January 6, 2025 • 47 mins
Unlock the secrets of exceptional leadership with Anton Gunn, a celebrated leadership expert and former advisor to President Barack Obama. Join us on the Unpacked Podcast as we promise to equip you with the tools to cultivate a dynamic and diverse workplace culture. Gain invaluable insights into building high-performing teams and the art of making employees feel truly valued. Anton's extensive experience with Fortune 500 companies and healthcare organizations reveals the necessity of unlearning ineffective leadership habits and developing impactful communication strategies.
A new era of leadership calls for empathy and trust. This episode explores strategies leaders can employ to connect meaningfully with their teams and emphasizes the significance of communication and culture in retaining top talent.
• Importance of transparent communication
• Effective strategies for employee retention
• Building trust through listening and engagement
• The significance of delegation in leadership
• Fostering a strong workplace culture
• Developing leadership skills for 2025
• Addressing the challenges of diversity and inclusion
• Creating an empowering environment for teams
• The value of mentorship for leaders
Connect with Ron
Just Make A Difference: Leading Under Pressure by Ron Harvey
“If you don’t have something to measure your growth, you won’t be self-aware or intentional about your growth.”
Learn more about Global Core Strategies
.
.
.
.
.
Disclaimer:
The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers and guests and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any organization or entity. The information provided in this podcast is intended for educational and informational purposes only and should not be considered as professional advice. Listeners should consult with their own professional advisors before implementing any suggestions or recommendations made in this podcast. The speakers and guests are not responsible for any actions taken by listeners based on the information presented in this podcast. The podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice or services. The speakers and guests make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the information, products, services, or related graphics contained in this ...
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Unpacked Podcast with your host
leadership consultant, ronHarvey of Global Core Strategies
and Consulting.
Ron's delighted to have youjoin us as he unpacks and shares
his leadership experience,designed to help you in your
leadership journey.
Ron believes that leadership isthe fundamental driver towards
making a difference.
(00:21):
So now to find out more of whatit means to unpack leadership,
here's your host, ron Harvey.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Good afternoon.
This is Ron Harvey, the VicePresident and Chief Operating
Officer for Global CoreStrategies and Consulting,
excited to be with you onceagain.
Of course, we know we own aleadership development firm
based out of Columbia, southCarolina.
If you're following us, youknow that's where we are.
But today I woke up wonderingif I was in Columbia, south
Carolina, or was I in Virginiasomewhere, because the weather
was absolutely insane.
It's not supposed to be 34degrees or 27 degrees where we
(00:51):
live at, but I'm excited to beable to do the work we do.
Our company spends all of ourtime helping leaders be better
connected to their workforce sothey can do the right thing and
take care of their team whiletaking care of their clients and
all these stakeholders, theirteam while taking care of their
clients and all thesestakeholders.
But today we do what we callUnpack with Ron Harvey.
I get to invite leaders fromaround the world talking about
all things that help leaders bebetter.
I'm super excited because notonly do I have a friend, a
(01:13):
colleague, I have someone thatsince Columbia, south Carolina,
that I followed as a good friend, that is very good at what he
does, and so I'm going to handhim the microphone.
Anton Gunn, you're well knownin your own space.
You do a lot of great things,but I'm going to hand you the
microphone because I don'tbelieve in messing up people's
intro, so I'm going to hand itto you and let you do it for us.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Well, good afternoon.
It's great to be with you, ron.
My name is Anton Gunn and Ihelp leaders in organizations
build diverse, high-performingteams in a world-class workplace
culture that you can easilyidentify, because those
organizations have two maincharacteristics Characteristic
number one is that they haveleaders that everybody admires
(01:54):
because of how they lead.
And number two, they're full ofteams and employees who never
want to quit because they feelvalued, they feel respected,
they feel included, they feelvisible but, most importantly,
they feel empowered to executeon their mission, which helps to
grow the margin.
And so I own a small boutiquemanagement consulting practice
(02:15):
in Columbia, south Carolina,where I work with everybody,
from boards to senior leadershipteams to frontline staff, to
help them to build the cultureand to become those leaders that
everybody admires.
Most organizations that I workwith it starts off with them
bringing me in to speak at theirannual leadership kickoff or
their annual meeting for theirteams.
(02:36):
I'm a dynamic keynote speakerthat when people leave my
presentations, they not onlyfeel empowered but they have
been impacted with informationthat allows them to go execute
immediately, to become the kindof leader that is admired, to
build a world-class culture.
I've worked with more than 15Fortune 500 corporations and
(02:56):
another 350 organizations reallyfocused on leadership and
culture in their organizationsand I'm excited about being with
you and very happy to have thisopportunity today.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Yeah, thank you, man.
I mean he's being humble.
So if y'all watching andlistening, he's being humble.
You know he does the phenomenalstuff, so I'm not going to put
him out there on Front Streetyet, but so let me unpack some
stuff on that time.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Let me just let me just go ahead and say it.
I'm a former senior advisor toPresident Barack Obama, worked
for the President of the UnitedStates for about three and a
half years, advising him onleadership and engagement
strategies as it relates to thePatient Protection and the
Affordable Care Act.
People call it the ACA, someother people call it Obamacare.
I am a bona fide health careexpert, but in order for us to
(03:47):
understand how that's tied in,is that I help a lot of
healthcare organizations.
I've worked with some renownedhealthcare organizations.
I've spoken at Mayo Clinic,I've spoken at Emory Healthcare,
I've spoken at HCA HealthcareCorporation all across the board
.
So healthcare is an area ofexpertise because those
organizations are full of peoplewho want to quit every day
because of how hard it issometimes doing the healthcare
(04:08):
work and we've seen the burnoutand the stress that a lot of
healthcare employees have.
But we also have a lot ofleaders that work in healthcare
who absolutely don't know how tolead Like they are great at
their skillset.
So you might be a great doctor,you might be a great nurse, I
might be a great clinician insome kind of way, shape or form,
but the things that help you tobe a great clinician can help
(04:30):
you to be a terrible leader, andso I have to unlearn a lot of
bad behaviors and teach peoplenew behaviors, and that all
started with my work working forthe president.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Yes, yes, I'm glad he unpacked that so I didn't have
to.
He does some great stuff.
He's a friend, anton.
You, I'm glad he unpacked thatso I didn't have to.
He does some great stuff.
He's a friend, anton.
You and I both are in theleadership space and we're
friends, we're colleagues.
We iron sharpens iron and forthose of you that are listening,
you know I don't do competitionunless you're playing football
or something.
You talk about my dolphins, youknow.
Then I got a problem with you,but I always tell people that
You're one of those people.
(05:00):
Yeah, I want to be able to walkthrough and unpack.
You're in leadership and you'rein Columbia, but you also have
a book that talks about some ofthe stuff you've done.
So, really quick, before wedive into it, I know you have a
book that you've written and acouple of them, and you don't
work.
What are you working on now?
Are you working on the book, orare you still promoting the one
that you currently have outthere?
Speaker 3 (05:19):
Yeah, so I'm a man of many things at the same time,
if you want to put it that way.
So, first and foremost, I'm athree-time author, so I have
three books.
My most recent book, the bookthat is out now, is called Just
Lead.
I want to share it with you.
The subtitle of that book is 44Actions to Break Down Barriers,
boost your Attention and Builda World-Class Culture, and the
(05:46):
reason why I call it 44 Actionsbecause this is unlike my other
two books.
My other two books were full ofnarratives.
They're full of frameworks.
They're full of all of thenitty gritty things that most
intellectual leaders look for inbooks what you look for as an
academic tool or resource tohelp you to move forward.
But this current book, justLead, is exactly what it sounds
(06:07):
like an action guide.
These are, step-by-step, 44different actions that you can
literally implement tomorrow,that you don't actually have to
wait until next month, andthey're so robust.
You can open up the page to 41and find an action step that you
can take right now that willhelp you to break down the
(06:28):
barriers between you and yourteams, and so when I use the
word breakdown barriers, I'mtalking about a subject that
people want to make it taboo.
They want to make it a negativeterm.
They use words like DEI andmake it a pejorative and make it
seem like it's something wrong.
But it really is aroundunderstanding the diverse makeup
(06:52):
of your team and valuing thediverse experiences and
backgrounds that people bring tothe table, because the more
diverse you are, the more you'reable to see things that other
people can't see, and so I talkabout how you can implement and
break down barriers betweenpeople on your teams.
I also talk about how you canboost your retention, because,
let's be real honest, if we'reunpacking it the way we need to
(07:13):
unpack it, more than 80 millionpeople over the last two years
have left the job to go worksomewhere else, and so
(07:38):
organizations and leaders arelosing their top talent to their
competitors.
They're going to other peopleto work for them because you
haven't built a culture wherethey want to stay.
So these actions will teach youthe things you need to, if you
will.
What it does?
It teaches you how to build aworld-class culture, because in
the book Ryan, I unpack the ninereasons why people quit a job.
There are really nine reasons,and most of us want to try to
boil it down and say people quitbecause of pay.
(07:59):
Yes, pay is one of the factors,but it's definitely not the most
important factor, because mostpeople don't quit organizations,
they don't quit jobs, they quitmanagers, bad managers, and so
if you understand what you'redoing or not doing that
encourages your people to leaveor encourages your people to
stay, the better you are as aleader.
(08:21):
And I put a buttonhole into thisand say that my book a leader
and I put a buttonhole into thisand say that my book Just Lead
is something that is soactionable.
I intentionally made it small,I intentionally made it short.
I intentionally cut out all ofthe fluff and all of the stories
and all of the theoreticalresearch.
There are some statistics inthere facts and statistics about
(08:41):
why people leave and the datapoints and how much this is
costing your business, becausewe love to think that turnover
or diversity or not building agreat culture doesn't impact us
financially, but it does, and wehave data on that.
So I spend my time helpingpeople to understand how to
solve those challenges, retainyour talent, earn more money and
(09:03):
be more successful.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Yes, yes, and you see why I brought you on.
So, anton, you think about youknow, one of the things that I
noticed in our organization,almost like a wildfire burning
right now, and that's theability to communicate
effectively, and it's oftenoverlooked.
What are you telling leadersabout the importance of their
communication style and thehabits they're creating around
communication?
Speaker 3 (09:24):
I literally just wrote a piece on this recently
on my blog and you can see thatat AntonGunncom slash blog.
The context of communication isreally important.
Leaders always want to feellike that they're sharing enough
information.
And I tell leaders transparencybreeds trust.
So whatever information youthink you're sharing with your
(09:46):
people, you're not sharingenough with them.
You got to share a whole lotmore.
And so my context is as aleader, you better be focused on
over-communicating rather thanunder-communicating, because
people only will retain a thirdof the information that you say.
So if you think youcommunicated once, then two
thirds of the people didn't getwhat you communicated once.
(10:09):
If you communicated twice, well, you might get to half of the
people in the group.
So if you communicated threetimes, then literally you might
be able to saturate everybody.
But we all know that threetimes is still probably not
enough.
And it's not just what youcommunicate, it is how, where
and when do you communicate.
So some leaders I rememberworking with a client
(10:31):
organization the CEO would sayall the time well, we
communicate what's going on here?
So our team knows what's goingon.
And I asked the question howare you communicating the
directors, the priorities of theorganization?
He says well, I spend timeevery week typing my email
newsletter and I send it out tothe entire team.
And I said do you really thinkthat everybody is reading an
(10:54):
email from you?
And he assumed, just because hewas a CEO, that every email
that he sent was the mostimportant email that any
employee in the organization wasgoing to read.
I quickly dispelled him of thatnotion and reminded him that
most employees want to hearinformation from their direct
supervisor and not from the CEO.
(11:15):
They want to communicate withthe CEO and read what the CEO
has to say.
But the person I report to isthe most important person to
give me information.
So I asked the CEO whatelevated information are you
giving to everybody in amanagement role?
And he said well, you know, Inever thought about that.
And I said well, you have tounderstand that.
Number one, everybody's notgoing to get it via email.
(11:37):
And number two, you need tomake sure your managers and
leaders are briefed, in the knowthat they can answer questions,
because the number one way tomake people quit or disconnect,
check out or even leave yourorganization is the following
it's for somebody to ask theirsupervisor tell me what's going
on in the organization and thatsupervisor says I find out last,
(12:00):
just like you find out last.
That's going to tear theculture of the organization
apart.
So I first and foremost say overcommunicate.
Number one don't just rely onemail.
Communicate in person andrecognize that you got to do it
multiple times before peoplereceive the message.
And then the last piece, if Iadded on this is it's not just
(12:23):
what you say, but it's how yousay it.
Your tone matters more thananything else, because people
can understand the words thatare coming out of your mouth.
So I could say good morning,that communicates something.
Or I could say good morning andthat communicates something
else, but I thoroughly couldalso say morning, and that
(12:44):
communicates something totallydifferent.
So your tone is really, reallyimportant on how you communicate
as a leader, and sometimespeople won't understand the tone
If you only send it via email,unless you're using all caps.
Then they understand that.
But you need to do morein-person communication If you
really want people to understandwhere you're trying to take the
(13:06):
organization and what you'redoing.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Yeah, so let's unpack that for a second in time.
I love that you're laying outstrategies and things that
people walk away with, that theycan do, but what do you say to
the leader that's busy, the CEOthat has 100,000 things to do,
that I got to get this messageout three times and I need them
to check the email and peoplewill make a policy reach email.
What do you tell the leaders?
I don't have time to say itthree times.
I need them to get it.
I need them to get it the firsttime.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
If you don't have time to communicate with your
people, then you don't deserveto lead.
That's what I would say to you,because everybody is busy.
Totally get it, totallyunderstand, totally got high
priorities and everything.
But if you're not willing tomake the investment of time for
your people to understand themost important things in the
(13:52):
organization, that is the vision, that's the values, that's the
goals, and if you don't havetime to repeat the vision, the
values and the goals, how canyou expect to keep people
focused on the main thing youcan to keep people focused on
the main thing.
Yes, you can't keep peoplefocused on the main thing if you
don't have time to communicatethe main thing and if you don't
(14:12):
create a culture in yourorganization where every leader
understands that I need to spendtime communicating the message
and making sure people have thevision, that they understand the
values, that they understandthe values, that they understand
the goals and they understandwhat they're going to be held
accountable for, then what areyou really doing?
I mean, you just go intomeetings rehashing things over
(14:34):
and over again, or you're offchasing something bigger, but
you don't have the team comingbehind you because they can't
keep up with the changing andthe shifting priorities, because
you don't constantly remindthem of the vision, the values,
the goals and the actions thatyou're expecting them to take
and that you're going to try tohold them accountable for.
I literally had a meetingrecently with a client and it
(14:57):
wasn't the senior leadership Iwas talking to.
I was talking to the employeesof the organization because, as
a part of my keynotes before Icome in to do a keynote with an
organization, I do a detailedpre-event process.
I ask them to give me the namesof five employees and I'm going
to interview them, ask themabout the culture, the
experience of the organization,so I can tailor my keynote
(15:18):
content to not only solve theirchallenges that they have, but
really speak to the concernsthat most of them are having.
So when I was with this clientorganization, I was talking to
this employee and the personsaid to me my biggest
frustration with this place,anton, is that we have a flavor
of the month priority.
One week is the year of ourpeople, the next week is all
(15:39):
about these patient satisfactionscores.
The next week is aboutsomething else.
The next week is about revenue.
He says I can't keep up.
I need to focus on one priorityin order to be able to make a
movement.
But as soon as I get started onit, we shifted to something else
and I said well, where doesthis come from?
And their answer was well, weget the updates from the CEO
(16:00):
about what the new priority is.
And so I had to have aconversation about listen, you
got to narrow, cast your focusin the organization to do the
things that are necessary foryour people to actually make
progress.
But every time you move theball, every time you move the
goalposts or change theyardstick, they're off chasing
something else, which means theyactually never have impact on
(16:21):
anything.
So it's critically importantthat leaders slow it down.
Less is actually more.
The less priorities means youcan make more impact on fewer
priorities, but sometimes it'svery hard for leaders to
understand how they have to dothat.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Yeah, it is very difficult, I mean because the
world is changing so fast andthings are moving 100 miles an
hour.
But I think, as you shared inthe end, time is, your people
don't need to feel the pain ofrunning 100 miles an hour all
the time.
No, that we're working withtrust shows up in every
(16:59):
conversation, or lack thereof.
How do you help a leader that'sin an organization, that's
running an organization, beginto build trust in an
organization is the firstquestion.
Then I'll caveat it with thesecond question how do, if I'm
coming in and I'm the personthat's going to lead, how do I
build trust?
You know, because you don'thave a year.
It used to be, I think, when Icame in position.
I would get about 90 days tomaybe 180, if I'm lucky to get
(17:22):
my stuff together, that's notreality for a CEO today.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
Yes, you only got to have it in 45 days.
Yeah, it's really difficultbecause trust is something that
is earned over time and not wonovernight.
But I actually do have aframework that every leader can
use to start to build trust andto lock their trust in to their
organization.
It's to answer threefundamental questions that every
(17:48):
employee is asking when theyshow up to work.
So when I say every employee,it doesn't matter what role they
play, how long they've workedthere, whether it's their first
day or whether it's their 25thyear.
Every day they show up, they'reasking their leader three
questions that they neververbalize.
You can actually pretend thatthey have these questions
(18:08):
tattooed on their chest, so theygot on a t-shirt that has these
three questions.
Question number one is do youcare about me?
Question number two is will youhelp me to be successful?
And question number three iscan I trust you?
And the reason why those threequestions are important is you
gotta understand that you haveto show people that you care
(18:31):
about them and you have tointentionally help people to be
successful at their jobs inorder for them to feel like that
they can trust you.
Because why would they evertrust you if you never once
showed them that you care aboutwhat they're going through as a
frontline team member or as asenior leader.
How can they ever trust you ifthey never feel like that you're
(18:55):
doing the things necessary tohelp them to be successful at
work?
And so let me unpack that whileI'm on it.
The first thing is is it's hardto show your employees that you
care about them if you don'tknow them, and this problem was
coming up over and over againwith a lot of organizations that
(19:15):
I was working with, and that'swhy it led me to develop a
product.
I actually have a team buildingin a leadership development
tool called Just Know your Team.
This is a deck of cards that isvery simply and easily a way
for a leader to use these cardsto get to know the people on
your team.
(19:35):
Now, when I say get to know,let me just break it down with
you, as a leader, you shouldknow not only the first name of
everybody in your team, but youshould know how to pronounce it
correctly, because one of theways you can show people that
you don't care about them is tointentionally mispronounce their
names, or even repeatedly,unintentionally, and you can't
(19:58):
pronounce my name as Anton.
You call me Antoine, antwain,antonio, anthony, then you're
showing me that you don't careabout me to get my name right,
if you don't know my spouse'sname, my wife's name, if you
don't know what my favoritecolor is, or whether I like and
(20:19):
drink coffee or not, if youdon't know the basics about who
I am as a human being to show upat work, if you don't know me,
then how are you really gonnashow me that you care about me?
Because if I don't believe thatyou care about me, why am I
gonna invest into you if youaren't invested into me?
Which leads to the secondquestion, which is help.
And when I say help, I want youto understand that I teach
leaders.
Your main responsibility is togive people the tools, the
(20:44):
information and the resources tobe successful at work Tools,
information and resources.
Tools means do I have all ofthe equipment that I need to do
my job?
That's number one Information.
Do I know everything to besuccessful or am I finding out
information last or am I beingblindsided with information?
(21:06):
That's the second piece.
The third piece is resources.
Is my team big enough?
Because you know, there'splenty of people who get the
burden of having to complete atask but don't have any help or
support enough people on theirteam, complete a task, but don't
have any help or support enoughpeople on their team.
So, as a leader, if you're notproviding the tools, information
and resources, you're nothelping people to be successful
(21:28):
and they are not going to trustyou if they feel like they're
being set up for failure becausethey don't have the tools,
information and the resources.
And then the last question isagain trust that's where you
started is is how do you buildtrust?
Well, here's the short answertrust that's where you started
is is how do you build trust?
Well, here's the short answerI'm cutting through the chase
(21:48):
now.
The cut through the chase isthis If you repeatedly show me
that you care about me, if yourepeatedly show me that you're
helping me to be successful,then I know you got my back and
therefore I'm going to trust you.
But if you don't ever show methat you care, because you don't
know me, and if you don't giveme the tools, information and
resources that I need to besuccessful, but your team is not
(22:08):
going to trust you.
That's just the bottom line.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Yes, yes, hopefully y'all are taking great notes.
I mean, he's dropping all kindsof cues, you'll get his website
and information at the end, buthe's giving out real
information that works.
So, anton, let's dial it to.
I'm that leader and I've made amistake and broke trust with
you.
What's your quickest methodthat you can help me figure out
how to rebuild trust once I'vebroken it?
Speaker 3 (22:29):
Yeah, when you asked me earlier am.
I working on a new book and I'mactually in the process of
writing my fourth book right now, and this fundamental question
that you ask about breakingtrust is at the center of that
book, and that is leaders manytimes inadvertently, will break
trust.
Leaders will make a mistake.
(22:49):
Leaders will fail.
An organization will breaktrust with its customers, its
consumers and constituents.
We know the failure will happenat some point in time.
So the first step that, if youreally want to turn it around,
the first thing you have torealize is that you did
something wrong and a lot oftimes a lot of leaders won't
(23:10):
admit that they've donesomething wrong, that they broke
trust.
I know a leader who literallybroke trust or did something
wrong with his team and herefused to acknowledge that it
was wrong.
So if you refused toacknowledge that it was wrong,
so if you don't acknowledge thatit's wrong and everybody else
knows it's wrong, then there'sno way that they're going to
(23:32):
trust because you can't even betruthful and authentic and
accountable to that somethingwent wrong.
That's the first step.
Second step is this you have toapologize for what you did
wrong.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
So you're telling me I'm a CEO, I got to come
apologize to you because Ididn't do something right.
Absolutely yes.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
Absolutely Like.
It's as simple as saying twowords, or really a hyphenated
word, and a second word I'msorry.
I mean, nobody ever died fromsaying I'm sorry.
Yes, nobody ever died, nobodyever got fired for saying I'm
sorry, yes.
Usually people say I'm sorryafter they've been fired because
(24:10):
they didn't say I'm sorry inthe first place.
Yes, so I really try to getleaders to understand you're
going to make mistakes and whenyou make a mistake, just say I'm
sorry, really, just say I'msorry, really, just say I'm
sorry.
And then the third part of itis is, once you say I'm sorry is
ask the people what can I do tomake this right?
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Yes, yes, I love it.
Three steps Own it, apologizeand ask what you can do to help
make it right.
But you're including them inthe process, because what I'm
hearing is don't just go off onyour own and just do what you
think may fix it.
Get feedback from the peoplethat's been offended by it.
I love it.
What advice do you give tothose leaders that are
enthusiastic?
They're excited, that are goodat what they do, but they're
(24:53):
getting in their own way, theydon't delegate and they don't
empower?
Speaker 3 (24:56):
Yeah, delegation is.
Delegation is a very importantskill that none of us really
learned growing up and actually,as you climb up the
(25:16):
professional ladder, the goal isto try to take on more tasks
for you, to show your worth andto show your value, to show what
you can contribute, to show thedexterity of your abilities.
Right, and if I was to use asports analogy, in our younger
years we learn how to play everyposition to be the point guard,
to be the shooting guard, to bethe small forward, the power
forward and the center.
We want to be able to showpeople that we can play all
kinds of positions and that, nomatter where it is, just give me
the ball, I'm going to put itin the hoop.
But that is a mistake.
(25:36):
The higher you go up in theleadership ranks because
successful teams are reallyaround understanding what your
strengths are and finding outthe strengths of the people on
your team and then giving themtools, tasks and the opportunity
to use their strengths towardssuccess in the organization.
Which means before you candelegate, you have to understand
(26:00):
what are the strengths on yourteam.
You know what are people'sstrong suits or their skill sets
in order to be able to do thework and then take a
self-assessment to know whatyou're really really good at.
And when you figure out whatyou're really really good at, or
what you're great at, so tospeak, that's actually the only
thing you should be doing.
(26:20):
You should not be trying to dowhat you're decent at or what
you're okay at.
Focus on what you're great atand delegate to your team the
things that they are great at,because that's how you're going
to get perfection in every roleand every task.
And this mentality of thinkingthat I have to control
everything or I have to be theone to do it I'm just telling
(26:42):
you there's not enough hours ina day, you don't have enough
time on the clock in order foryou to actually do all things,
rather than leaning into thestrengths of the people on your
team and then asking for helpthat's the other part of it is
that sometimes, if you strugglewith delegation, literally state
what you have to do hey, I haveto do A, b, c and D.
(27:03):
Is there anybody on the teamthat can help with any one of
these four?
And then somebody on your teamwill raise their hand and says,
hey, boss, I can do D or I'mgood at D and C, I can take
those off the plate and thatallows you to only focus on
those two things that are left Aand B.
So sometimes it really isaround understanding the
(27:26):
strengths of your team, leaninginto those strengths, helping
them to be successful at whatthey're great at by offering the
opportunity to allow them totake things off of your plate if
you don't have the wherewithalor the mental wherewithal to say
you know what.
You're better at this than I am, and that's the greatest.
Leaders are the ones who reallylearn how to delegate.
Like if I look back at some ofthe greatest football coaches,
(27:49):
I'm going to use Bobby Bowden asan example.
I really don't like FloridaState as a school, as a team,
but he's a great coach and hasbeen a great coach because he
built the model where you wouldsee him stand down at the end of
the sidelines when the game wasgoing on.
He had on his hat, he had hisarms folded, but he didn't have
on a headset.
(28:09):
You know why?
Because he delegated runningthe offense to an offensive
coordinator.
He delegated the defense to thedefensive coordinator, he
delegated the special teams tothe special team coordinator and
they called on him when it wasfourth down.
Should we go for it, coach, orshould we kick the field goal?
So he made those decisive callsper game, and sometimes it
(28:32):
might have been 10 or 12 calls,but a game normally has 85 to 90
plays on offense and defense.
So rather than him making 180calls, he narrowed it down to
only 10.
And that's why he's a nationalchampionship winning coach with
some of the best teams.
I mean that 93 Florida Stateteam, the 99 Florida State team,
(28:54):
were two of the best that everplayed a game.
One of them had a HeismanTrophy winner on it.
Maybe both of them did, if Iremember Chris Winkie and
Charlie Ward because the coachliterally got out of the way and
delegated the majority of theresponsibilities to the game
plan.
And that's what good leaders do.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
Yeah, I love it.
I mean, use the sports analogy.
You know, one of the things Ishare is you listen, always tell
people that we get a chance towork where you can't be coaching
player.
Pick which one you're going tobe and, as you're a player,
you're real young and you gotall the energy and all this
wisdom and you're a subjectmatter expert.
Once you become coach, youslower.
You're not expected to be thesubject matter expert when you
become the leader, can you speakto leaders that think they must
(29:32):
remain subject matter expertsand not lean into this being an
expert in leadership.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
Yeah.
So, man, you really got me, gotme on this one right here.
So I will tell this when youbecome a leader, there is
healthcare clinician, it doesn'tmatter what your expertise was.
The moment you become a leader,that expertise becomes
secondary to becoming an expertin understanding people.
Yes, see, the art of leadershipis really about understanding
(30:19):
people.
And what do I mean?
Understanding people?
What motivates them, whatinspires them, what makes them
angry, what makes themfrustrated?
Why do they show up to workevery day?
You need to become an expert inall of those things for every
person that you lead.
Because if I understand why aperson shows up every day for
(30:41):
work, if I understand theirmotivations, if I understand
what makes them angry, whatfrustrates them, what literally
puts them in a tailspin, if Iunderstand that, then I know how
to move more intelligently as aleader to get the absolute best
out of the people on my team.
And you can't get the absolutebest out of your team if you
(31:04):
don't understand people,particularly the individual
people on your team.
And that kind of goes back to myjust know your team cards.
This deck of cards is a tool tohelp you to really understand
what makes your people tick inyour organization, like I have a
question in this deck thatbasically says what's your
number one pet peeve?
Like we take it for grantedthat you know, we know people,
(31:29):
but have you really ever askedsomeone what their number one
pet peeve is?
And if they responded thattheir number one pet peeve is
people who don't delegateresponsibilities but yet you're
the leader who never delegates,then you just alerting yourself
that you're spending all yourtime doing the thing that really
(31:50):
upsets your team and, as aleader, why would you want to do
that?
Why would you try to do that?
You shouldn't do that.
So my context is is you can'tstay a subject matter expert
other than becoming a subjectmatter expert in people, which
will help you to become asubject matter expert in
leadership.
You have to know what makespeople tick and what puts them
(32:14):
in the best position to besuccessful, and that's your
product knowledge, that's yourexpertise is in the people.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
The question for you.
All this sounds like I'mworking for my people, they work
for me.
I mean, I'm the boss.
They show up, I paid them, Isigned in front of the check.
What do you tell a leader thathas that mindset Like I feel
like I'm doing all the work,like I'm working for them versus
them working for me?
Speaker 3 (32:45):
them versus them working for me.
Well, let's be honest, that isthe job.
The job of a leader is to knowthe people get the best out of
them, and that's your day-to-daywork.
You, I mean like?
Let me just be clear, I workedfor the president of the united
states of america.
So every day, the president ofthe United States has a
gazillion things that he has todo, a gazillion things, but the
(33:09):
thing that he does more thananything else is meet with his
people.
That he leads meeting.
Or when I say he, I worked forPresident Obama.
He had a 6 am meeting with asmall group of people it was
four.
Then he had a 7 am meeting thathad about 12 in it.
(33:29):
Then he had an 8 am meetingthat had 25 in it.
That's how he started everysingle day, meeting with his
people in a group, and then forthe rest of the day it was
smaller groups of meetings,sometimes they were one-on-one,
sometimes it was a group ofthree, sometimes a group of five
, and sometimes those smallgroups would take him to an
(33:49):
event and say here's what youneed to do in this event.
You're going to be here for 30minutes.
You're going to be here forfive minutes.
You may be here for the rest ofthe afternoon, but he got there
because he spends his day withthe people that he leads,
understanding what they want himto do, need him to do to help
them to be successful for thebroader organization.
(34:11):
And so, yeah, it might feel likeyou're working for your people,
but you are and you should be,because you are the leader.
They're looking to you forleadership and they're looking
for you to do the work that theycannot do and they don't have
the role and the responsibilityto understand everybody in the
organization.
They don't have theresponsibility to care about the
(34:34):
people that they lead.
They don't have theresponsibility in order to build
trust, lasting trust that isnever broken.
That's your job and that's thework.
So, as I said a few minutes ago, if you're not willing to do
the work of leadership, then youdon't deserve to lead, and not
everybody deserves a lead.
And just because you got thetitle, just because you got the
(34:56):
corner office, just because itlooks good on a business card or
look good on your LinkedInprofile and look good on your
resume, doesn't mean you'reearning your leadership, and
leadership is earned every day.
And it only takes a second tolose it.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
Yeah, I love it.
I love it.
I always tell people I think weget in trouble because the
organization has this pyramid,if you will, anton, and this
hierarchy, and I got what thatimage is and I think that we
need to flip that upside down,that you know 21 years of
military service, the lesson Ilearned when I became a leader.
That was a hard lesson.
I was feeling pretty good andfull of myself, like man.
I'd have worked hard, I'd havegot promoted, got my education,
(35:31):
I'm in charge, y'all work for meand my boss didn't know you
work for them.
They would report to you, butyou're going to spend the rest
of your time in leadership goingforward.
So when you think of it as aparent, most parents get it when
you ask them the real question,because I work my butt off for
my kids, like I go out here andI'm working, I'm doing hours,
I'm paying for all the bills,but my kids come back and tell
(35:51):
me their grades and I check inwith them.
You said something that'simportant.
I'm going to wrap this up withthe question around culture.
You said something earlier.
When you start thinking aboutleadership and taking care of
people and ensuring that theyknow that you have their back.
What's the greatest thing aleader can do when they take
over a team that's been broken,disheartened, not treated fairly
(36:13):
?
And now I'm the new leader,inheriting a team that's feeling
wounded.
How do I get started in thatposition to start taking care of
it?
Speaker 3 (36:20):
Yeah.
So very simply, I know lots ofleaders who are coming in to
pick up the pieces after thingshave gone wrong, and gone wrong
for a long time.
The first thing you can do islisten like really, really
listen, and understand whatpeople have experienced,
understand what they want to seein the organization, what they
(36:43):
want to see in their next leader.
You got to have a listening ear.
Building this habit in thisprocess of getting to know
people, because you're takingtime to listen to them, is the
most important thing you can do,because people want to be heard
.
A lot of times, people don'tever feel heard, particularly in
a circumstance where thingshave gone south.
They might've raised thingsbefore and they never got up to
(37:06):
any kind of leadership level.
You want to make sure that youcreate the space for people to
be heard, and so your job is tolisten.
I would say go on a listeningtour.
I have this framework that Iteach in some of my keynotes.
I also teach it in my workshops.
It's called the first 100 days,and in your first 100 days you
(37:28):
need to do 100 one-on-oneinterviews in the first 100 days
, and I get a lot of pushback.
People say, oh, that's crazyman, I don't have time to do 100
one-on-one interviews, and I'mgoing to say it again 100
one-on-one interviews.
And I'm going to say it againIf you can't take 30 minutes out
(37:48):
of an eight or 10 hour workdayto interview an employee in the
organization for 30 minutes tofind out who they are, why they
work there, what keeps themworking there and what
challenges they've experiencedand what they want to see
different in the organization,you don't deserve to lead.
If you don't have 30 minutes todo that Now I say the first 100
(38:09):
days you probably could dothree of those a day.
You can take 90 minutes 90minutes out of your eight or 10
hour workday to have threeconversations and do that every
week.
For the first three and a halfmonths you're in an organization
and if you do it, let me tellyou what's going to happen.
You're going to come out ofevery one of those meetings
knowing the culture and thecharacter of the people that you
(38:33):
work with.
Number two you're going to comeout understanding what they
love about the organization.
Number three you're going tocome out with your work plan for
the next nine months, becauseall of them are going to tell
you the things that they don'tlike.
They're going to tell youwhat's wrong.
They're going to tell youwhat's broken and your job
(38:54):
becomes to fix those things thatthey don't like, the things
that are broken, the things thatdon't work.
And that's the best way you canreestablish trust is because
people are going to take a waitand see attitude.
When a new leader comes in,they're going to say, yeah, well
, he talked to me or she talkedto me.
Yeah, I heard her and yeah, Itold her what was wrong.
But if six months goes by andthey don't see a single change
(39:18):
or a single improvement, they'regoing to check out and say, see
, she ain't no different thanthe last leader we had.
They ain't listening to asingle thing that we say.
So my context for any leader isto listen, understand what's
going well, what people love,why they stay there, what's not
working and the super milliondollar question.
(39:39):
This is my great question thatI tell leaders to ask If you
were me, what's one thing youwould change in this
organization?
Speaker 2 (39:47):
Yes, yes, I love it.
I love it.
Anton, I'm going to do a rapidfire with you.
Sure, we're getting ready tokick off 2025.
And people are going to listento this the first week of 2025.
So I'm going to rapid fire.
What's one thing that you'lltell leaders to make sure they
do?
To kick off 2025 to make itbetter than 2024?
.
Speaker 3 (40:05):
Focus on your culture .
Speaker 2 (40:08):
Yes, what's one thing you'd tell leaders not to do
that they may have done in 2024?
That's not going to be helpfulgoing forward.
Speaker 3 (40:16):
Don't cut out your diversity, equity and inclusion
programs.
Speaker 2 (40:20):
Awesome, yes, thank you.
Give me one thing I can do todelegate more.
I've struggled with it in 2024.
What's one thing I can do toturn it around immediately.
Speaker 3 (40:29):
One thing you can do to turn it around immediately is
to find a person on your teamthat you trust and ask them for
help.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
Yes, what's one thing I can do to empower my team so
I can stop doing so much stuff Ishouldn't be doing going
forward.
Speaker 3 (40:45):
The first thing you can do to empower your team is
to be transparent with themabout all of the work that's
ahead.
The more information they have,the more they know, the more
empowered they will feel to helpyou to execute what's ahead.
Speaker 2 (40:58):
How do I make my workplace more fun and I'm not
talking to get pool tables, pingpong tables how do I make it a
place of fun where we get stuffdone but we also have a good
time with it?
Speaker 3 (41:08):
The first way to make things fun at work is for you
to be vulnerable and transparentas a leader.
Tell people what your first carwas and what you named it.
Tell people the biggest mistakethat you made with your kids.
Tell people the biggest mistakethat you made the first time
you were in a manager position.
Transparency and authenticityand sharing with people will
(41:30):
allow people to share themselves, and that makes an organization
like-hearted and fun, becauseyou've shown them that you're a
human being and not a superpowerrobot.
Speaker 2 (41:39):
How do I make sure that I'm accessible and people
don't think I'm not reachable?
How do I make sure that I'maccessible and people don't
think?
Speaker 3 (41:43):
I'm not reachable.
Best thing you can do to makeyourself accessible is to set
intentional hours, not just onehour but multiple hours where
people can schedule on yourcalendar to come and meet with
you.
But you got to remind them thatthis time is for them to fill,
so don't just set it and thinkthat people are going to show up
(42:03):
.
You got to reach out to peopleand get them to fill it up and
actually encourage people tocome and meet with you.
Speaker 2 (42:08):
Awesome.
Do you think I should have amentor going into 2025 as a
leader?
Speaker 3 (42:13):
Absolutely Everybody needs mentorship.
There isn't a single personhere who can be successful on
their own, and you never willoutgrow the need of mentorship.
Speaker 2 (42:22):
Awesome Anton, phenomenal having you on the
show man.
I mean you dropped a lot ofknowledge.
If someone was listening andwatching this, what are the top
three things that would behappening in their organization?
To say, pick up the phone andgive your organization a call
that they can use your support.
Speaker 3 (42:34):
Yes, very simply.
So, number one if you'reconcerned about your culture and
retaining your top talent, Ishould be the first phone call
that you make.
I'm an expert in workplaceculture.
I'm an expert in leadershipdevelopment and talent
development in your organization, I should be your first call.
The second thing is if you wantto kick off your year with a
(42:55):
bang, if you really want to setthe tone and the intention for
your teams to be successful in2025, you should reach out to me
because I am a dynamic keynotespeaker.
Now, when I say dynamic, this ishow I explain what my keynote
is like.
My keynote is hip hop, smoothedout on a leadership tip, with a
(43:15):
corporate feel and a businessappeal.
So, if you're looking to launchyour team in 2025 in the right
way, reach out to me.
I love to be your openingspeaker for an internal event or
maybe even your annualconference.
You just feel free to reach out.
And the last reason why peoplewill need to call me and you
want some help around if you'reworried about how you're going
(43:37):
to be successful in thispost-election landscape, I have
a premium insight and analysisto help set business strategy on
how you can thrive in anysocial or economic, political
environment.
It is my area of expertise.
That is bar none in that space,and I can help any industry
(43:57):
find a pathway to success,regardless of what's happening
in Washington or even what'shappening in the world.
Speaker 2 (44:04):
Yes, yes, I mean, I love it, love it.
So, anton, what's the quickest,most effective way to reach out
to you?
Speaker 3 (44:09):
Quickest way.
You can definitely go toAntonGunncom.
I got a contact form on thepage.
You can go find all of theinformation you want to find
about me.
Secondly, if you want to callme, want to call me.
My number is 843-732-4866,843-732-4866 and that's
basically 843-732-GUN reach outto me.
Speaker 2 (44:36):
We'll get back to you , be happy to help you and your
organization.
My last final question, andit's gonna.
I know you're gonna be biased,but but who's gonna win the
college national championshipthis year?
Speaker 3 (44:43):
oh, man, man, I'm super biased.
He snob is who I am and what Iam, and I think I'm going with
the Texas Longhorns to win itall.
Speaker 2 (44:51):
The Texas Longhorns.
I know Ohio's looking prettygood, I don't know what.
Speaker 3 (44:54):
yeah, they're looking dangerous right now they look
dangerous, but they weredangerous because they was in
cold weather.
But when they got to play in awarm stadium and everybody got
blood pumping through their bodyand not frozen to death, it's
going to be a differentcircumstance, I believe.
Speaker 2 (45:09):
Awesome, awesome man, thank you.
Thank you Now, if you put atitle out for your next book, I
know you're working on it.
So is there anything you know?
Speaker 3 (45:14):
don't get in trouble with your team but do you have a
title already out there?
But I will tell you it's goingto help you to build a
world-class workplace.
That'll be a cornerstone of it.
Speaker 2 (45:27):
Yes, yes, anton, thank you, man, you've been
phenomenal for our guests.
That's listening, our viewers,our listeners.
That's following us all thetime.
You know we're going to well,hopefully, you'll enjoy this and
, as all of you are listening,we will tell you happy new year,
because we're going to releasethis for you the first week.
So if you're listening to this,you're already been celebrating
that.
You know, watch the ball drop,everything else that happened
and you are already into the newyear.
(45:48):
So we tell you please, feel freeto reach out to either one of
us.
We love what we do, we'refriends, we're colleagues, we do
the work together.
We care about what we do.
So you know, ron Harvey, withGlobal Core Strategies and
Consulting, you can always findus on LinkedIn.
It's the quickest and easiestway to find us.
I'd be happy to support you,answer questions.
So feel free to reach out to us, but, most importantly, please,
please, add value, make adifference and take care of
(46:11):
people that you're responsiblefor and responsible to.
That's what leaders do all thetime, and the reality is you do
work for them.
At the end of the day, theyreport to you, but you work for
them and they're expecting foryou to get it right.
So until next time, anton and Iwill sign off and tell you
Happy New Year and we're lookingforward to hearing from you in
2025 and hope we get to do sometype of partnership to help you
(46:31):
and your organization besuccessful.
Speaker 1 (46:33):
Well, we hope you enjoyed this edition of Unpacked
Podcast with leadershipconsultant Ron Harvey.
Remember to join us everyMonday as Ron unpacks sound
advice, providing real answersfor real leadership challenges.
Until next time, remember toadd value and make a difference
where you are, for the peopleyou serve, because people always
(46:57):
matter.
Welcome to Unpacked Podcast with your host
leadership consultant, ronHarvey of Global Core Strategies
and Consulting.
Ron's delighted to have youjoin us as he unpacks and shares
his leadership experience,designed to help you in your
leadership journey.
Ron believes that leadership isthe fundamental driver towards
making a difference.
(00:21):
So now to find out more of whatit means to unpack leadership,
here's your host, ron Harvey.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Good afternoon.
This is Ron Harvey, the VicePresident and Chief Operating
Officer for Global CoreStrategies and Consulting,
excited to be with you onceagain.
Of course, we know we own aleadership development firm
based out of Columbia, southCarolina.
If you're following us, youknow that's where we are.
But today I woke up wonderingif I was in Columbia, south
Carolina, or was I in Virginiasomewhere, because the weather
was absolutely insane.
It's not supposed to be 34degrees or 27 degrees where we
(00:51):
live at, but I'm excited to beable to do the work we do.
Our company spends all of ourtime helping leaders be better
connected to their workforce sothey can do the right thing and
take care of their team whiletaking care of their clients and
all these stakeholders, theirteam while taking care of their
clients and all thesestakeholders.
But today we do what we callUnpack with Ron Harvey.
I get to invite leaders fromaround the world talking about
all things that help leaders bebetter.
I'm super excited because notonly do I have a friend, a
(01:13):
colleague, I have someone thatsince Columbia, south Carolina,
that I followed as a good friend, that is very good at what he
does, and so I'm going to handhim the microphone.
Anton Gunn, you're well knownin your own space.
You do a lot of great things,but I'm going to hand you the
microphone because I don'tbelieve in messing up people's
intro, so I'm going to hand itto you and let you do it for us.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Well, good afternoon.
It's great to be with you, ron.
My name is Anton Gunn and Ihelp leaders in organizations
build diverse, high-performingteams in a world-class workplace
culture that you can easilyidentify, because those
organizations have two maincharacteristics Characteristic
number one is that they haveleaders that everybody admires
(01:54):
because of how they lead.
And number two, they're full ofteams and employees who never
want to quit because they feelvalued, they feel respected,
they feel included, they feelvisible but, most importantly,
they feel empowered to executeon their mission, which helps to
grow the margin.
And so I own a small boutiquemanagement consulting practice
(02:15):
in Columbia, south Carolina,where I work with everybody,
from boards to senior leadershipteams to frontline staff, to
help them to build the cultureand to become those leaders that
everybody admires.
Most organizations that I workwith it starts off with them
bringing me in to speak at theirannual leadership kickoff or
their annual meeting for theirteams.
(02:36):
I'm a dynamic keynote speakerthat when people leave my
presentations, they not onlyfeel empowered but they have
been impacted with informationthat allows them to go execute
immediately, to become the kindof leader that is admired, to
build a world-class culture.
I've worked with more than 15Fortune 500 corporations and
(02:56):
another 350 organizations reallyfocused on leadership and
culture in their organizationsand I'm excited about being with
you and very happy to have thisopportunity today.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Yeah, thank you, man.
I mean he's being humble.
So if y'all watching andlistening, he's being humble.
You know he does the phenomenalstuff, so I'm not going to put
him out there on Front Streetyet, but so let me unpack some
stuff on that time.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Let me just let me just go ahead and say it.
I'm a former senior advisor toPresident Barack Obama, worked
for the President of the UnitedStates for about three and a
half years, advising him onleadership and engagement
strategies as it relates to thePatient Protection and the
Affordable Care Act.
People call it the ACA, someother people call it Obamacare.
I am a bona fide health careexpert, but in order for us to
(03:47):
understand how that's tied in,is that I help a lot of
healthcare organizations.
I've worked with some renownedhealthcare organizations.
I've spoken at Mayo Clinic,I've spoken at Emory Healthcare,
I've spoken at HCA HealthcareCorporation all across the board
.
So healthcare is an area ofexpertise because those
organizations are full of peoplewho want to quit every day
because of how hard it issometimes doing the healthcare
(04:08):
work and we've seen the burnoutand the stress that a lot of
healthcare employees have.
But we also have a lot ofleaders that work in healthcare
who absolutely don't know how tolead Like they are great at
their skillset.
So you might be a great doctor,you might be a great nurse, I
might be a great clinician insome kind of way, shape or form,
but the things that help you tobe a great clinician can help
(04:30):
you to be a terrible leader, andso I have to unlearn a lot of
bad behaviors and teach peoplenew behaviors, and that all
started with my work working forthe president.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Yes, yes, I'm glad he unpacked that so I didn't have
to.
He does some great stuff.
He's a friend, anton.
You, I'm glad he unpacked thatso I didn't have to.
He does some great stuff.
He's a friend, anton.
You and I both are in theleadership space and we're
friends, we're colleagues.
We iron sharpens iron and forthose of you that are listening,
you know I don't do competitionunless you're playing football
or something.
You talk about my dolphins, youknow.
Then I got a problem with you,but I always tell people that
You're one of those people.
(05:00):
Yeah, I want to be able to walkthrough and unpack.
You're in leadership and you'rein Columbia, but you also have
a book that talks about some ofthe stuff you've done.
So, really quick, before wedive into it, I know you have a
book that you've written and acouple of them, and you don't
work.
What are you working on now?
Are you working on the book, orare you still promoting the one
that you currently have outthere?
Speaker 3 (05:19):
Yeah, so I'm a man of many things at the same time,
if you want to put it that way.
So, first and foremost, I'm athree-time author, so I have
three books.
My most recent book, the bookthat is out now, is called Just
Lead.
I want to share it with you.
The subtitle of that book is 44Actions to Break Down Barriers,
boost your Attention and Builda World-Class Culture, and the
(05:46):
reason why I call it 44 Actionsbecause this is unlike my other
two books.
My other two books were full ofnarratives.
They're full of frameworks.
They're full of all of thenitty gritty things that most
intellectual leaders look for inbooks what you look for as an
academic tool or resource tohelp you to move forward.
But this current book, justLead, is exactly what it sounds
(06:07):
like an action guide.
These are, step-by-step, 44different actions that you can
literally implement tomorrow,that you don't actually have to
wait until next month, andthey're so robust.
You can open up the page to 41and find an action step that you
can take right now that willhelp you to break down the
(06:28):
barriers between you and yourteams, and so when I use the
word breakdown barriers, I'mtalking about a subject that
people want to make it taboo.
They want to make it a negativeterm.
They use words like DEI andmake it a pejorative and make it
seem like it's something wrong.
But it really is aroundunderstanding the diverse makeup
(06:52):
of your team and valuing thediverse experiences and
backgrounds that people bring tothe table, because the more
diverse you are, the more you'reable to see things that other
people can't see, and so I talkabout how you can implement and
break down barriers betweenpeople on your teams.
I also talk about how you canboost your retention, because,
let's be real honest, if we'reunpacking it the way we need to
(07:13):
unpack it, more than 80 millionpeople over the last two years
have left the job to go worksomewhere else, and so
(07:38):
organizations and leaders arelosing their top talent to their
competitors.
They're going to other peopleto work for them because you
haven't built a culture wherethey want to stay.
So these actions will teach youthe things you need to, if you
will.
What it does?
It teaches you how to build aworld-class culture, because in
the book Ryan, I unpack the ninereasons why people quit a job.
There are really nine reasons,and most of us want to try to
boil it down and say people quitbecause of pay.
(07:59):
Yes, pay is one of the factors,but it's definitely not the most
important factor, because mostpeople don't quit organizations,
they don't quit jobs, they quitmanagers, bad managers, and so
if you understand what you'redoing or not doing that
encourages your people to leaveor encourages your people to
stay, the better you are as aleader.
(08:21):
And I put a buttonhole into thisand say that my book a leader
and I put a buttonhole into thisand say that my book Just Lead
is something that is soactionable.
I intentionally made it small,I intentionally made it short.
I intentionally cut out all ofthe fluff and all of the stories
and all of the theoreticalresearch.
There are some statistics inthere facts and statistics about
(08:41):
why people leave and the datapoints and how much this is
costing your business, becausewe love to think that turnover
or diversity or not building agreat culture doesn't impact us
financially, but it does, and wehave data on that.
So I spend my time helpingpeople to understand how to
solve those challenges, retainyour talent, earn more money and
(09:03):
be more successful.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Yes, yes, and you see why I brought you on.
So, anton, you think about youknow, one of the things that I
noticed in our organization,almost like a wildfire burning
right now, and that's theability to communicate
effectively, and it's oftenoverlooked.
What are you telling leadersabout the importance of their
communication style and thehabits they're creating around
communication?
Speaker 3 (09:24):
I literally just wrote a piece on this recently
on my blog and you can see thatat AntonGunncom slash blog.
The context of communication isreally important.
Leaders always want to feellike that they're sharing enough
information.
And I tell leaders transparencybreeds trust.
So whatever information youthink you're sharing with your
(09:46):
people, you're not sharingenough with them.
You got to share a whole lotmore.
And so my context is as aleader, you better be focused on
over-communicating rather thanunder-communicating, because
people only will retain a thirdof the information that you say.
So if you think youcommunicated once, then two
thirds of the people didn't getwhat you communicated once.
(10:09):
If you communicated twice, well, you might get to half of the
people in the group.
So if you communicated threetimes, then literally you might
be able to saturate everybody.
But we all know that threetimes is still probably not
enough.
And it's not just what youcommunicate, it is how, where
and when do you communicate.
So some leaders I rememberworking with a client
(10:31):
organization the CEO would sayall the time well, we
communicate what's going on here?
So our team knows what's goingon.
And I asked the question howare you communicating the
directors, the priorities of theorganization?
He says well, I spend timeevery week typing my email
newsletter and I send it out tothe entire team.
And I said do you really thinkthat everybody is reading an
(10:54):
email from you?
And he assumed, just because hewas a CEO, that every email
that he sent was the mostimportant email that any
employee in the organization wasgoing to read.
I quickly dispelled him of thatnotion and reminded him that
most employees want to hearinformation from their direct
supervisor and not from the CEO.
(11:15):
They want to communicate withthe CEO and read what the CEO
has to say.
But the person I report to isthe most important person to
give me information.
So I asked the CEO whatelevated information are you
giving to everybody in amanagement role?
And he said well, you know, Inever thought about that.
And I said well, you have tounderstand that.
Number one, everybody's notgoing to get it via email.
(11:37):
And number two, you need tomake sure your managers and
leaders are briefed, in the knowthat they can answer questions,
because the number one way tomake people quit or disconnect,
check out or even leave yourorganization is the following
it's for somebody to ask theirsupervisor tell me what's going
on in the organization and thatsupervisor says I find out last,
(12:00):
just like you find out last.
That's going to tear theculture of the organization
apart.
So I first and foremost say overcommunicate.
Number one don't just rely onemail.
Communicate in person andrecognize that you got to do it
multiple times before peoplereceive the message.
And then the last piece, if Iadded on this is it's not just
(12:23):
what you say, but it's how yousay it.
Your tone matters more thananything else, because people
can understand the words thatare coming out of your mouth.
So I could say good morning,that communicates something.
Or I could say good morning andthat communicates something
else, but I thoroughly couldalso say morning, and that
(12:44):
communicates something totallydifferent.
So your tone is really, reallyimportant on how you communicate
as a leader, and sometimespeople won't understand the tone
If you only send it via email,unless you're using all caps.
Then they understand that.
But you need to do morein-person communication If you
really want people to understandwhere you're trying to take the
(13:06):
organization and what you'redoing.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Yeah, so let's unpack that for a second in time.
I love that you're laying outstrategies and things that
people walk away with, that theycan do, but what do you say to
the leader that's busy, the CEOthat has 100,000 things to do,
that I got to get this messageout three times and I need them
to check the email and peoplewill make a policy reach email.
What do you tell the leaders?
I don't have time to say itthree times.
I need them to get it.
I need them to get it the firsttime.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
If you don't have time to communicate with your
people, then you don't deserveto lead.
That's what I would say to you,because everybody is busy.
Totally get it, totallyunderstand, totally got high
priorities and everything.
But if you're not willing tomake the investment of time for
your people to understand themost important things in the
(13:52):
organization, that is the vision, that's the values, that's the
goals, and if you don't havetime to repeat the vision, the
values and the goals, how canyou expect to keep people
focused on the main thing youcan to keep people focused on
the main thing.
Yes, you can't keep peoplefocused on the main thing if you
don't have time to communicatethe main thing and if you don't
(14:12):
create a culture in yourorganization where every leader
understands that I need to spendtime communicating the message
and making sure people have thevision, that they understand the
values, that they understandthe values, that they understand
the goals and they understandwhat they're going to be held
accountable for, then what areyou really doing?
I mean, you just go intomeetings rehashing things over
(14:34):
and over again, or you're offchasing something bigger, but
you don't have the team comingbehind you because they can't
keep up with the changing andthe shifting priorities, because
you don't constantly remindthem of the vision, the values,
the goals and the actions thatyou're expecting them to take
and that you're going to try tohold them accountable for.
I literally had a meetingrecently with a client and it
(14:57):
wasn't the senior leadership Iwas talking to.
I was talking to the employeesof the organization because, as
a part of my keynotes before Icome in to do a keynote with an
organization, I do a detailedpre-event process.
I ask them to give me the namesof five employees and I'm going
to interview them, ask themabout the culture, the
experience of the organization,so I can tailor my keynote
(15:18):
content to not only solve theirchallenges that they have, but
really speak to the concernsthat most of them are having.
So when I was with this clientorganization, I was talking to
this employee and the personsaid to me my biggest
frustration with this place,anton, is that we have a flavor
of the month priority.
One week is the year of ourpeople, the next week is all
(15:39):
about these patient satisfactionscores.
The next week is aboutsomething else.
The next week is about revenue.
He says I can't keep up.
I need to focus on one priorityin order to be able to make a
movement.
But as soon as I get started onit, we shifted to something else
and I said well, where doesthis come from?
And their answer was well, weget the updates from the CEO
(16:00):
about what the new priority is.
And so I had to have aconversation about listen, you
got to narrow, cast your focusin the organization to do the
things that are necessary foryour people to actually make
progress.
But every time you move theball, every time you move the
goalposts or change theyardstick, they're off chasing
something else, which means theyactually never have impact on
(16:21):
anything.
So it's critically importantthat leaders slow it down.
Less is actually more.
The less priorities means youcan make more impact on fewer
priorities, but sometimes it'svery hard for leaders to
understand how they have to dothat.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Yeah, it is very difficult, I mean because the
world is changing so fast andthings are moving 100 miles an
hour.
But I think, as you shared inthe end, time is, your people
don't need to feel the pain ofrunning 100 miles an hour all
the time.
No, that we're working withtrust shows up in every
(16:59):
conversation, or lack thereof.
How do you help a leader that'sin an organization, that's
running an organization, beginto build trust in an
organization is the firstquestion.
Then I'll caveat it with thesecond question how do, if I'm
coming in and I'm the personthat's going to lead, how do I
build trust?
You know, because you don'thave a year.
It used to be, I think, when Icame in position.
I would get about 90 days tomaybe 180, if I'm lucky to get
(17:22):
my stuff together, that's notreality for a CEO today.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
Yes, you only got to have it in 45 days.
Yeah, it's really difficultbecause trust is something that
is earned over time and not wonovernight.
But I actually do have aframework that every leader can
use to start to build trust andto lock their trust in to their
organization.
It's to answer threefundamental questions that every
(17:48):
employee is asking when theyshow up to work.
So when I say every employee,it doesn't matter what role they
play, how long they've workedthere, whether it's their first
day or whether it's their 25thyear.
Every day they show up, they'reasking their leader three
questions that they neververbalize.
You can actually pretend thatthey have these questions
(18:08):
tattooed on their chest, so theygot on a t-shirt that has these
three questions.
Question number one is do youcare about me?
Question number two is will youhelp me to be successful?
And question number three iscan I trust you?
And the reason why those threequestions are important is you
gotta understand that you haveto show people that you care
(18:31):
about them and you have tointentionally help people to be
successful at their jobs inorder for them to feel like that
they can trust you.
Because why would they evertrust you if you never once
showed them that you care aboutwhat they're going through as a
frontline team member or as asenior leader.
How can they ever trust you ifthey never feel like that you're
(18:55):
doing the things necessary tohelp them to be successful at
work?
And so let me unpack that whileI'm on it.
The first thing is is it's hardto show your employees that you
care about them if you don'tknow them, and this problem was
coming up over and over againwith a lot of organizations that
(19:15):
I was working with, and that'swhy it led me to develop a
product.
I actually have a team buildingin a leadership development
tool called Just Know your Team.
This is a deck of cards that isvery simply and easily a way
for a leader to use these cardsto get to know the people on
your team.
(19:35):
Now, when I say get to know,let me just break it down with
you, as a leader, you shouldknow not only the first name of
everybody in your team, but youshould know how to pronounce it
correctly, because one of theways you can show people that
you don't care about them is tointentionally mispronounce their
names, or even repeatedly,unintentionally, and you can't
(19:58):
pronounce my name as Anton.
You call me Antoine, antwain,antonio, anthony, then you're
showing me that you don't careabout me to get my name right,
if you don't know my spouse'sname, my wife's name, if you
don't know what my favoritecolor is, or whether I like and
(20:19):
drink coffee or not, if youdon't know the basics about who
I am as a human being to show upat work, if you don't know me,
then how are you really gonnashow me that you care about me?
Because if I don't believe thatyou care about me, why am I
gonna invest into you if youaren't invested into me?
Which leads to the secondquestion, which is help.
And when I say help, I want youto understand that I teach
leaders.
Your main responsibility is togive people the tools, the
(20:44):
information and the resources tobe successful at work Tools,
information and resources.
Tools means do I have all ofthe equipment that I need to do
my job?
That's number one Information.
Do I know everything to besuccessful or am I finding out
information last or am I beingblindsided with information?
(21:06):
That's the second piece.
The third piece is resources.
Is my team big enough?
Because you know, there'splenty of people who get the
burden of having to complete atask but don't have any help or
support enough people on theirteam, complete a task, but don't
have any help or support enoughpeople on their team.
So, as a leader, if you're notproviding the tools, information
and resources, you're nothelping people to be successful
(21:28):
and they are not going to trustyou if they feel like they're
being set up for failure becausethey don't have the tools,
information and the resources.
And then the last question isagain trust that's where you
started is is how do you buildtrust?
Well, here's the short answertrust that's where you started
is is how do you build trust?
Well, here's the short answerI'm cutting through the chase
(21:48):
now.
The cut through the chase isthis If you repeatedly show me
that you care about me, if yourepeatedly show me that you're
helping me to be successful,then I know you got my back and
therefore I'm going to trust you.
But if you don't ever show methat you care, because you don't
know me, and if you don't giveme the tools, information and
resources that I need to besuccessful, but your team is not
(22:08):
going to trust you.
That's just the bottom line.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Yes, yes, hopefully y'all are taking great notes.
I mean, he's dropping all kindsof cues, you'll get his website
and information at the end, buthe's giving out real
information that works.
So, anton, let's dial it to.
I'm that leader and I've made amistake and broke trust with
you.
What's your quickest methodthat you can help me figure out
how to rebuild trust once I'vebroken it?
Speaker 3 (22:29):
Yeah, when you asked me earlier am.
I working on a new book and I'mactually in the process of
writing my fourth book right now, and this fundamental question
that you ask about breakingtrust is at the center of that
book, and that is leaders manytimes inadvertently, will break
trust.
Leaders will make a mistake.
(22:49):
Leaders will fail.
An organization will breaktrust with its customers, its
consumers and constituents.
We know the failure will happenat some point in time.
So the first step that, if youreally want to turn it around,
the first thing you have torealize is that you did
something wrong and a lot oftimes a lot of leaders won't
(23:10):
admit that they've donesomething wrong, that they broke
trust.
I know a leader who literallybroke trust or did something
wrong with his team and herefused to acknowledge that it
was wrong.
So if you refused toacknowledge that it was wrong,
so if you don't acknowledge thatit's wrong and everybody else
knows it's wrong, then there'sno way that they're going to
(23:32):
trust because you can't even betruthful and authentic and
accountable to that somethingwent wrong.
That's the first step.
Second step is this you have toapologize for what you did
wrong.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
So you're telling me I'm a CEO, I got to come
apologize to you because Ididn't do something right.
Absolutely yes.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
Absolutely Like.
It's as simple as saying twowords, or really a hyphenated
word, and a second word I'msorry.
I mean, nobody ever died fromsaying I'm sorry.
Yes, nobody ever died, nobodyever got fired for saying I'm
sorry, yes.
Usually people say I'm sorryafter they've been fired because
(24:10):
they didn't say I'm sorry inthe first place.
Yes, so I really try to getleaders to understand you're
going to make mistakes and whenyou make a mistake, just say I'm
sorry, really, just say I'msorry, really, just say I'm
sorry.
And then the third part of itis is, once you say I'm sorry is
ask the people what can I do tomake this right?
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Yes, yes, I love it.
Three steps Own it, apologizeand ask what you can do to help
make it right.
But you're including them inthe process, because what I'm
hearing is don't just go off onyour own and just do what you
think may fix it.
Get feedback from the peoplethat's been offended by it.
I love it.
What advice do you give tothose leaders that are
enthusiastic?
They're excited, that are goodat what they do, but they're
(24:53):
getting in their own way, theydon't delegate and they don't
empower?
Speaker 3 (24:56):
Yeah, delegation is.
Delegation is a very importantskill that none of us really
learned growing up and actually,as you climb up the
(25:16):
professional ladder, the goal isto try to take on more tasks
for you, to show your worth andto show your value, to show what
you can contribute, to show thedexterity of your abilities.
Right, and if I was to use asports analogy, in our younger
years we learn how to play everyposition to be the point guard,
to be the shooting guard, to bethe small forward, the power
forward and the center.
We want to be able to showpeople that we can play all
kinds of positions and that, nomatter where it is, just give me
the ball, I'm going to put itin the hoop.
But that is a mistake.
(25:36):
The higher you go up in theleadership ranks because
successful teams are reallyaround understanding what your
strengths are and finding outthe strengths of the people on
your team and then giving themtools, tasks and the opportunity
to use their strengths towardssuccess in the organization.
Which means before you candelegate, you have to understand
(26:00):
what are the strengths on yourteam.
You know what are people'sstrong suits or their skill sets
in order to be able to do thework and then take a
self-assessment to know whatyou're really really good at.
And when you figure out whatyou're really really good at, or
what you're great at, so tospeak, that's actually the only
thing you should be doing.
(26:20):
You should not be trying to dowhat you're decent at or what
you're okay at.
Focus on what you're great atand delegate to your team the
things that they are great at,because that's how you're going
to get perfection in every roleand every task.
And this mentality of thinkingthat I have to control
everything or I have to be theone to do it I'm just telling
(26:42):
you there's not enough hours ina day, you don't have enough
time on the clock in order foryou to actually do all things,
rather than leaning into thestrengths of the people on your
team and then asking for helpthat's the other part of it is
that sometimes, if you strugglewith delegation, literally state
what you have to do hey, I haveto do A, b, c and D.
(27:03):
Is there anybody on the teamthat can help with any one of
these four?
And then somebody on your teamwill raise their hand and says,
hey, boss, I can do D or I'mgood at D and C, I can take
those off the plate and thatallows you to only focus on
those two things that are left Aand B.
So sometimes it really isaround understanding the
(27:26):
strengths of your team, leaninginto those strengths, helping
them to be successful at whatthey're great at by offering the
opportunity to allow them totake things off of your plate if
you don't have the wherewithalor the mental wherewithal to say
you know what.
You're better at this than I am, and that's the greatest.
Leaders are the ones who reallylearn how to delegate.
Like if I look back at some ofthe greatest football coaches,
(27:49):
I'm going to use Bobby Bowden asan example.
I really don't like FloridaState as a school, as a team,
but he's a great coach and hasbeen a great coach because he
built the model where you wouldsee him stand down at the end of
the sidelines when the game wasgoing on.
He had on his hat, he had hisarms folded, but he didn't have
on a headset.
(28:09):
You know why?
Because he delegated runningthe offense to an offensive
coordinator.
He delegated the defense to thedefensive coordinator, he
delegated the special teams tothe special team coordinator and
they called on him when it wasfourth down.
Should we go for it, coach, orshould we kick the field goal?
So he made those decisive callsper game, and sometimes it
(28:32):
might have been 10 or 12 calls,but a game normally has 85 to 90
plays on offense and defense.
So rather than him making 180calls, he narrowed it down to
only 10.
And that's why he's a nationalchampionship winning coach with
some of the best teams.
I mean that 93 Florida Stateteam, the 99 Florida State team,
(28:54):
were two of the best that everplayed a game.
One of them had a HeismanTrophy winner on it.
Maybe both of them did, if Iremember Chris Winkie and
Charlie Ward because the coachliterally got out of the way and
delegated the majority of theresponsibilities to the game
plan.
And that's what good leaders do.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
Yeah, I love it.
I mean, use the sports analogy.
You know, one of the things Ishare is you listen, always tell
people that we get a chance towork where you can't be coaching
player.
Pick which one you're going tobe and, as you're a player,
you're real young and you gotall the energy and all this
wisdom and you're a subjectmatter expert.
Once you become coach, youslower.
You're not expected to be thesubject matter expert when you
become the leader, can you speakto leaders that think they must
(29:32):
remain subject matter expertsand not lean into this being an
expert in leadership.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
Yeah.
So, man, you really got me, gotme on this one right here.
So I will tell this when youbecome a leader, there is
healthcare clinician, it doesn'tmatter what your expertise was.
The moment you become a leader,that expertise becomes
secondary to becoming an expertin understanding people.
Yes, see, the art of leadershipis really about understanding
(30:19):
people.
And what do I mean?
Understanding people?
What motivates them, whatinspires them, what makes them
angry, what makes themfrustrated?
Why do they show up to workevery day?
You need to become an expert inall of those things for every
person that you lead.
Because if I understand why aperson shows up every day for
(30:41):
work, if I understand theirmotivations, if I understand
what makes them angry, whatfrustrates them, what literally
puts them in a tailspin, if Iunderstand that, then I know how
to move more intelligently as aleader to get the absolute best
out of the people on my team.
And you can't get the absolutebest out of your team if you
(31:04):
don't understand people,particularly the individual
people on your team.
And that kind of goes back to myjust know your team cards.
This deck of cards is a tool tohelp you to really understand
what makes your people tick inyour organization, like I have a
question in this deck thatbasically says what's your
number one pet peeve?
Like we take it for grantedthat you know, we know people,
(31:29):
but have you really ever askedsomeone what their number one
pet peeve is?
And if they responded thattheir number one pet peeve is
people who don't delegateresponsibilities but yet you're
the leader who never delegates,then you just alerting yourself
that you're spending all yourtime doing the thing that really
(31:50):
upsets your team and, as aleader, why would you want to do
that?
Why would you try to do that?
You shouldn't do that.
So my context is is you can'tstay a subject matter expert
other than becoming a subjectmatter expert in people, which
will help you to become asubject matter expert in
leadership.
You have to know what makespeople tick and what puts them
(32:14):
in the best position to besuccessful, and that's your
product knowledge, that's yourexpertise is in the people.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
The question for you.
All this sounds like I'mworking for my people, they work
for me.
I mean, I'm the boss.
They show up, I paid them, Isigned in front of the check.
What do you tell a leader thathas that mindset Like I feel
like I'm doing all the work,like I'm working for them versus
them working for me?
Speaker 3 (32:45):
them versus them working for me.
Well, let's be honest, that isthe job.
The job of a leader is to knowthe people get the best out of
them, and that's your day-to-daywork.
You, I mean like?
Let me just be clear, I workedfor the president of the united
states of america.
So every day, the president ofthe United States has a
gazillion things that he has todo, a gazillion things, but the
(33:09):
thing that he does more thananything else is meet with his
people.
That he leads meeting.
Or when I say he, I worked forPresident Obama.
He had a 6 am meeting with asmall group of people it was
four.
Then he had a 7 am meeting thathad about 12 in it.
(33:29):
Then he had an 8 am meetingthat had 25 in it.
That's how he started everysingle day, meeting with his
people in a group, and then forthe rest of the day it was
smaller groups of meetings,sometimes they were one-on-one,
sometimes it was a group ofthree, sometimes a group of five
, and sometimes those smallgroups would take him to an
(33:49):
event and say here's what youneed to do in this event.
You're going to be here for 30minutes.
You're going to be here forfive minutes.
You may be here for the rest ofthe afternoon, but he got there
because he spends his day withthe people that he leads,
understanding what they want himto do, need him to do to help
them to be successful for thebroader organization.
(34:11):
And so, yeah, it might feel likeyou're working for your people,
but you are and you should be,because you are the leader.
They're looking to you forleadership and they're looking
for you to do the work that theycannot do and they don't have
the role and the responsibilityto understand everybody in the
organization.
They don't have theresponsibility to care about the
(34:34):
people that they lead.
They don't have theresponsibility in order to build
trust, lasting trust that isnever broken.
That's your job and that's thework.
So, as I said a few minutes ago, if you're not willing to do
the work of leadership, then youdon't deserve to lead, and not
everybody deserves a lead.
And just because you got thetitle, just because you got the
(34:56):
corner office, just because itlooks good on a business card or
look good on your LinkedInprofile and look good on your
resume, doesn't mean you'reearning your leadership, and
leadership is earned every day.
And it only takes a second tolose it.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
Yeah, I love it.
I love it.
I always tell people I think weget in trouble because the
organization has this pyramid,if you will, anton, and this
hierarchy, and I got what thatimage is and I think that we
need to flip that upside down,that you know 21 years of
military service, the lesson Ilearned when I became a leader.
That was a hard lesson.
I was feeling pretty good andfull of myself, like man.
I'd have worked hard, I'd havegot promoted, got my education,
(35:31):
I'm in charge, y'all work for meand my boss didn't know you
work for them.
They would report to you, butyou're going to spend the rest
of your time in leadership goingforward.
So when you think of it as aparent, most parents get it when
you ask them the real question,because I work my butt off for
my kids, like I go out here andI'm working, I'm doing hours,
I'm paying for all the bills,but my kids come back and tell
(35:51):
me their grades and I check inwith them.
You said something that'simportant.
I'm going to wrap this up withthe question around culture.
You said something earlier.
When you start thinking aboutleadership and taking care of
people and ensuring that theyknow that you have their back.
What's the greatest thing aleader can do when they take
over a team that's been broken,disheartened, not treated fairly
(36:13):
?
And now I'm the new leader,inheriting a team that's feeling
wounded.
How do I get started in thatposition to start taking care of
it?
Speaker 3 (36:20):
Yeah.
So very simply, I know lots ofleaders who are coming in to
pick up the pieces after thingshave gone wrong, and gone wrong
for a long time.
The first thing you can do islisten like really, really
listen, and understand whatpeople have experienced,
understand what they want to seein the organization, what they
(36:43):
want to see in their next leader.
You got to have a listening ear.
Building this habit in thisprocess of getting to know
people, because you're takingtime to listen to them, is the
most important thing you can do,because people want to be heard
.
A lot of times, people don'tever feel heard, particularly in
a circumstance where thingshave gone south.
They might've raised thingsbefore and they never got up to
(37:06):
any kind of leadership level.
You want to make sure that youcreate the space for people to
be heard, and so your job is tolisten.
I would say go on a listeningtour.
I have this framework that Iteach in some of my keynotes.
I also teach it in my workshops.
It's called the first 100 days,and in your first 100 days you
(37:28):
need to do 100 one-on-oneinterviews in the first 100 days
, and I get a lot of pushback.
People say, oh, that's crazyman, I don't have time to do 100
one-on-one interviews, and I'mgoing to say it again 100
one-on-one interviews.
And I'm going to say it againIf you can't take 30 minutes out
(37:48):
of an eight or 10 hour workdayto interview an employee in the
organization for 30 minutes tofind out who they are, why they
work there, what keeps themworking there and what
challenges they've experiencedand what they want to see
different in the organization,you don't deserve to lead.
If you don't have 30 minutes todo that Now I say the first 100
(38:09):
days you probably could dothree of those a day.
You can take 90 minutes 90minutes out of your eight or 10
hour workday to have threeconversations and do that every
week.
For the first three and a halfmonths you're in an organization
and if you do it, let me tellyou what's going to happen.
You're going to come out ofevery one of those meetings
knowing the culture and thecharacter of the people that you
(38:33):
work with.
Number two you're going to comeout understanding what they
love about the organization.
Number three you're going tocome out with your work plan for
the next nine months, becauseall of them are going to tell
you the things that they don'tlike.
They're going to tell youwhat's wrong.
They're going to tell youwhat's broken and your job
(38:54):
becomes to fix those things thatthey don't like, the things
that are broken, the things thatdon't work.
And that's the best way you canreestablish trust is because
people are going to take a waitand see attitude.
When a new leader comes in,they're going to say, yeah, well
, he talked to me or she talkedto me.
Yeah, I heard her and yeah, Itold her what was wrong.
But if six months goes by andthey don't see a single change
(39:18):
or a single improvement, they'regoing to check out and say, see
, she ain't no different thanthe last leader we had.
They ain't listening to asingle thing that we say.
So my context for any leader isto listen, understand what's
going well, what people love,why they stay there, what's not
working and the super milliondollar question.
(39:39):
This is my great question thatI tell leaders to ask If you
were me, what's one thing youwould change in this
organization?
Speaker 2 (39:47):
Yes, yes, I love it.
I love it.
Anton, I'm going to do a rapidfire with you.
Sure, we're getting ready tokick off 2025.
And people are going to listento this the first week of 2025.
So I'm going to rapid fire.
What's one thing that you'lltell leaders to make sure they
do?
To kick off 2025 to make itbetter than 2024?
.
Speaker 3 (40:05):
Focus on your culture .
Speaker 2 (40:08):
Yes, what's one thing you'd tell leaders not to do
that they may have done in 2024?
That's not going to be helpfulgoing forward.
Speaker 3 (40:16):
Don't cut out your diversity, equity and inclusion
programs.
Speaker 2 (40:20):
Awesome, yes, thank you.
Give me one thing I can do todelegate more.
I've struggled with it in 2024.
What's one thing I can do toturn it around immediately.
Speaker 3 (40:29):
One thing you can do to turn it around immediately is
to find a person on your teamthat you trust and ask them for
help.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
Yes, what's one thing I can do to empower my team so
I can stop doing so much stuff Ishouldn't be doing going
forward.
Speaker 3 (40:45):
The first thing you can do to empower your team is
to be transparent with themabout all of the work that's
ahead.
The more information they have,the more they know, the more
empowered they will feel to helpyou to execute what's ahead.
Speaker 2 (40:58):
How do I make my workplace more fun and I'm not
talking to get pool tables, pingpong tables how do I make it a
place of fun where we get stuffdone but we also have a good
time with it?
Speaker 3 (41:08):
The first way to make things fun at work is for you
to be vulnerable and transparentas a leader.
Tell people what your first carwas and what you named it.
Tell people the biggest mistakethat you made with your kids.
Tell people the biggest mistakethat you made the first time
you were in a manager position.
Transparency and authenticityand sharing with people will
(41:30):
allow people to share themselves, and that makes an organization
like-hearted and fun, becauseyou've shown them that you're a
human being and not a superpowerrobot.
Speaker 2 (41:39):
How do I make sure that I'm accessible and people
don't think I'm not reachable?
How do I make sure that I'maccessible and people don't
think?
Speaker 3 (41:43):
I'm not reachable.
Best thing you can do to makeyourself accessible is to set
intentional hours, not just onehour but multiple hours where
people can schedule on yourcalendar to come and meet with
you.
But you got to remind them thatthis time is for them to fill,
so don't just set it and thinkthat people are going to show up
(42:03):
.
You got to reach out to peopleand get them to fill it up and
actually encourage people tocome and meet with you.
Speaker 2 (42:08):
Awesome.
Do you think I should have amentor going into 2025 as a
leader?
Speaker 3 (42:13):
Absolutely Everybody needs mentorship.
There isn't a single personhere who can be successful on
their own, and you never willoutgrow the need of mentorship.
Speaker 2 (42:22):
Awesome Anton, phenomenal having you on the
show man.
I mean you dropped a lot ofknowledge.
If someone was listening andwatching this, what are the top
three things that would behappening in their organization?
To say, pick up the phone andgive your organization a call
that they can use your support.
Speaker 3 (42:34):
Yes, very simply.
So, number one if you'reconcerned about your culture and
retaining your top talent, Ishould be the first phone call
that you make.
I'm an expert in workplaceculture.
I'm an expert in leadershipdevelopment and talent
development in your organization, I should be your first call.
The second thing is if you wantto kick off your year with a
(42:55):
bang, if you really want to setthe tone and the intention for
your teams to be successful in2025, you should reach out to me
because I am a dynamic keynotespeaker.
Now, when I say dynamic, this ishow I explain what my keynote
is like.
My keynote is hip hop, smoothedout on a leadership tip, with a
(43:15):
corporate feel and a businessappeal.
So, if you're looking to launchyour team in 2025 in the right
way, reach out to me.
I love to be your openingspeaker for an internal event or
maybe even your annualconference.
You just feel free to reach out.
And the last reason why peoplewill need to call me and you
want some help around if you'reworried about how you're going
(43:37):
to be successful in thispost-election landscape, I have
a premium insight and analysisto help set business strategy on
how you can thrive in anysocial or economic, political
environment.
It is my area of expertise.
That is bar none in that space,and I can help any industry
(43:57):
find a pathway to success,regardless of what's happening
in Washington or even what'shappening in the world.
Speaker 2 (44:04):
Yes, yes, I mean, I love it, love it.
So, anton, what's the quickest,most effective way to reach out
to you?
Speaker 3 (44:09):
Quickest way.
You can definitely go toAntonGunncom.
I got a contact form on thepage.
You can go find all of theinformation you want to find
about me.
Secondly, if you want to callme, want to call me.
My number is 843-732-4866,843-732-4866 and that's
basically 843-732-GUN reach outto me.
Speaker 2 (44:36):
We'll get back to you , be happy to help you and your
organization.
My last final question, andit's gonna.
I know you're gonna be biased,but but who's gonna win the
college national championshipthis year?
Speaker 3 (44:43):
oh, man, man, I'm super biased.
He snob is who I am and what Iam, and I think I'm going with
the Texas Longhorns to win itall.
Speaker 2 (44:51):
The Texas Longhorns.
I know Ohio's looking prettygood, I don't know what.
Speaker 3 (44:54):
yeah, they're looking dangerous right now they look
dangerous, but they weredangerous because they was in
cold weather.
But when they got to play in awarm stadium and everybody got
blood pumping through their bodyand not frozen to death, it's
going to be a differentcircumstance, I believe.
Speaker 2 (45:09):
Awesome, awesome man, thank you.
Thank you Now, if you put atitle out for your next book, I
know you're working on it.
So is there anything you know?
Speaker 3 (45:14):
don't get in trouble with your team but do you have a
title already out there?
But I will tell you it's goingto help you to build a
world-class workplace.
That'll be a cornerstone of it.
Speaker 2 (45:27):
Yes, yes, anton, thank you, man, you've been
phenomenal for our guests.
That's listening, our viewers,our listeners.
That's following us all thetime.
You know we're going to well,hopefully, you'll enjoy this and
, as all of you are listening,we will tell you happy new year,
because we're going to releasethis for you the first week.
So if you're listening to this,you're already been celebrating
that.
You know, watch the ball drop,everything else that happened
and you are already into the newyear.
(45:48):
So we tell you please, feel freeto reach out to either one of
us.
We love what we do, we'refriends, we're colleagues, we do
the work together.
We care about what we do.
So you know, ron Harvey, withGlobal Core Strategies and
Consulting, you can always findus on LinkedIn.
It's the quickest and easiestway to find us.
I'd be happy to support you,answer questions.
So feel free to reach out to us, but, most importantly, please,
please, add value, make adifference and take care of
(46:11):
people that you're responsiblefor and responsible to.
That's what leaders do all thetime, and the reality is you do
work for them.
At the end of the day, theyreport to you, but you work for
them and they're expecting foryou to get it right.
So until next time, anton and Iwill sign off and tell you
Happy New Year and we're lookingforward to hearing from you in
2025 and hope we get to do sometype of partnership to help you
(46:31):
and your organization besuccessful.
Speaker 1 (46:33):
Well, we hope you enjoyed this edition of Unpacked
Podcast with leadershipconsultant Ron Harvey.
Remember to join us everyMonday as Ron unpacks sound
advice, providing real answersfor real leadership challenges.
Until next time, remember toadd value and make a difference
where you are, for the peopleyou serve, because people always
(46:57):
matter.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
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
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!