Tips on Team Collaboration and Strategic Alliance w/ Bo Brabo

How do you collaborate with your team? Do you take the time to ask their opinions, check in with them, find out what they need from you as their leader?

In this episode, Amy is joined by Robert “Bo” Brabo. Throughout his career, Bo  has always focused on the people, helping them tackle their issues as if they were his own. Since retiring from the US Army as the Chief of HR Operations with the White House Communications Agency and Presidential Communications Officer for both Presidents Bush and Obama, Bo has served in several executive positions and is the founder of Hail Media Group & The Brabo Center of Excellence, providing fully accredited continuing education for HR professionals around the globe.

Bo’s mission through the Center is to build leadership and business acumen in human resources professionals, giving them the abilities to help solve today's most challenging business issues. Students develop a leadership mindset, boost their performance, build, and lead high-performing teams, get crystal clear on their HR goals, plans, and actions, and set-up their careers for long-term success and satisfaction. The Center’s programs are offered on their E-Learning platform, via live webinars, as well as customized corporate training events.

Bo received his MBA from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. He is a professional speaker and author of the book “From the Battlefield, to the White House, to the Boardroom: Leading Organizations to Values Based Results”, an Amazon Top 100 Hot New Release in Business Leadership. Bo is the Co-host of “The Bo & Luke Show” (a top 2.5% global podcast) inspiring listeners to be, know, and do better every day. Bo also holds current SPHR and PMP professional certifications.

Join Amy and Bo in this episode as they discuss:

• What values based leadership means 
• The role mental strength plays in the workplace and its similarities to SQ
• How end of day check-ins with your team creates an open environment for communication
• How to handle mistakes and view them as an opportunity for learning, not blaming

Quote from the show - ‘‘When I'm meeting with my team and they're telling me what they've accomplished, they're telling me about any impacts they have had on their day or what other people, external forces might be having on them and getting their job done or any impediments, it's really about me listening, active listening, to ensure I can then discern what needs to be done and what actions need to take place’.

About the host: 

Amy Lynn Durham is the Founder of Create Magic At Work™ and a Spiritual Intelligence Coach. 

Amy has spent years in the corporate world successfully managing hundreds of employees for private and publicly traded companies. Amy designed Create Magic At Work™ to bring a variety of services and strategies to aid in supporting healthy leaders & workplaces through: 

• Private Coaching - 3 month 1:1 Spiritual Intelligence Experiences
• Speaking Internationally about Ways to Support & Create Healthy Workplace Cultures
• Experiential Workshops & Keynotes

In her spare time, you can find her spending time with her Cavapoo Mr. Bingley, journaling, doing yoga or trying to master stand up paddle boarding with her boyfriend.

Connect with Amy: 

LinkedIn 

Website

Purchase Amy’s book, Create Magic at Work 

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Transcript

Amy Lynn Durham: 0:05

Hey everyone, it's Amy Lynn Durham and you're listening to create magic at work. create magic at work is on a mission to equip senior leaders with tools they need to be a true servant leader and actually understand what that means. improve employee engagement, retain top talent, and transform your workplace culture to have less stress and drama. So let's start making magic. Hi, everyone, welcome to another episode of create magic at work. I'm so excited for our guests here today. His name is Bo Bravo. I met Bo actually when I was a guest on his podcast, the Bo and Luke show and we have become, I guess, friends ever since in the workplace space through LinkedIn and also partnering on some projects a little bit about Bo. Throughout his career, Beau has always focused on the people helping them tackle their issues as if they were his own. Since retiring from the US Army as the chief of HR operations with the White House Communications Agency and presidential communications officer for both Presidents Bush and Obama. Bow has served in several executive positions, and as the founder of Hale Media Group and the Bravo Center of Excellence providing fully accredited continuing education for HR professionals around the globe. Bo's mission through the center is to build leadership and business acumen and human resources professionals giving them the abilities to help solve for today's most challenging business issues. Students develop a leadership mindset boost their performance, build and lead high performing teams get crystal clear on their HR goals, plans and actions and set up their careers for long term success and satisfaction. The center's programs are offered on their elearning platform via live webinars, as well as customized corporate training events. Beau received his MBA from the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business. He's a professional speaker, and author of the book from the battlefield to the White House to the boardroom, leading organizations to values based results. And Amazon top 100 hot new release and business leadership. Yeah, I didn't know that that's awesome. Was the co host of the bone. Yeah, he's the co host of the bone Luke show, a top 2.5% global podcast, which I mentioned before, that's how we met. And it inspires listeners to be know and do better every day. Bo also holds current SPHR and PMP professional certifications. Bo Welcome to create magic at work. Amy, I am so happy to be here. I'm so I'm so excited. Because, you know, like you said you were a guest on our podcast and really to watch you and to know you get to know you over the past year or so. And then to see you launch your own podcast is it's awesome. I love it. Thank you. Yeah, I've received really good response from everyone listening. So yeah, yeah. And it's been great. And I think that just the candidness. And the humor that's coming across here. And I want to talk a little bit about your book, actually. There were a couple of things that struck me because you are all about values based leadership. So what I wanted to start off is just I want you to explain what that means to you.

Bo Brabo: 3:36

Yeah, so values based leadership to me means it's What does values based leadership mean to you? really as leaders, I think it comes down to the crux of what we do every day. I'll explain that in values. Values are the behaviors that we put on display. Right. So when we think about a typical company, you have a mission, you have vision, and you have corporate values. So mission is what you're doing every day. Vision is really where you want to take the company or where the leaders think the company should go. And values is going to be how you get there. It's the action, it's the behaviors. It's everything that everybody, not just one, but everybody does. When we say values based leadership, you really put yourself on display with your people, every single day. And if you if you didn't have a set of corporate values, or even if you do have a set of corporate values, you know, people are watching you and you kind of have to determine, am I behaving in accordance with those values? Or are my behaviors defining the values? And are those different than what I have up on the corporate wall or on the corporate website? So I define values, it's the action behind what you do every day. So we say values based leadership. When you show up as a leader, you have leadership responsibilities, however it is that you behave. You got to have your values behind that. And then what do you do, you need to spread that across the organization, and you need to ensure that people are behaving in accordance with the values of the organization. So I guess in a nutshell, it's just all about your personal behavior, how it is that you actually show up as a leader and the things that you actually do. Yeah, that what you talk about, now, what you aspire to, but what you actually do,

Amy Lynn Durham: 5:20

right, yeah, so In SQ, (and you've taken the SQ assessment), we talk about awareness of your values, and having a values hierarchy by stack ranking those values. And that's exactly what you're talking about, is, are my behaviors in alignment with who I say I am on this piece of paper? And that is where you find peace within your life, you find that you're living in alignment, and you find that you're living, maybe I'll even say a happier life. If you take that out to a company, that's what you want to look for, as an employee, right? Are people within this company behaving with who they say they really are? Right. And I like how you're so passionate about this, because this is what brings connection and authenticity to the workplace. I want to ask you a little bit about your military background. Because I noted, I highlighted a section in your book that I wanted you to expand on and it talks about mental toughness, and the mind's ability to overcome fear, stress, anxiety, fatigue, perform critical thought, make tough decisions in times of distress, or real crisis. And that was how you defined mental toughness. And you also talked about mental toughness is a part of having personal courage, which is one of the Army's core values. What I'm curious about is how do you think that fits into the workplace? Or do you feel like that was a healthy system where it was promoting mental toughness? I'm not judging either way. I just want to hear what your thoughts are on it?

Bo Brabo: 7:02

No, that's a fantastic question. And I think that I think that mental toughness, I love the word mental fitness, mental strength, all goes into the whole umbrella of mental health. And it drives to me, it drives everything. You can't be physically tough if you're not mentally tough, because you got to be able to push your body past certain limits, or you're just gonna want to quit or stop. And that's your mental strength, your mental toughness that gets you past that. And I think through experience and building resiliency, and for me, I do think that it fits in the corporate world, I'll just give an example. For me, it was really easy for me to make a choice or make a decision to say, I'm going to do something decided, You know what, I have an opportunity to jump out of airplanes, it's really easy to say, Yeah, sure, I'll go do that. Alright, but then the day is gonna come and you're gonna actually have to go do that, right? Because you said you were going to do it. And so I would make the decision. And then I'd say, Okay, now I have to go. So in building up in that timeframe of getting nodes, you know, I had a leader while I was in the army, and I loved it, because he had the saying is get your mind, right. And it really was all about taking the time, whether that's through your faith, prayer, whatever it is for you to actually get in a in a headspace where really, you know that and for me, you know that as much safety as possible is going to be put into the endeavor, right. So from a risk perspective, it's going to be safe, I've chosen an area to be with people that I trust, which goes back to, you know, even bringing values into the discussion. So I trust the people that I'm around, and I don't know them. I know, they're experts in what they're doing. And I have a built in level of trust for that. So that's all helping my mental strength, if you will, to convince myself or to put myself in a situation that I have to go through it and do it. And the stronger I am, mentally, the better off I'll be and perform physically. So I think that went a long ways in the army. And then I also always had this thing, and honestly, I don't know if I came up with it. Or if someone told me when I was young, I joined the army when I was 17 as a junior in high school, so I had been dead for a long time that you can't stop the clock. So anytime, anytime you're in a scenario or a situation, and you're like, man, you know, just wish this would end, right? Or this tough time would end well realize that it's going to, right, because if there's one thing you just you truly have no control over, it's the clock times gonna tick by it's gonna keep going. And the situation as they always do, you'll get through it, and you'll be on to the next thing, whatever the case might be. That's why we have to celebrate the good times when the times are really good because those are gonna end to and then you're gonna have challenges and it's just a roller coaster, you just keep going. But I think even in the in the corporate world, it's a level of when you add the values into it. There is a level of likeness to the military when you can build your mental toughness through the aspect of trusting others doing risk assessments, knowing that the situation is going to be safe doing your research to ensure that you align with the company and what you're doing, and that you believe in the company and the people that you work with, and so forth. And through all of that, when you're doing those types of things, especially when you're doing your own diligence, you build that mental mindset that you need to make you stronger as a whole person.

Amy Lynn Durham: 10:23

Yeah. So to me, that makes sense. It does. The reason why I asked you that question was because when I read that part of your book about mental toughness, and then you expand it on it, where you talk about the minds ability to overcome fear, stress, anxiety, fatigue, I started thinking, Wow, is that similar to spiritual intelligence Sq, which is what create magic at work is all about, where we put our ego aside, possibly, and operate from our higher self from that place within us that has wisdom and compassion? Yeah. And what you're talking about to me to echo back is systems that create safety. So people can operate from their higher self. And then the time thing I just have to share, I kept thinking this too shall pass. Yeah, it's a great mantra to use if you're going through difficult times. But you know, one of the definitions of spiritual intelligence, there's a few is the ability to maintain inner and outer peace, and make decisions with wisdom and compassion, regardless of the situation you're in. So just in knowing you, and in the conversations, we've had mental toughness sounds like a very masculine word for the army or to describe it, you know, but it but really, I almost feel like I'm taking it away is like, accessing your higher self. Yeah. And I was really shocked and impressed because I'm not I don't know too much about the military lifestyle personally. But when we were having conversations, I was very impressed at that level of collaboration, because you feel like it's all of these rankings and taking orders. And I think bringing that just expand on that, like, how did you bring the collaboration piece? And what were some of those to the corporate world that you got from the army?

Bo Brabo: 12:11

Yeah, I think that's a very common way for people outside the military to think, right, it's very hierarchical system and orders are given, and you just follow orders.

Amy Lynn Durham: 12:22

Well, that's what's in all the movies.

Bo Brabo: 12:26

But then, when you're given, you know, to the what was one of the most exhilarating times of my career when I was at the White House, and I had as an additional duty as a presidential communications officer for both President Bush and President Obama. I'll give you an example. Our organization, so the White House Military Office has multiple departments, communications was one of them. And that's where I was part of and then in the White House Communications Agency, thinking, you know, every time you hear the President speak, that audio that you're hearing is coming from that organization. The podium is built by that organization, every podium, and so forth. And then any emergency actions from a commander in chief perspective, are all part of that organization. So we everywhere the President was our teams were period, White House, overseas, anywhere in the country, you name it, we were with him. And that organization has a head of the organization. And it was an Army colonel. So think CEO, right. But the CEO, the colonel was considered a command representative. And there were six of them, not just the the head person, I think it was six, they would be the ones that would take turns actually flying on Air Force One, right. But when the plane landed, there was already a team like I would have my team wherever the President was going. And we'd be handling all the events and the communication aspects on the ground where the President was going. So it's for the President, the Secret Service, the White House staff, to make sure everybody can talk via their headsets, you see them all speaking in their little microphones in there, you know, that all that communication capability was provided by us. And obviously, the commander slash CEO could not be everywhere all the time. It's physically impossible, right? Yes, the commander would give an order and say, you know, whatever, bow, you're leading this trip, the president's going here, these are all the things that have to be put in place. So you have your systems, right, you have all your systems, and have all the different things that have to get set up and ready and be prepared for when the President arrives to speak, or whatever he's doing, because there's no rehearsal. It's just go time as soon as his he arrives, and then that's where the order stops. Right. But you may not You haven't even left Washington DC yet. Right. So how do you get your team where they need to go? While the commander is not in charge? The commander's not doing all of that. You're doing that as the leader of your team, right. And then I had about six different disciplines of people doing different types of communication capabilities, it audio visual radio technologies, that satellite communications, all these different areas. And there were leaders of those and they all report it to me for this trip or this event. And that's where collaboration comes in because everybody's got their things their systems Know what they have to do and have to set up. But then you got to make all that come together and work with precision and with zero defect because it's the President of the United States. And it just has to happen. Well, that's where the leadership and the values and I have to trust these people. And I know they're loyal, they have a sense of duty, and they will show respect to everybody that they deal with. And that's how we all behave. And you know, you collaborate at the end of the day with making sure you know, what's, what are your challenges today? What do we have to overcome? Where do you need me as the leader to step in, if need be, kind of just all comes together, but you, you have this responsibility, just as if you were leading a department or an operations, if you were a COO inside of a company, right, you have to be able to lead in those environments, your orders were written on a piece of paper, so to speak, and this is what you have to go do and you have to go accomplish. But there's a lot of detail that's not in those orders, you still have to do it. It's no different than a combatant commander or ground troops, you know, running a ground operation in a war zone. Yeah, yeah, you have to go do x and you want to accomplish, this is what you're out to accomplish. But then everything on the ground starts to hit you, right, and you have to be able to execute and so forth. And I think that's the same and corporate world, you want to launch a product, you want to launch a service, you have an idea what that all should be the CEO makes a decision, this is the sector we're going after, this is the product that we're going to launch. And then you have to have a team that can actually go do that they're going to run into challenges. They have to be empowered to to make decisions.

Amy Lynn Durham: 16:29

Yeah, I think that totally. And you're just my brain is like, because you're talking about, we talked about safety, right? You talked about trusting the people in the room use sort of the skydiving example back then. But also you trusting the decisions that your team is going to make on the fly, and collaborating with all these movements that you had to make. So that's leadership, that's next level leadership, that is not something you can learn from a manual. These are the skills that we taught you and I talk about all the time, the EQ, the emotional intelligence, the spiritual intelligence. And I do want you to expand on on one thing that you mentioned was, you know, for the management leaders that listen to the show, the check ends, at the end of the day, one of the skills in SQ is being a wise and effective change agent. And one of the characteristics of being a wise and effective change agent is not just running for a quick fix in a situation, but actually taking the time to uncover the real root cause of a problem in order to solve it. And so I love when you share this leadership tip of this end of the day check in that you did when you worked for the White House. So can you just share what you did for the leaders that are listening?

Bo Brabo: 17:48

Absolutely, there's so many things happening, right throughout the day, things that have to happen have to get accomplished. And I think that's the same in any any job, right? There's things that you want your people to get done during the day. And then as the leader at the end of the day, we would come together, right. And in this scenario, it wasn't just us it was it was he had basically, I would say three, just keep it at three components, you had us on the communication side Secret Service for the security side of the event. And then you had the White House staff, who basically was the overseer of the whole event they knew they knew why they were there, what you know, the organization, what we're going to talk about why we're having this event in the first place. But those entities come together at the end of the day. And then you're basically doing a status check of where you're at what's happening. And of course, before going to that we would have or I would have the same type of little huddle or get together with the leaders on that we're running the disciplines on my team. So that I was absolutely 100% current on what I would be talking about in this in this huddle with all the all the three components to make sure that we were ready to go. And then in those the most important part in those meetings, it really wasn't talking, it was listening, right. So when I'm meeting with my team, and they're telling me what they've accomplished, they're telling me any impacts they have to their day or what other people are outside external forces might be having on them and getting their job done or any impediments. It's really about me listening, active listening, to ensure that I can then discern what needs to be done, what actions need to take place immediately, the next day, two days from now, whatever whatever the case might be. So that when we get to the point when we do have to execute when the President arrives, we're ready. So it's really about active listening. And then where I experienced that the most Amy outside of the military was in the IT world software companies that and before that, I never knew that it existed, but I thought it was very similar to what we would what we were doing in the military and they call it the scrum like the daily scrum. And Scrum is not an acronym is just the word. And all it meant was we would come together every morning. Right. And then and that's the generic scenario. We did it in the morning, not the evening. But every single person on the team had to speak. And it's and that this didn't last more than 1520 minutes. It's like, give me the, you know, the three priorities you're doing today. Any impacts or impediments to you getting those done, right? Where are we going in the next like quick on what's the next two weeks or 30 days, whatever the case might be. And what I loved about it, is that everybody on the team is listening. And then if you and I were working on something, and at some point, we had to integrate those items or work together, where we're hearing where each other is at in a very non confrontational, it's just, hey, we need to know where are we what are we doing. And if you are having a problem, then someone could step in and help solve that problem. You may need collaboration with somebody, but we don't need everybody to talk about it for two hours in a meeting, right? Things can be taken offline, but it kept everybody aware of where things were at. And our leadership would listen in all the company leadership, the CEO would listen in. And it really gave a level of trust and confidence on how projects were going, how services were being handled, and so forth. And I think it really empowered people. They felt important, like I have a say, even if I'm a junior developer, and I'm part of this meet, I have a say, because I don't have the authority to say I don't have anything to say, it's no, you're working on stuff today. What are you working on? I want to hear from you, not your boss type of thing, right? So really created an open environment of communication. And worked out really, really well. So you got to talk. I guess that's the whole thing. Really, in a nutshell, you got to communicate, you have to talk put the mechanisms in place to actually make that happen.

Amy Lynn Durham: 21:41

Hi, everyone, Amy here, are you looking to create a life with more inner and outer peace regardless of the situation, gain unexpected insights into your leadership strengths by taking the SQ 21 assessment, expand your understanding of leadership skills, like being a wise and effective change agent, servant leadership, and get tips to operate from a place of peace and wisdom from within the SQ 21 assessment of faith neutral instrument allows you to examine where you are today on developing and sustaining the 21 skills of spiritual intelligence. I'm a certified SQ 21. Coach, and I offer a one time one on one experience with the SQ 21 assessment that helps you have less stress, more balance and bring more value in meaning to your work in your life. Go to create magic@work.net and click work with me to get started on your transformational journey. I'd love to hear from you. You can connect with me on LinkedIn under Amy Lynn Durham, and send me a direct message. And we can get you started that way as well. Sending magic to everyone. Yeah, and knowing your heard from those top leaders with the listening like knowing that I think there's a story in your book where you talk about in one of your prior jobs. You caught a CEO listening in at a door in the hallway rather than actually being present in the meeting and you had a conversation like hey, like, you know, why don't you be more authentic, I'm paraphrasing here, you know, but you know, and show up in the room. And I think the way that you're talking about this communicating on the phone, and they know that the leaders there, and they're being heard, I mean, the ripple effect with that is amazing compared to all of the secret of listening in, because that gives the impression or all that you don't trust your people in the room. Whereas if you show up to listen, you know, it's that much more of the connection that you feel that your your leaders are there for you. I have to ask us, because I just I'm so curious, when you're described, and you can use any part of your experience that you want. But when you described the logistics and what you had to go through for the President to speak, and the pressure, you know, if correct me if I'm restating this wrong, but the pressure to make sure that everything went smoothly, what came to my mind was right away quantum leadership, right? Companies that innovate, that live on the edge of chaos, or where they can see innovation come from mistakes. So I'm wondering, and if not, that's fine. But I'm wondering if there ever was a mistake that was made. And if there was something amazing that maybe came out of the chaos, or you know, or something like that.

Bo Brabo: 24:25

I'll give you a couple stories of mistakes that cause takes happen. You know, we're not perfect. Yeah. It's just that those we called it even from the command level down. So the highest leadership down that particular assignment was operating, we call it zero defect environment, because the smallest of them is the smallest. And I'll give you two of them, which are really small mistakes. But they could have big, big implications when you think about who this is impacting either the President himself or the office of the president, and what that imagery could actually do to the office of the presidency when it's public. Like, right, I'll give you a public example. And I'll give you a private example. Okay? So when a President is speaking, and this has actually happened a couple times, and interest me heads roll when it happens, like it seems small. And again, it's so obvious that it can happen. But it does drive technological change, or just equipment change, and so forth. So in the president speaking, if they're using a teleprompter, right, so if you see the president, and they look, you know, like 45 degrees one way, 45 degrees the other way, and occasionally in the middle, they're just rotating back and forth between the teleprompter on the left and the teleprompter. On the right, it's the same teleprompter speech is scrolling through, that is on a steel pole on a stand like a microphone type of stand. And at the top, it has a single clear piece of glass. And that piece of glass is held together at the bottom near the base of the the base of the glass. So it's sitting on a 45 degree angle, if you will. And it's not like a light piece of plastic. It's it's a thick piece of glass. But it's only connected at the bottom at that the pole. And you know, it's a screw a lug nut, and it's got to be tight to hold it. And during live speeches, those pieces of glass have fallen and shattered, you know, fall into the floor. There's a chuckle, right, maybe people in the crowd or the President makes a present even makes a comment like, oh, you know what's going on there, right? Or something like that. So what that drives is, it's like, my organization who's responsible White House Communications responsible for that piece of equipment. There's a service member scrolling the speech running the teleprompter. And you know, that's, that's almost like a big Inquisition. Like, why did that happen? Right, Murphy's Law can set in and it happens, right? But it drives the further checks and balances put in, like we talked earlier, systems are so important, right? So when you start investigating the incident, when when you talk about change, how many times should that be checked? Before you say, Okay, it's not going to happen? Right? Did it only get checked one time or twice? Or? Was there something wrong with the actual device that connected it to the poll? Right? Who checked that how, you know, it really sets off this whole thing? And then if we find that, you know, you did all the checks and balances, then it comes in? Okay, what do we have to change? Because we can't let this happen. Right? Is it finding a new supplier, a new vendor, because that piece of equipment isn't going to cut it? You know, this kind of stuff cannot happen. It's embarrassing to the office of the president. Right, who's running his teleprompter. I mean, you hear news outlets, all the mainstream media like man, but that guy's you know, getting fired, or He's toast or something like that, right for letting that happen, even though he could have done everything, right. So little things can set off big sequence of events that aren't so pleasant to deal with on the back end. And then, you know, the other one had happened to a guy on my team, as in Utah with President Bush, and he were staying in the ski lodge overnight, and in the president suite, you got a secure phone forum. And there are speed dials on the phone. And every speed dial gets programmed to a certain office, the First Lady, the president, secretary is aid is military aid. So the President doesn't have to try and sit there and Okay, well, you know, what's the phone number here and let me dial all, you know, nine digits, or 10 digits. It's labeled. Here's the speed dial. And it was one of those things where two numbers were switched. And the President actually made a phone call to that speed dial was supposed to get I think this one was supposed to get his personal secretary. And it just went to someone in the US who answered the phone. So here, you got the president on the other end. And, you know, you got the wrong wrong number from the President of the United States type of thing.

Amy Lynn Durham: 28:47

That's like the ultimate prank.

Bo Brabo: 28:50

Because they probably didn't believe it. Right. So in that scenario, you know, the President's not mad, he didn't get upset. Okay, you know, that happens type of thing. But it definitely got reported back down. Like what happened? Hey, you know, this isn't right. It gets noted, the president tells his aide or his chief of staff, and then it just starts rolling back to our person on site who did it. And, yeah, it's just it's not fun to deal with. And then ultimately, this is a great part of leadership. The leader knows they made a mistake, right? And they don't wallow in it. They don't try to blame, like in this certain, it was no blaming anybody else. He knew that it was his job to double check that make sure those numbers were right. And they were wrong. Nobody felt worse about it than the leader themselves. They own up to their mistake, and then they start being part of the solution is to say, okay, there weren't enough eyes on the programming to make sure that we didn't have just one incorrect digit. Right. So you mentioned it earlier about systems. And in reality, you know, if you've got the mental toughness, but you're going into these scenarios, zero defect environment, you have to have the best systems you can possibly have to work through in order to To ensure give you the best probability for the right outcomes that you're looking for. And when things don't go the right way, you have to have the integrity to say, Okay, we got to relook at things. This is, you know, even if it was just a mistake by one person's like, why did the mistake happen? Could it happen again? And you're not putting blame or shame on that individual? That's using it as a teaching or learning lesson, whatever the case might be for everybody, and then seeing do you need to make any change? Right? Did we, as a company, set this person up for failure? Did you know what was our part in it? Do we need to put new systems or need to adjust the systems that we're in? So you're it's never a set it and forget it type of thing. You're constantly trying to improve the systems that you have put in place?

Amy Lynn Durham: 30:43

Yeah, because that small detail is like, Oh, could we innovate more? Could we make this flow better? This made us stop and take a look at something that we would have just flown through our day about kind of thing. So that's right, the change agent piece, right? And not freaking out when mistakes happen? By like, Oh, cool. This made us stop for a second, because maybe we need to innovate a little bit more. Yeah, you know, for sure. I love framing it that way. Okay, so Bo, share with the listeners what your definition of servant leadership is,

Bo Brabo: 31:16

oh, so servant leadership truly is knowing that when you when you are in a leadership position, your team, the people you're responsible for, they're not there to serve you. And I really do mean the word serve, you're there to serve them. And it's the whole, you know, other way to say it is you know, you take care of your people, they will take care of you. Servant leadership is all about making sure that you're taking care of you're truly are taken care of in serving the team, the people that you are responsible for. And I mean that in a very genuine manner, right? It's up to the leader, if you're a servant, leader, then you are providing everything that your team needs to be successful, from physical equipment to inspiration, motivation, you know, your team members, the best that you can, who they are as a whole person, right, and you make decisions based upon that not a, the best servant leaders don't make, you know, a one size fits all decisions, you know, because what might work for Amy and to help Amy perform is going to be different than what helps Bo perform. And I can serve the needs of both people or multiple people at the same time, to make them know that they're cared for, and that they're an important part of the team. And the other aspect of that is servant leaders stand up and take the heat regardless, if I'm in charge, then I'm responsible for everything, all of those mistakes that go wrong. And then when I get when we get accolades from above, or wherever they come from, right, then you make sure as the servant leader, that those accolades are going to your team, and the people that were responsible for the work,

Amy Lynn Durham: 32:51

I love it, you're just reminding me of skill, I always refer to sq in the show. So skill eight is breath of time perception. And it's Can you live, the paradox of knowing that your life is both profoundly important, and also a tiny piece of the history of the universe? So the way that you describe that reminds me of that, you know, giving other people credit, making decisions, knowing the ripple effect it's going to have not just for today, but maybe for generations to come. Yeah, with the breath of time perception. Right. Yeah, really good stuff.

Bo Brabo: 33:31

Yeah, if I have time, I'll give it you know, a quick story one, where that, you know, I think one of the one of the examples or experiences I had that that just really came to life, for me was a time when I was living in Germany and and running a big HR operation in Germany for our all their service members. But we had like 16,000, service members and families, all living overseas. So we had responsibility from HR perspective for immigration for visas for all of this stuff for our family members, because you're a US citizen coming in to live in a foreign country. And soldiers were not just automatically allowed to come to Germany, with their families with them. At the same time. There was a process, soldiers had one status, families needed another status. Sometimes that could all get done depending on how much time you had. It could all get done before the soldier came to Germany. And then they were they were all together as a family unit. But more often than not, that wasn't the case. So the soldier arrives first. And then the family comes second at some point could be a couple of weeks later, it could be a couple months later, and on my desk I would have these packets, applications, if you will, for the family members in order to get all of their to get their family with them. I was one of the last stops but I was like the quality check to make sure that we had everything done properly. And not just in accordance with us rules, but with German rules that this was this whole I'll just call it Understanding emigration packet, if you will, could get people to Germany to meet up with their service member or their family member. And it was overwhelming, there's always a lot to do in that job, I had days when I was tired, I'm no different than anybody else. And you just want to, you know, pack it up and go home for the day. And I would always look at those packets and make sure that I never left the office until I had, there were no more of those packets on my desk. Because I'm like, you know, I'm here to serve these folks. And this is the ability that I have to make this stuff happen. And somebody out there is waiting for their family to be reunited. It's not about me, it's about them. They're not here to serve me in any way, I'm here to serve them and their needs, and get those needs met. Because that makes for us the second third, fourth order effects of that decision that makes for a stronger family unit. Right, they're all together, they're stronger as a as a family than that makes the soldier stronger. And work is he or she is not worrying, when they're at work about their family back in the United States. That makes the command stronger, it makes the army stronger. It just, I mean, there's all because this packet is on my desk, and I have the ability to actually make that transaction happen. So that really came home for me, it's like, man, if that was mine, I would want somebody working hard on that to get that done from an individual perspective. But then you look at the bigger picture. And then one day, I just happened to be in town, shopping, like on a weekend, and a woman stopped me and she asked me my name. And I told her who I was. And she's like, I thought so. And she started crying. And she's like, I just want to thank you for getting us over here, you know, making it a priority to bring us back together as a family. I didn't need that. Right. I didn't need that type of recognition from her. But it was just a confirmation that servant leadership is really, and I really believe that's what the Army and all of the Army's leadership development it truly is. lead you to a servant leadership style.

Amy Lynn Durham: 36:54

Isn't that amazing that it is, that is amazing that what you're saying, just for me to boil it down is by connecting humans, bringing the families together, the ripple effect that you described that it created was so profound. And then the knowledge that you have as a leader to put yourself in those family shoes to maybe operate from their worldview, see what they see through their eyes, and understand the impact that it means. I mean, all the way you took it all the way to the fact that it strengthened our army at the end of the day. But it also brought people together it made people perform better at work. Same thing in the corporate landscape, right? You treat employees, well, you operate as a servant leader. They go home to their friends, their family, the cashier at the grocery store, they treat all of those individuals much better as well. And then it ripples out into the world and we're living in a better place. Yeah. So thank you for sharing that story. It was it was super cool. I loved it. Yeah, you're welcome. So at the end of every create magic at work episode, I pull one of my journal prompt cards, I know you're familiar with them. And I pull a message for you and for the audience. And it gives you an affirmation and everyone listening, and then you get to answer a question on the fly. So here we go. This for Bo and the listeners. You got expansion. And the illustration is a door opening up for you to go out into the big wide world. Nice. The affirmation is I am proud of my unique skills, and I use them to open new doors for me. So Bo, question, what are some ways you can apply your unique skills in the workplace? Me personally? Yeah. Or just advice to listeners as well?

Bo Brabo: 38:46

Sure. Well, I love these cards. And every time we do this, or we talk, they're always so relevant. So I have a door opening. I have a meeting in Baltimore next week from Friday. So it could be a door opening and trying to expand. So I'm listening. And I'm listening, and I'm paying attention to all that you share. Amy, thank you. Yeah, I think when you think expansion and doors opening, it's very relevant even to one of the speaking topics I do about be the best at what you do. And having an open mind and a yes type of mindset. Right? Yes, maybe more than No, obviously, there are things for us that aren't meant for us, and we probably should avoid them. But ultimately, it seems to me in my experience, the more we stay open with our mind about potential, the better off we even are to being able to analyze, is the door opening an opportunity for us and it's meant for us and is it good for us versus not, you'll be able to make those better decisions about expanding and going through the right doors if you have an open mind. So I think you take that to work with you every day, not just for yourself, but just in how you treat people and even the opportunities that you might be presenting to others on your team. Have an open mind. Right, stay open.

Amy Lynn Durham: 39:56

Yeah. And that is what will create the expanse And the innovation and the inspiration. And you know, the affirmation on this card is I'm proud of my unique skills, and I use them to open new doors for me. But also as leaders, are you pinpointing unique skills in your team and exploiting them for lack of a better in a in a positive way? Are you letting everyone take their mask off and be their authentic selves, so you can see what their creativity is underneath? Yeah, I think that's really important. So me to Banchon I love that we got that message right down to

Bo Brabo: 40:31

great stuff.

Amy Lynn Durham: 40:32

I'm here for it. So Bo, tell everyone how they can get ahold of you how they can connect with you. Sure. So

Bo Brabo: 40:41

LinkedIn, Bo is my nickname. So it's Robert Bo Bravo, on LinkedIn, you can go to Robert bravo.com. That's the main webpage. And from the webpage, you can find the podcast, you can find our E Learning Center, there's ways for you to contact me through the webpage. If you want a signed copy of the book that's available on the website, or you can go to Amazon. The book is available on Amazon there too, from the battlefield to the White House to the boardroom, leading organizations to values based results. So I appreciate it. Amy, I really do appreciate the opportunity.

Amy Lynn Durham: 41:14

Awesome. Yeah. Thank you. i Hey, thanks for being on the show. Thanks for sharing your knowledge with everyone. And I encourage everyone to go to your website and check it out. Because you actually offer quite a few tangible downloads or skills that people can use. Right right in the workplace to do strategic HR. Yep. movement when when they're at work. I mean, yeah, really cool stuff.

Bo Brabo: 41:37

Yeah, we have some free courses on our on our elearning platform as well with some great contributors. So go there, watch them, use what you can. Yeah. And keep staying open to moving forward.

Amy Lynn Durham: 41:49

Well, thank you so much bow. And thank you everyone for listening, sending magic to everyone. You're welcome. Everyone, it's Amy here. Thank you for listening to the latest episode of create magic at work and please come back often and subscribe rate and review the podcast. Keep joining us for more exciting episodes where we help you transform workplace culture to systems that create less drama and stress and have high productivity and profitability. You can get your own tools for the workplace at create magic@work.net I have a new create magic at work the journal that just released and it invites you to reflect about different themes for work in your career. Each section of the journal contains a topic and affirmation and to prompt questions to help you journaling your thoughts, topics or like inspiring others mentorship, expansion and productivity. So connect with me at create magic@work.net also connect with me on LinkedIn under Amy Lynn Durham, sending magic to everyone and see you next time.