Do you have a smoker?

If you’re a barbecue enthusiast, you know the joy of uniting meat, fire, and steel.

And if you’re like the outdoor chefs in my world, you have a very strong opinion about why your smoker is the best one to have.

Personally, I’ve got a sentimental attachment to my Weber Smokey Mountain I’ve been using for over 25 years.

But if I ever buy a new one, I’m going to check out a brand I hadn’t heard of until last week.

Oddly enough, I discovered Chiasson Smoke through this LinkedIn post.

That led me to listen to Jason Chiasson’s conversation on The Fabricator podcast where I learned that Jason and Miranda have well over a million followers on social media.

I had no clue.

I don’t know if Jason and Miranda build the best smokers, but I love their story.

There’s a long list of things I have in common with them and what they’re doing:

A background in welding

Moving back to the family farm

Building a business doing what they love

Continually being faced with new challenges as their business grows

All of these are very familiar to me, as was the conversation about all that’s involved with a manufacturing business.

Jason talked about his learning curve with packaging and shipping. He didn’t realize just how much is involved with this part of the process.

I’ve learned those lessons the hard way too.

But what really stood out to me was Jason’s humility and transparency as he described how he’s growing as a business leader.

He admitted that he was holding the business back.

Like so many of the clients I get to support, Jason was the bottleneck.

As he was talking about his challenges, he identified his mindset and explained the difficulty he had with letting go of production work:

“I had a very hard time letting go … of the welding part of it or operating the … laser part of it because I was the one that was … doing everything.”

Like so many small business owners, all the work was still going through him.

Over time, he began to understand how that was a problem and took personal responsibility for addressing it.

I really appreciated how he held himself accountable.

Jason said, “I personally was holding Chiasson Smoke back.”

He acknowledges that part of the problem was wanting to continue to be the expert:

“I didn’t want the guy next to me to know more than me.”

He described some “friendly bickering” about the quality of a weld, then acknowledged how small that thinking was when he looked at the bigger picture.

“I’m worried about a single weld on a rocket stove, but yet I need to get 150 out.”

For him, the change came when he accepted that he needed to surround himself with stronger people:

“Okay. I need guys better than me.”

As those people joined their team, Jason noticed the pressure coming off his shoulders and, as he put it:

“This is worth it.”

Maybe you already have capable people on your team, but you’re still doing work they’re ready to own. You realize you might need to make a change in your mindset so your business can grow.

How did Jason change the way he thought about his role in the business?

He points to two things.

One is experience.

Jason and Miranda learned by doing.

They didn’t know what they didn’t know, but they took action and figured things out as they did the work.

The second factor that he said was important for mindset change was hiring a business coach.

He initially expected a coach to inspect the business and simply tell him what to do.

What he discovered was that the actual work was more personal:

“My mindset had to change so much. And he had to help me get out of that.”

Jason calls his old approach an “employee mentality.”

He described it like this:

“You’re never looking to the future. You’re always trying to just sell your time.”

He also said he valued the coach’s experience with other small businesses and having someone to discuss difficult decisions with:

“Sometimes it’s just having conversations with a guy that can have reasonable answers. So, I call him my business shrink.”

I’ve heard similar things from my coaching clients who tell me they feel like they’ve been in a good therapy session after we’ve talked.

And like my clients, Jason wanted a coach who understood what he was going through and could work within the practical realities of a manufacturing environment.

He didn’t just want theory. He wanted practical help.

And he appreciated one specific technique that helped him:

“The business coach would just ask you the right questions.”

I don’t know the business coach Jason and Miranda hired, but based on my personal experience I’m confident that he would consider this statement to be a huge compliment.

When my clients tell me, “You ask really good questions,” I’m encouraged and know I’m doing what they hired me to do.

So, if you’re like Jason and feel like you’re the bottleneck for your business, you might want to consider hiring a business coach who will ask you the questions that will help you be a better leader.

Let’s have a conversation to see if I might be a good fit to help you with that in your business.

Just reply and tell me you’re interested, and I’ll be in touch.

And if you’re in the market for a smoker, you might want to check out Chiasson Smoke.

They’ve got some pretty cool products on their website!

Helping you lead with kindness and confidence,

Greg

Burying Georgiana was not on my to-do list last Tuesday.

But that’s what Kiersten and I did because that’s what our business required from us.

Being a leader in a business, whether you’re the owner or an employee, is not easy.

You’ve had weeks that were harder than others, I’m sure.

And last week was a tough one for me.

Kiersten and I were unexpectedly faced with a situation we knew we’d have to deal with at some point in our Pemberley Woolworks business.

As livestock owners, it was inevitable. But that didn’t make it any easier.

Our experience was difficult, but it helped us develop as people and as leaders.

I learned some lessons I believe you can apply as you lead your people too.

You may be wondering who Georgiana is, and I owe you an introduction.

And that task that seems so simple demonstrates a leadership lesson you may find familiar:

Work relationships are complex

So who was Georgiana?

The answer isn’t as simple as it would first seem.

Georgie was a Valais Blacknose sheep.

You may remember from a previous article that we referred to her as the “queen bee of the flock.”

In our Pemberley Woolworks business, that meant she was a business asset.

Georgiana was a wool factory and sheep factory.

She produced wool and she produced lambs.

Georgie generated revenue for us.

But our business isn’t a traditional agricultural business.

In addition to selling wool-based products and lambs, we create content based on the experiences and stories of Pemberley Farm and the personalities of the animals.

So, unlike the flocks of hundreds of meat sheep you’ve seen grazing in pastures, all of the sheep in our wee flock have names.

And those names are intentionally and strategically based on characters in the classic books written by Jane Austen.

There’s a fascinating and powerful overlap in the worlds of literature, sheep, and fiber arts.

That’s a big part of why Kiersten has 1300+ subscribers who want to read what she writes about the goings on at Pemberley Farm.

Emotional connections are built through shared experiences.

This applies to connections between humans and between humans and animals, or business assets in this case.

The kind and compassionate responses to Kiersten’s email sharing the news of Georgiana’s death demonstrated this.

Like us, Kiersten’s readers had grown to love our pushy, nosy VBN team member.

Georgie was special to us.

Losing her left a hole at Pemberley Farm and a hole in our hearts.

We are experiencing pain and grief because of her death.

Those things are real and they have a real impact on us.

But sheep are not people.

And you lead people, not sheep.

So how can my experience help you?

Here are a couple of things that come to mind for me.

Acknowledge that your work relationships are complex too.

Some might say that Georgiana was “just an animal” and I shouldn’t have the feelings about her that I have.

That’s easy to say, but it’s not true.

I was attached to her. I liked her.

Even though she was just a sheep, she meant something to me in a way that’s not easy to explain.

That’s likely true for your work relationships too.

Based on my personal experience and my conversations with clients, things probably aren’t as cut and dried as they may appear from the outside.

For instance, I was in a room with the owner of a small business and his leadership team and I asked them to explain how they first met each other.

They gave me some odd looks, and then one of them said, “We’re all cousins. Well, most of us…”

The cousins had known each other their entire lives.

But a couple of them weren’t family members.

That’s not a simple work relationship.

It’s similar to businesses with owners who are married.

Or a father and his daughter who are partners.

Sometimes lifelong best friends start a business together.

The relationship dynamics can be intertwined and complex.

And that introduces real feelings and emotions that can be challenging and confusing, especially during times of loss.

I encourage you to remember this when you’re tempted to think that a situation should be more black and white than it is or that there’s one right approach to successfully navigate these tricky waters.

If only you were doing it the “right way,” things would be easy.

That’s not how it works.

Work relationships are almost always complex and a bit messy.

Leading yourself and your team isn’t simple.

So when it feels hard, it doesn’t mean you’re doing something wrong.

To make being a leader even more challenging, connections and interactions with and between people aren’t the only relationships you have to deal with.

It’s important to recognize that humans can feel attachment to non-human things too.

I don’t know what it is that creates the emotional connection we can have with non-human living things like sheep, but I know it’s real.

And I know that we can all become attached to non-living things too.

That piece of equipment you’ve relied on to do your job every day for the last ten years.

The software you have a love-hate relationship with.

The physical layout of your plant or office.

When those things change, you’re going to feel it.

When your favorite piece of equipment or software is replaced, you will experience a loss.

Upgrading your facilities may generate feelings of excitement and happiness because of the benefits you’ll get.

But you’ll likely miss the familiarity of what you were used to.

The same is true for the people you lead.

Change brings loss.

That’s not wrong. It’s natural.

Your people will feel seen and understood when you acknowledge this reality and speak directly to their loss associated with a change.

Even if the change involves non-human elements.

Georgiana wasn’t a human team member, but she was an important part of our Pemberley Woolworks business.

She’s gone now, so we’re adjusting and moving forward.

If you’re also dealing with changes and loss as a leader in your business and would like to have someone to compare notes with, let’s talk.

You’re welcome to schedule a complimentary coaching call with me using this link and I’ll do my best to support and encourage you.

 Helping you lead with kindness and confidence,

Greg

P.S. Are you ready to stop doing work your team is ready to own? This Friday I’m hosting a live coaching session where we’ll talk through real scenarios related to this question: Why Won’t My Team Take More Ownership?

It’s a chance for leaders to talk with each other and share their experiences and insights.

It’s one hour and it’s free. If you’d like to join us, just reply and I’ll add you to the Teams invitation.

P.P.S. I had a great conversation recently with Corey Harlock on his Scale from Here podcast. If you feel like every decision in your business still has to run through you, you’ll find this conversation helpful.

Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/youre-not-a-control-freak-you-just-never-learned/id1643962763?i=1000797240469

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToEHMtOIkvE

Garage sales can teach you a lot about business and leadership.

This is fresh on my mind since Kiersten and I spent most of our time and energy last week on what I hope is our last one ever.

Some garage sale lessons are right there on the surface and easily seen.

How to advertise.

How to negotiate.

How to set prices.

But I’ve been thinking about a deeper principle that is less obvious but foundational to all those more tactical topics.

I’ve been describing it with this question:

“What do we value?”

It’s been on my mind because we were reminding ourselves of it as we made countless decisions during the garage sale.

And the question applies not just to garage sales but also to creating and developing your team so your business can grow.

With respect to the garage sale, Kiersten and I had to continually think about our overall goal.

In the simplest of terms, we were trying to get rid of our stuff in the least amount of time.

We were valuing our space and our time.

If you’re a long-time reader, you know that earlier this year we moved back to my hometown into a house that’s just over 800 square feet. And we don’t have a garage.

 Storage space is limited. And, therefore, valuable.

We don’t have room for things we don’t need.

And we’re closing on our house in Wichita in a few weeks.

Time is also limited and valuable.

Remembering what we valued most helped guide us through decision after decision after decision last week.

Before the sale, we were asking ourselves things like:

“What price should we put on that queen-size bed that’s almost brand new?”

The answer at this point in our lives?

Whatever price makes it go away.

During the sale, we faced similar choices.

“Will you take a dollar for that thing you have priced at $8?”

The answer was, of course, “Yes. Yes, we will.”

This was not easy for me.

I have been described by some as a “bit of a pack rat” with a strong leaning toward being “a tightwad.”

There’s more than a little truth in those accusations.

I can easily dream of a future situation when I’ll need 8 crockpots and a dozen glass 9×13 casserole dishes at exactly the same time.

They’re in perfect condition, so why get rid of them?

And if we do have to sell them, they’re certainly worth more than THAT!

That’s the mindset I had to fight against.

But what kept me grounded and helped me keep making progress was knowing what we valued.

We valued our space and our time.

Keeping those kitchen tools might have provided us with convenience and utility in the future, but they cost us space now.

And trying to sell them for a few bucks more would have taken our precious time.

As would have packing them up and taking them to Goodwill.

Time and space.

We kept our focus on valuing those things in our decision-making process.

And based on our goal, our sale was pretty successful.

So how does that apply to building and developing a team?

Just like with our garage sale, knowing what you value is critical.

I was listening to an episode of Owned and Operated – A Plumbing, Electrical, and HVAC Business Growth Podcast hosted by John Wilson.

John was talking with Jim Lose of The Military Veteran about how to hire leaders to support growing businesses.

Jim told the story of a client who was a Marine and an exceptionally tough Ironman competitor.  This guy ran a business with a physically demanding work environment and wanted to hire someone who was just like him.

He wanted a hard charger with an infantry background who would push people to deliver and get things DONE.

A “butt kicker” as he described it.

That’s what the client valued.

And that’s what he got.

What he also got was a problem he didn’t anticipate.

Jim said the client called about three months after the hire and told him, “We’re a non-union shop, and now everybody wants to unionize.”

Jim described it as a costly hire and said the leader ultimately didn’t work out culturally.

I don’t have all the information, so I can’t say what the client learned from that experience.

But the story made me think about how clearly we define what we value in a leader.

We may say we want someone who pushes people to deliver results. But do we also make it clear that we want those people treated with dignity and respect?

A leader who cares for the people entrusted to them while helping them deliver exceptional results.

If that’s what we value, we need to be clear about it.

I recognize this in myself because, if you examine my behavior, you’ll see that I’m not always clear on what I value either.

And my actions don’t always align with what I say is most valuable to me.

During our garage sale, I said that I valued space and time.

But I know I kept things that I will spend time packing, moving, and unpacking. And will never use.

I’m sure I priced some items too high because I wanted to make a few more bucks.

And my actions caused a potential buyer to walk right by instead of paying me to get rid of what I no longer need.

During the sale, my actions weren’t always consistent with what I said I valued.

And this has been true throughout my career as I’ve led teams.

I said I valued their personal development but didn’t always spend enough time talking to them about how they might want to grow.

It was easier to stay focused on delivering the short-term results.

You may be thinking of similar situations you’ve been in with your people.

I encourage you to spend a couple of minutes comparing what you truly value with what you actually do as a leader.

If you say you believe in developing your people so your business can grow and you say that investing in your people is valuable to you, do your actions show that to be true?

You may find opportunities to get clearer about what you value and make adjustments.

If that’s the case, I want to encourage you. You’re not the only one with room to grow as a leader.

We’re all works in progress doing the best we can at the time.

I’m rooting for you.

Helping you lead with kindness and confidence,

Greg

P.S. If you’re in the Wichita area and would like to pay me to take away our remaining stuff, let me know. I’ve got a deal for you!

Someone dropped the ball. Again.

At least that’s how it looks to you.

But is that really the case?

It might be, but your initial read may not be completely accurate. And your first reaction may not be the best approach.

Mike Payne, owner of Hill Manufacturing & Fabrication in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma and host of the # Buy the Numbers podcast and I talked about this recently during our conversation on his show.

He described people on his team who will pick up every ball that’s dropped. He appreciates them, but he also sees the potential for burnout.

We also talked about how well-intentioned, highly motivated employees may be keeping a ball in the air that doesn’t need to be there.

I’ve been thinking about our discussion a lot since then and I came up with five ways a leader might interpret (or misinterpret) a situation that initially seems like a dropped ball situation.

1. The ball may be moving.

You may see little or no progress when, in reality, someone is working on it in a way you don’t see.

They’re gathering information. Talking with someone who understands the problem. Thinking through an approach before they commit the team to it.

You don’t see the activity you expected, so you assume nothing is happening.

But your perception of progress may not be fully informed.

As I wrote in “Does Leadership Count as Real Work?”, I tend to associate real work with immediate, tangible results.

The Working Genius model challenges that assumption. Asking good questions through Wonder and evaluating an approach through Discernment are work too.

Even when there’s nothing new to show you yet.

2. The ball may have been placed there intentionally.

Someone may have decided that, with everything else the team needs to accomplish, this project needs to wait.

They didn’t forget it.

They made an intentional decision.

And it may have been a good one.

Before you insist that they pick it up, find out why they put it down.

You may discover that they understand the priorities better than you realized. Or that you haven’t communicated those priorities as clearly as you thought.

Either way, there’s something to learn.

3. Picking it up yourself may not be best for the business.

I get it. Seeing something unfinished can drive you crazy.

You know how to fix it. You could have it taken care of before anyone else finishes discussing it.

But what happens to the work you should be doing while you’re taking care of this?

And what happens to the person who owns it?

You may interrupt their thinking or take away an opportunity for them to make a decision and follow through.

As I told Mike, someone may pick up the ball and run in the wrong direction. That’s not what your business needs. It’s activity, but it’s not progress toward your desired goals.

In some cases, the right person, given just a little more time, might bring you a much better answer than the quick idea someone else suggested.

That extra hour, or even another day, of mental processing may be highly valuable in the long run.

Sometimes your best act of leadership is to leave the ball lying on the floor.

Even when you really want to pick it up.

4. Calling your most reliable person may make things worse.

You know your guy or gal who will take care of it immediately.

They’re loyal. They respond when you ask for help. They’ll find a way to get it done.

But, as I’ve written before about overloading our most reliable people, their willingness to help doesn’t mean they have room for more work.

If you have a team member with the Working Genius pairing of Enablement and Tenacity, you need to be particularly careful.

Helping and finishing can be fulfilling work for them. That doesn’t mean they have unlimited capacity.

Before you call, ask yourself:

Does this need their attention now? What will they have to stop doing? Am I responding to a business need or to my own frustration?

5. Praising your firefighter may encourage the wrong work.

We appreciate the person who sees a problem and jumps in.

But did they check with the person responsible before they took over?

They may have restarted something that was intentionally paused. Or duplicated work already underway.

And the rescue may have pulled them away from work that would contribute far more to the business.

If we praise every visible rescue, what are we teaching our team about the work we value?

That takes us back to what we consider “real work.”

So what should you do?

Stay curious. Ask good questions with positive intent.

“What’s happening with this?”

“What led you to put this on hold?”

“What am I missing?”

Last week on LinkedIn, I shared something a former pastor used to tell me.

“Greg, you don’t have all the information.”

He was right.

Get more information before you command someone to fix the problem. Communicate in both directions. Explain your concern and listen to what they know.

Then take action at the right pace.

“Slow is smooth and smooth is fast.”

Or, as a former coworker used to tell me:

“Hurry but don’t rush.”

Agree on who owns the next step, when it needs to happen, and when someone should intervene.

You may need to pick up the ball immediately.

But first, I encourage you to find out whether that “dropped ball” was really dropped.

Helping you lead with kindness and confidence,

Greg

P.S. Unsure when to step in and when to let your team work through a problem? I invite you to schedule a Complimentary Clarity Coaching Session. I’d be glad to help you think through what’s happening and identify your next step.

My relaxing morning shower was quickly turning into a sprint to finish as the water became increasingly frigid.

So I knew what I was doing first thing that morning.

Replacing our hot water heater.

What I didn’t know at that point was what I would find myself doing every morning after that.

If you’ve spent any time in manufacturing, you’ll know exactly what I mean when you look at the picture below.

And even if you don’t have a manufacturing background, you can probably relate to the experience I had as I bought, unpacked, and installed my new hot water heater.

It was flashback after flashback all morning long.

For over 20 years I worked for a company that produced HVAC products. Air conditioners, furnaces, thermostats, that sort of thing. For residential and commercial buildings.

I got to be involved in almost every part of the process and I loved it.

What I enjoyed most was being involved in cross-functional teams. I started as a member of these teams when I was in Design Engineering and then had the privilege of leading these teams.

We did everything from small cost-reduction projects to major new platform designs.

Sometimes we were at the front end of the process gathering Voice of the Customer data or writing product specifications.

Sometimes we were at the end of the process dealing with an issue a technician or a homeowner was experiencing.

Whatever we were doing, we were working together as a team.

People were involved.

And that meant we had to communicate.

We had a lot of conflict. It wasn’t always healthy, but most of the time it was.

The conflict came because every person in the conversation had a different perspective. We had different goals.

The design engineer was trying to meet the often-conflicting targets for performance, efficiency, quality, cost, ergonomics, assembly, serviceability, and a myriad of other factors.

Manufacturing engineers were managing their tooling budget.

Procurement had their own goals related to suppliers.

Safety made sure everyone involved was cared for.

Sales needed to be able to sell what we built.

Marketing wanted it to look good.

And we all had the shared goal of meeting the project schedule.

Needless to say, working together as a team was challenging.

And, most of the time, it was a lot of fun.

A hot water heater isn’t exactly the same as an HVAC product, but they’ve got a lot in common.

Sheet metal, screws, paint, controls, stickers, installation instructions, packaging, etc.

And the ability to safely burn gas to produce heat without blowing up my house.

This amazing feat is something that I still appreciate.

Talk about something that’s not easy to do!

Some would say it’s only slightly harder than leading a cross-functional team.

Based on my experience, I agree.

So I was extremely impressed with my hot water heater replacement experience.

Because I know just how much effort was involved in getting this product designed, built, and delivered to the hardware store in my tiny hometown in southeast Kansas.

My appreciation started the minute I saw James pushing it on a dolly through the store to my truck parked out front.

The outside of the cardboard box was covered with stickers and printing.

I knew that every label, image, and word printed on the outside of the box had been designed, discussed, debated, and decided upon.

The instructions to the forklift operator were there for a reason.

The features that were highlighted were intentional.

And I’m sure the packaging itself had been through countless revisions to ensure the hot water heater had no damage when I opened it a few minutes later in my home.

That design also had to have the lowest material cost possible.

Don’t forget that it needed to be the exact right size to fully pack out the trailer it was shipped in.

While also being easy for workers on the line to quickly assemble without having any ergonomic problems from doing their job hundreds of times every shift.

I was already impressed and I hadn’t even left Main Street.

My admiration for the cross-functional team continued when I opened up the box.

“Read This First!” was the first thing I saw on a sticker on the foam protecting the hot water heater control module.

So, I did.

The instructions explained exactly how to light the pilot light.

How many phone calls did someone in Service have to get before they suggested this improvement?

Was this added material and labor cost quickly embraced by the full team or did it take months of analysis to prove the value?

I could go on and on about the things I noticed and was curious about because I’ve been in the room leading these types of conversations.

When you experience the benefits as an installer or a homeowner, you might not realize that what seems obvious wasn’t always so clear.

Every product feature that made its way to the final product required a group of individuals to work together.

A team of individuals representing different departments and aspects of the business had to engage in healthy conflict to make the best decision with the information they had.

They had to work together and communicate clearly.

Based on my experience in situations like these, the teams that trust each other the most communicate the best.

And the teams that trust each other the most and communicate the best deliver the best results.

If you want to build trust within your team so you can communicate better and deliver better results, I’d love to help you.

That’s what I do for my clients today.

I’m no longer leading cross-functional teams designing and building HVAC products, but it would be a privilege to apply what I learned doing that to help you solve the challenges you’re facing in your business.

And speaking of challenges, here’s what I told you I’m now struggling with every day.

As I said, if you have a manufacturing background, you’ll know exactly what I’m going through.

Scroll down to the picture of my hot water heater after I installed it in our bathroom.

Zoom in and take a close look at the screws that attach the top of the water heater to the side.

Look at the one in front.

Where I can’t not see it.

Right at eye level where it greets me every morning.

Can you see how it’s about an eighth of an inch lower than the other screws?

Do you have the same questions I do?

Was it designed this way? (I doubt it.)

How was the fixture designed and how could it be improved to maintain alignment?

Why can’t I just forget about this because I know it doesn’t affect the functionality or integrity of the unit?

Who on the manufacturer’s cross-functional team has also noticed this and is reminding themselves that this minor alignment issue isn’t a big deal?

I’m thankful for the insights I’ve gained from a couple of decades of experience in cross-functional teams in manufacturing, but there are times when I wish I could just not think about things like this…

Helping you lead with kindness and confidence,

Greg

P.S. The next ​Leadership Clarity Accelerator​ cohort begins this Thursday, October 8! As I write this, I have one spot open. By the time you read this, I expect it will be sold out like the one in August. It’s a small group where I facilitate conversations to help leaders like you stop doing work their team is ready to own. It’s all about reclaiming your time and developing your people (including you!). If you’d like to join or send someone from your team, reach out in case there’s still room. If there’s not, I’d be happy to get you or your teammate on the waiting list for the next one in 2027.

Here’s ​what Josh Engelbrecht shared on LinkedIn​ about his experience in LCA. Trayco Ross also ​shared this post​ about what he appreciated about being in LCA.

A leader in my Leadership Clarity Accelerator recently told me her team had done Working Genius a couple of years ago.

They learned their Working Geniuses and their Working Frustrations. They spent hours reviewing what the results meant. They got a presentation on the basics of the model.

Then, as she put it, the message was essentially, “Okay, good luck.”

You may know that feeling.

I know I’ve had similar experiences throughout my career.

You and your team are given a useful assessment or framework. People recognize themselves in the results. The conversation is interesting. Then everyone goes back to their jobs, and work looks pretty much the same.

Nothing really changes.

That’s happened to me more times than I can remember.

So what this leader in our LCA cohort said next has really stuck with me.

She explained to our group that talking through how Working Genius shows up in their day-to-day work had been more valuable to her than the hours spent learning the model. She told us it was finally “clicking now.”

That’s what an intentional, facilitated conversation can do.

An assessment gives people language. A team map helps them see patterns. But a facilitated conversation gives them room to ask things like,

What does this explain on our team?

Where is this happening in our business?

What could we try doing differently this week?

Discussing questions like these can bring about real change.

When a group of leaders is fully focused and engaged in a discussion, they spark thoughts for each other and they challenge one another.

They don’t feel rushed to get to a solution immediately or to have the exact right answer.

Good questions often lead to better questions.

And those questions lead to insightful discoveries and meaningful actions.

Bad meetings can become productive and effective.

Tasks can be strategically reassigned to new owners who are a better fit for the work.

Managers can provide better support for someone on their team whose work has become draining.

You can do this with Working Genius or any other framework your team uses. Here are three ways to help the learning stick:

1. Start with real work. Bring a current project, a recurring meeting, or a task that keeps landing on the same person. Ask the team what the framework helps them notice about it. An actual situation gives everyone something to work through together. And it allows the team to focus on the tasks, not the individuals, so people are less likely to get defensive.

2. Make room for different experiences. Ask each person where the work gives them energy and where it takes energy away. Listen without treating anyone’s answer as a problem to fix. People are more likely to speak honestly when they feel understood and respected.

3. Try one change, then talk about what happened. Adjust one responsibility, change who participates in one part of a project, or run one meeting differently. Come back to it the following week. What improved? What still feels difficult? What did you learn about each other?

The goal isn’t for everyone to become a technical expert on every minute detail about the framework or the model. It’s for the team to understand one another well enough to communicate more clearly and get better work done together.

Because the ultimate goal of using any framework or model is the same as for your business: to deliver results.

I’m going to add one more recommendation to these three tips.

Have someone outside of your team facilitate your discussions.

Of course, you can do this yourself or have someone on your team do it.

If you’re using the Working Genius model, you may even have a Certified Working Genius Facilitator on your team or you may be certified yourself.

So why shouldn’t one of you be the facilitator?

There are several reasons, but these are the ones I’ve seen cause the biggest problems.

1. Someone on the team has a stake in the conversation. That doesn’t mean they can’t lead it well. But it can be hard to ask questions without bringing your own assumptions, frustrations, or preferred solutions into the discussion. An outside facilitator can notice patterns and ask questions that someone inside the team might miss.
2. Facilitating is a job of its own. Someone needs to watch the time, invite quieter people into the conversation, and keep any one person from dominating it. If you’re doing all that, you can’t give your full attention to what you’re learning about your team.
3. People respond differently when their leader holds the agenda. Even when you genuinely want honest input, team members may hesitate to challenge an idea or say something they think you won’t want to hear. When someone else facilitates, you can put down the agenda, listen, and participate in the discussion. That can make it easier for others to share their perspectives, too.

That may sound like a big sales pitch for you to hire me to do a Working Genius session with your team. So you can say not only that you’ve done Working Genius but that you’ve done something with it in your business.

And I suppose in some ways it is.

That’s what I do in the Leadership Clarity Accelerator sessions. And I’ll do the same thing for you and your team when you have me do a Leadership Team Clarity Intensive session.

But the facilitator doesn’t have to be me. It can be someone from a different department within your company. Or a person you know from another business.

You’ve got options for finding a facilitator to guide your conversations to produce the results you’re looking for.

Whether you’re using the Working Genius framework or something else, don’t let it simply be head knowledge.

Find a way to make it click with your team.

That takes more than looking at a report. It takes an intentional conversation with a facilitator who can make sure it sticks.

If you’d like me to help you in this way, reply and let me know. I’d consider it a privilege to serve you and your team.

Helping you lead with kindness and confidence,

Greg

P.S. The next Leadership Clarity Accelerator cohort begins October 8. It’s a small group where I facilitate conversations to help leaders like you stop doing work their team is ready to own. It’s all about reclaiming your time and developing your people (including you!). I’ve only got a few spots left at this point, so let me know this week if you’re interested.

Here’s what Josh Engelbrecht shared on LinkedIn about his experience in LCA.

P.P.S. I had the privilege of being on The New Flat Rate podcast with Danielle Putnam and Natalie Koop and our conversation recently went live. If you’re in the HVAC industry, you likely know Danielle. If you don’t, connect with her on LinkedIn here and tell her I sent you.

You can watch our conversation on YouTube here.

The Leadership Blind Spot That Keeps Great Teams Stuck with Greg Harrod

If you prefer, you can listen to the whole episode here.

I’m sure you know how this phrase ends.

“Don’t bring me problems…”

You’ve heard it more times than you can remember and may even say it to your own team members.

“Don’t bring me problems. Bring me solutions.”

This is a great message for your people to hear.

But there’s a subtle danger that can bite you if you lean into it too hard.

That’s what several highly experienced, thoughtful leaders and I realized as we dug into this during our live working session on Friday.

If you’ve joined us on one of these calls, you know that we always start with a specific topic and use real-life scenarios we’re dealing with in our businesses to guide our conversations.

We always go deep as we explore the nuances that we often miss when we’re thinking through a challenge by ourselves.

That’s what happened again Friday.

We started with the topic What Should I Stop Doing for My Team?

My friend and former co-worker, Scott Dunaway, agreed to be in the spotlight to share his experience in this area.

Before I go on, I encourage you to click here and connect with Scott on LinkedIn so you can get to know him and start learning from each other. He’s an outstanding leader, Certified Working Genius Facilitator, US Marine, and a humble guy who wants to keep improving.

That was evident as Scott explained what he had learned about himself recently. Here’s how he put it.

“As I transitioned out of individual contributor and back into being a supervisor, I’ve been working on not falling into the trap of being a ‘rescuer.’ I am the leader in this scenario that needs to stop doing work so that my people can grow!”

Applying our shared belief that “the best leaders are the most self-aware leaders,” Scott recognized the rough edges of his Working Geniuses (Discernment and Tenacity) and used that knowledge to lead his team in a way that helped them to do more work on their own without being overly dependent on him.

We looked at his Working Genius profile and a team map and that’s what led us to start discussing the phrase “Don’t bring me problems. Bring me solutions.”

For some people you lead, the challenge of that phrase will bring out the best in them.

Once you say it to them, they’ll never again come to you with a problem unless they have multiple solutions ready for you to consider.

They’re going to show you that they’ve thought through it and aren’t just expecting you to solve every struggle for them.

You’ve trained them to know that when they bring you a problem, you’re going to ask them something like, “What do you think we should do about it?”

So they’ve got a long list of ideas that they naturally came up with and they’re ready to impress you by demonstrating their natural ability to innovate (likely because they have the Working Genius of Invention).

That’s the positive side of having a reputation as a leader who doesn’t want to hear a problem unless it’s presented with possible solutions.

But do you see the downside?

Here are some perspectives from the leaders on Friday’s call to help you see what too many leaders miss.

What if you have a person on your team who’s gifted at spotting problems long before anyone else but they’re not so good at coming up with ideas by themselves?

This might mean they have the Working Genius Pairing of Wonder and Discernment and one of their Working Frustrations might be Invention.

They’re amazing at working with another person to evaluate and analyze potential solutions but they’re downright awful when it comes to quickly generating ideas to address the important problems they discover.

And, on top of that, they’re a slow processor so they need time to evaluate and consider solutions before they’re comfortable recommending them. Some might even consider them to be “wishy-washy.”

How do you maximize their contribution to the team?

Is it by expecting them to do what they’re not naturally wired to do?

Like quickly providing a viable solution to every problem they see.

How does only putting the spotlight on the other team members who bring problems and solutions impact them?

Does it bring out all they have to offer and allow them to recognize that they too contribute to the overall performance of the team and the business?

We all know you can’t fix a problem until you are aware of it. It’s a two-step process.

But too often we only reward and recognize team members who are built to do the second stage, fixing.

We tend to undervalue the skill of recognizing problems before they’re blatantly obvious.

Might this pattern unintentionally cause our team members who add the most value during this first stage to feel like they’re not all that important to the team?

Worse yet, could you unknowingly be replaying an all-too-familiar soundtrack in their mind that reminds them of the words they’ve heard all their lives?

“You’re too critical.”

“You’re such a downer.”

“You never have any good ideas to share.”

“You’re just trying to shoot holes in all our good ideas.”

“Why can’t you be like your big sister and come up with a solution?”

With this history, they feel like the way their mind works isn’t a blessing. It’s a curse.

When they’ve got that message echoing in their head all day and feel the additional pressure to not come to you with an issue unless they can give you a resolution, there’s no way they’re going to contribute to their fullest potential.

Thankfully, our small group of leaders recognized this danger we could have missed as leaders working independently.

And we shared our insights and perspectives.

We talked about the negative results that come when our team members hesitate to tell us about a problem immediately.

Early awareness of issues is something every leader wants and needs.

You want to know if there’s a threat to your business as early as possible. Even if no one has any ideas on how to mitigate that risk yet.

We had a lot of folks from manufacturing on the call Friday so our minds naturally went to the shop floor.

We shared examples in which we would never expect team members to stay quiet about a problem until they could bring a solution.

Do you want your employee to tell you about a safety issue immediately?

Do you want them to let their coworker’s life remain in danger until they can present a viable solution?

Do you want the person on the production line to keep building hundreds of units that will have to be reworked because of the quality problem they notice but don’t know how to fix?

Of course you don’t.

You know that there are situations in which the advice to not bring you a problem unless you have a solution doesn’t make sense.

And there are times when it does.

You know that.

The key is having enough self-awareness as a leader to recognize the power of the words, and being thoughtful and intentional with what you say so you’re not misunderstood and cause unintended negative consequences.

When you understand how you can help every person on your team contribute the most, even those who are wired differently than you are, you can adjust how you show up and communicate.

This makes you a better leader for the people under your care.

Just like Scott is doing.

When your self-awareness and your awareness of others grow, so does your effectiveness as a leader. Your people will develop and your business will grow.

Those of us who were on the call Friday experienced this personal growth as we challenged and encouraged each other.

These discussions all start with one topic to get our thoughts flowing.

I’m making plans for our next live working session and I’d like your help if you’re willing.

Which of these topics would you find most valuable?

• Why Isn’t Delegation Working on My Team?
• How Do I know Who’s Ready for More Responsibility?
• How Do I Hold People Accountable Without Micromanaging?
• How Can I Use Working Genius to Make My Team More Effective?

Or if you have an idea that’s not on the list, I’d love to hear it too.

If there’s a problem you’ve identified and are working through, you’re welcome to share it with me by replying to this email. I read every one.

And don’t feel any pressure to bring me a solution along with your problem.

Problem solving involves two steps.

And the first is just as valuable as the second.

Helping you lead with kindness and confidence,

Greg

P.S. I still have a few spots open for the Leadership Clarity Accelerator program that starts October 8.

It’s for leaders who:

• Work as a part of a team
• Have a formal or informal leadership role (with or without direct reports)
• Want to stop doing work their team is ready to own so they can reclaim their time

Would this help you or someone you know?

If you think it might, grab some time on my calendar so we can talk more about it.

​https://gregharrod.com/schedule​

Here’s what Trayco Ross shared on LinkedIn about his experience in LCA.

If he hadn’t passed away a year ago today, I would have thought it was my dad who said these words to me recently.

“I have a high tolerance for pain and I will work through anything. And I can go for really long periods of time without getting burnt out. I feel it, but I don’t let it affect me. I don’t let it hold me back.”

But it wasn’t my dad I was talking with. It was a CEO and good friend of mine who hired me to do a Working Genius session with him and his COO, who followed with a similar comment.

“We have an entire team who’s like that, so he’s not alone. I’d raise my hand and say the same thing.”

These two guys weren’t boasting. They were simply explaining how they’d been trained.

Both C-suite leaders had previous careers in the military.

And, not surprisingly, they both shared the Working Genius of Tenacity.

People with the Genius of Tenacity are task-oriented and love to take things across the finish line. They don’t stop until all the boxes are checked and the job is done.

This is how both these leaders were wired and their training reinforced their natural tendencies.

My dad didn’t take the Working Genius assessment before he passed so I’ll never know his Working Genius pairing.

But, based on what I know of my dad and what everyone who talks about him says, he was one of, if not the, hardest working men they ever knew.

So, I naturally thought of him when I heard these two guys talk about their grit and determination.

I offered my perspective that what is true of those in the military is often true of business owners.

When you’re the only person in your business, you’ve got to do everything. You don’t bother asking who’s the right person for a specific task or how to “put the right people in the right seats on the bus.”

When you’re the only person on the bus, the question is irrelevant!

You do what needs to be done. And you do it with tenacity to survive. Much like those who serve our country must do when they have no other choice.

My dad wasn’t in the military, but he was the only employee in his business for quite a while.

And, without fail, he did whatever had to be done.

I admired and respected him for that, and my work ethic was shaped by his example.

But he taught me another lesson in his final days.

That’s what caused me to say this to my clients.

“That works until it doesn’t.”

I explained that the idea that leaders and their teams should see what needs to be done and just go do it is okay in the short term. But it’s not sustainable in the long term.

Because you can take this approach.

Until you can’t.

The words of a country song by that title were fuzzy in mind during this conversation, but the message of the lyrics was crystal clear.

We’re all finite.

The tasks we can do with ease in our youth will someday be challenging or even impossible with our aging bodies.

The clear mental processing that comes naturally for so much of our lives will at best be replaced by slower thinking. And, at worst, by confusion and disconnect from the reality of the world around us.

My dad was an outlier in many ways.

When doctors were asking about his mobility at age 81 using questions about being able to walk across the living room, I would explain to them that his struggles were not in the house.

They were in his business when he was still climbing out of his truck, onto the trailer, and into his backhoe.

He was tenacious and tough and just kept going.

Until he couldn’t.

The time came for him, like it will for all of us, when our minds and our bodies will not be capable of doing all we want to do.

Even those who are wired with Tenacity and have developed the mental and physical toughness to persevere through the most challenging circumstances have limits.

We all do.

Even my dad.

And that didn’t mean he was weak or that he was a quitter.

It meant he was human.

He was an incredible man, a wonderful dad, an outstanding husband, and one of the hardest working business owners I’ve ever known.

His days of being able to do whatever needed to be done came to an end last year.

I don’t know when, but mine will too.

And so will yours.

This week I won’t add any leadership insights or make suggestions on how you might consider applying what I’ve shared about my conversation with these two leaders and about my dad.

I won’t recommend that you consider how you’re investing your limited time, energy, and strength and make any corrections based on what you value.

I’ll leave that for you to decide.

You can do that on own.

Until you can’t.

Helping you lead with kindness and confidence,

Greg

P.S. I had the privilege of recording a podcast episode with my dad several years back. If you’re interested, you can listen to it here.

P.P.S. This Friday I’m hosting another live small-group working session focused on the topic, What Should I Stop Doing for My Team. We’ll use real situations from participants to think through the work leaders may need to stop doing so their people have room to take on more responsibility.If you’d like me to be in this invite-only event, just reply to this email and I’ll get you added.

Last week I wrote about how growing up in a blue-collar family shaped my view of “real work.”

I learned to associate work with tangible results.

When you fix or build something, you can point to what you accomplished.

That work ethic helped me build my career.

But it also made it easy for me to undervalue leadership work that doesn’t produce an immediate, visible result.

If you missed last week’s newsletter, you can read it here: Does Leadership Count as Real Work? – Greg Harrod

I promised there was another side to this issue.

And I had that in mind as I was talking with Danielle Putnam, CEO of The New Flat Rate.

A couple of weeks ago a few of the leaders in my Leadership Clarity Accelerator cohort and I were talking about how we grew up.

Their perspectives were fascinating to me and I think you’ll find what they had to say interesting too.

We discovered that the very thing that helped us build our successful careers could very well be holding us back as leaders.

I suspect you’re going to want to put some thought into this too.

Here’s how the conversation went.

It started with a statement that went something like this:

“I’m used to being a doer. But as I advance in my career, I realize I need to do less and lead more.”

Pause and think about that statement for a minute because there are a lot of different ways to look at it and I don’t want you to be overly influenced by our views.

Here are a few questions to prompt your thinking:

• Does that sound like something you would say?
• Have you built your business and your career by doing?
• Do you feel like your current position requires you to lead more than do?

If you answered yes to any of those questions, you would have fit right in.

You know how to work hard because that’s how you were raised.

And your hard work got you to where you are today.

That was the case for every one of us in our small group.

All of us also grew up in blue-collar homes.

My folks owned a blacksmith and welding shop that they bought in 1970, the year I was born. My brother still runs our family business, which is now focused on oil field work.

It’s going to be 104 F degrees today and he’s going to be out in the heat working hard.

There’s no question he’s doing real work.

My mom grew up on a farm, so she was working every day and that’s still the case.

She’s a doer for sure.

Thankfully, my folks instilled a strong work ethic in me too.

The other leaders I was talking with had similar stories.

“My dad’s a general contractor.”

“Mom was a press operator.”

“Dad’s a carpenter.”

Every one of us saw our parents working hard when we were kids. They were always doing.

We’re proud of them and we want to be like them. We want to work hard too.

But here’s the rub.

The things we do as leaders don’t always seem like what we naturally think of as work.

The results of how we invest our time aren’t always easy to observe and measure.

That’s what emerged as our conversation grew from this early statement.

“I need to do less and lead more.”

This begs the uncomfortable question:

“Is leading not doing?”

Which quickly caused us start asking ourselves even more discouraging questions like, “Does this mean I’m not working when I’m leading people?”

While we knew intellectually that this wasn’t true, it somehow hit a nerve with every one of us.

And I suspect our shared blue-collar backgrounds had something to do with why questions like these began to surface.

Why do we sometimes feel lazy if we aren’t physically exerting ourselves in our job?

What’s behind our tendency to sometimes take the more difficult approach to solve a problem instead of the quick, easy path because it feels like we’re cheating somehow?

Maybe that sounds completely weird to you. I get that because honestly, it’s a little hard for me to admit that I feel that way because it doesn’t make logical sense.

Or maybe you feel that way at times too.

Do you feel guilty about your work if you’re enjoying it?

Does work have to be hard to be valuable?

I’ve been thinking a lot about questions like these since I had this conversation with my cohort and it’s caused me to think a lot about the term “real work.”

What do I believe “real work” is anyway?

Through a combination of my blue-collar background, Christian worldview, and all the reinforcement I’ve internalized over the decades, I tend to (incorrectly) believe that doing real work means performing tasks that produce an immediate, tangible result.

When you’re doing real work, you see real results.

And the more effort is required, the more valuable the work is.

I even get bonus points if it’s physically painful.

For example, if I sweat all day building fence for the sheep and can see what I’ve created when I’m done, I’ve done work.

If my hands have blisters and my back aches the next day, I’ve clearly done real work.

My need for a giant bottle of Advil is further proof.

When I’m behind the keyboard in a room that’s exactly the temperature I want, I sometimes question whether I’m doing any work at all. Let alone real work.

And, if I’ve enjoyed what I’ve done all day, I’m really tempted to think I’ve somehow cheated the system.

Have I done any work at all on days that have been fun for me?

The Six Types of Working Genius framework that I trust and use with my clients challenges how I would instinctually answer that question.

And that’s what was driving my LCA group to think more deeply as leaders.

The Working Genius model explains that every project requires all six types of tasks:

Wonder

Identifying the need for improvement or change.

Seeing opportunities, gaps, possibilities, and questions.

Asking, “What needs to change?”

Invention

Generating ideas and solutions.

Creating innovations, approaches, and strategies.

Asking, “What could we do?”

Discernment

Evaluating the viability of ideas.

Assessing and judging what will work best.

Asking, “Will it work?”

Galvanizing

Creating movement and action.

Motivating and inspiring people and building momentum.

Asking, “Who’s coming with us?”

Enablement

Providing support and assistance.

Knowing how to best help others move the work forward.

Asking, “How can I help?”

Tenacity

Driving completion and following through.

Ensuring all the boxes are checked and the work gets done.

Asking, “Did we finish?”

The data that supports this framework shows that each person has two of these types of work as their Working Geniuses.

When they’re doing these kinds of tasks, they’re energized and fulfilled.

They’re doing the work they’re wired to do and they enjoy it.

If that’s true (and it is), what does that say about how we as leaders should view “real work”?

I’ve spent my professional career in manufacturing and the drive to deliver tangible, measurable results has always been the focus.

That’s critically important for obvious reasons, but it comes with some risks.

Here’s an example.

Have you ever heard a business leader make some version of this statement:

“Thank you for your kind words about my leadership, but the folks out on the production line deserve the credit. They’re the ones doing the real work.”

I trust that the intention of the leader who says this is good, but she may cause some unintended consequences.

Do you see any potential problems with this kind of statement?

I’m wondering how this makes every employee in the company who’s not out on the production line feel.

Do they interpret this as a message that they aren’t doing real work or get the impression that they aren’t doing the work that this leader values the most?

Does this trigger them to go back to working at a more tactical level than they should so they can point to immediate, more easily observable results to justify their value to themselves and their leaders?

These are very real possibilities, especially if the leaders in the organization aren’t shop workers, but their parents were.

If you’re the first generation to work behind a keyboard instead of a press or a lathe, it can be easy to discount the value of the work you do.

And if your Working Genius pairing reveals that you’re wired to do your best work at the beginning of a project where results are less tangible, it’s even easier to feel like you have nothing to add to the business.

You may be telling yourself that all you do is ask questions (Wonder) and come up with ideas (Invention).

But you’re not very good at pushing work across the finish line (Tenacity).

In other words, other people do the real work that needs to be done. You don’t.

Or, you may feel like you “just” lead people who actually do the work.

You’re good at helping others be successful (Enablement) and are an outstanding sounding board (Discernment) in the background.

But you don’t actually DO anything.

If that hits home for you, I’d like to bring you a word of encouragement.

I strongly encourage you not to overlook the value you bring to a team.

Every job is a six-letter job.

W, I, D, G, E, and T are all needed for every endeavor.

And you’re built in such a way that you contribute the most to your business through two of those.

If your Working Genius pairing doesn’t look like what you’ve always considered to be real work, don’t let that discourage you.

And, if that describes someone on your team, take some time today to remind them that you need and appreciate them.

They need to know that what they do is important, especially if they’re not doing the blue-collar work they grew up around.

There’s also a flip side to this topic.

We’ll talk about that next week.

Helping you lead with clarity and confidence,

Greg

P.S. If you’d like to engage in open, honest conversations like this one with like-minded leaders in a relaxed, judgement-free setting, I invite you to consider joining my Leadership Clarity Accelerator small-group coaching cohort that starts on September 17. There are only 5 spots open, and the current cohort sold out. I’d be happy to get on a call and tell you more about it.