.
The leader's responsibility andI'd like to know your thoughts
on this the leader'sresponsibility is to create the
(43:29):
safe space where people feel asthough they can speak up and say
whatever.
The team member's role in all ofthis is to tell people what
they want to see and hear, notjust what they think the leader
wants to hear.
You know, if and I guess that'smy my long winded way of saying
don't make assumptions aboutwhat the leader wants, and the
leader shouldn't be makingassumptions about what the team
members want.
Dialogue matters and we have toreally hear each other, even if
(43:52):
we don't want to hear whatwe're about to hear, cause
sometimes it's today, we'reworking hard and I don't have
time for a conversation, but I'mbeing pressed with a heavy
deadline and I need to get at ittoday.
So we got to go press.
Am I hearing that correctly inwhat you were saying earlier, or
am I just making?
Speaker 3 (44:09):
something up?
No, absolutely Absolutely.
You're very good at activelistening.
You reflect this back, becausehearing your words and the and
basically the language that youuse it makes it more
understandable for everyone,because we have different ways
of saying these things.
So I really love that, and youknow, what just came up for me
when you shared that was, um,that while the team leader needs
(44:33):
to create the safe space, it'salso for everyone involved the
responsibility to not useanything against a team member
or the leader that they've hurt,because that's what makes it
safe.
Right, that you know you can bein the room and say things and
you won't be judged.
You're being taken seriously.
(44:57):
But also you need to know thatthese people are not going to
throw this back at you when shithits the fan, and that's
something that needs to bepracticed, and I think we have a
society unfortunately at leastwell, I think, around the world,
honestly where this is prettycommon.
You know like, oh, rememberthat thing you've done, like
five and a half months ago onthis date, at this time.
(45:18):
Remember that thing you've donelike five and a half months ago
on this date, at this time.
You know, if you don't say itin the moment.
That is your problem.
Everyone's involved.
So if you're not saying it inthe moment, or as timely
connected to the event aspossible, and you don't talk
about what maybe disturbed youor what didn't go well or how
you would like it to bedifferent, or whatever maybe
(45:39):
disturbed you or what didn't gowell or how you would like it to
be different, or whatever, youbasically lost the right after a
while to talk about it, becausenow you have to move through
this yourself.
So I recommend really to bringthings up in the moment is a
practice.
That won't happen at thebeginning, but it's a practice
and that's where the leaderreally I like to say he's a
guide, he, she, they are a guide, they're a guide for the whole
(46:03):
team and guiding through thissometimes very uncomfortable
environment that is needed inorder to have hard conversations
and then fantastic outcomes foreveryone.
Speaker 1 (46:19):
Just writing a whole bunch of notes about that
Fantastic.
Well, this has been anabsolutely fantastic chat.
You know we've talked a lotabout the importance of team
cultures, what they are, whythey're important, how to create
them and, specifically in aremote location.
I am curious if people want toreach out to you, if they want
to engage more in a conversationwith you, how might they do
(46:41):
that?
Speaker 3 (46:42):
Yeah, thank you for asking.
The best way to find a lot ofthe things is my website and
it's called the time alchemistcothe time alchemistco, and you
can find me with the same nameall at once, basically on
Facebook.
So facebookcom slash the timealchemist and you'll find my
(47:05):
public profile, and those twoplaces are where I post a lot
about my personal journey as anautistic person, as a leader,
and I give a lot of tangibletips and stories that help you
maybe cross the concept or ideathat I'm trying to share more.
So these two spaces and mynewsletter that you can sign up
(47:27):
for on the website are the bestplaces to be in.
Speaker 1 (47:30):
Thanks so much for that and that has been a
fantastic episode, monique.
This has been so fantastic.
Thank you so much for your timetoday and actually, in your
case, rounding up into the laterin the evening.
So thanks again, and I'mexcited for us to chat about
another topic down the road.
Speaker 3 (47:47):
Yeah, thank you so much, Simon.
It was amazing and I'm sograteful to have been able to
share a little bit.
Speaker 1 (47:54):
Perfect.
Thanks a lot.
Take care.
Well, that's a wrap from thefront.
In this episode we talked aboutteam cultures in a remote
setting.
We talked about the need tounderstand that paying attention
to your team, both individuallyand as the team, requires
understanding, shared corevalues, considering all the
regional and personal stylesthat exist.
Now, that's not easy, butyou're the leader.
(48:17):
We also talked about theunderstanding that it's
everyone's responsibility tocreate a healthy team
environment, but, as the leader,it's your role to guide that
team to the safe space so thateveryone can help foster that
special team.
Thanks for tuning in andremember leadership without
passion is the depth of yourvision of your vision.
Speaker 2 (48:42):
Be sure to join us next week with your host, Simon
Cardinal, for another episode ofTrench Leadership, a podcast
from the front Produced by.
It's a Legit Business Musicprovided by Ashamal of Music.
Never miss an episode byfollowing us wherever you get
your podcasts.
While you're there, pleaseconsider leaving us a review and
(49:03):
rating Hint, we love five starsand let us know what topics you
would like to hear about.
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.