Success Secrets and Stories
To share management leadership concepts that actually work.
You are responsible for your development as a leader. Don't expect the boss to invest the training budget in your career. Consider this podcast as an investment of time in your career, with a bit of management humor added at the same time.
Success Secrets and Stories
Revolutionizing Teamwork with Innovative Tools
Unlock the secrets to building trust and transparency in your organization with insights from our latest episode featuring Greg Powell and myself, John Wandolowski.
What if the key to a thriving and cohesive work environment lies in the way your team communicates and collaborates? We dive into stories of success and challenge, drawing from firsthand experiences and Alex York's impactful article on effective team dynamics. Discover how trust acts as the adhesive for any team, boosting creativity and productivity, and learn about the common pitfalls like poor communication habits and personality clashes that can derail these efforts. We'll guide you through strategies to overcome these obstacles and maintain accountability, creating a supportive atmosphere where your team can truly excel.
In the second half, we introduce an innovative software package, Clickup, designed to revolutionize team communication and collaboration. With features like: chat functionality, workload transparency, and brainstorming spaces, it's not just about getting the job done but doing it with trust and clarity. We'll explore how organized task delegation and regular feedback can elevate team morale and prevent burnout. This episode is all about equipping leaders with the tools to enhance visibility, accessibility, and a culture of appreciation. Whether you're looking to transform leadership capabilities or enhance team cohesion, this conversation is packed with actionable insights to steer your organization towards success. Don't miss the chance to transform your team's dynamics and create a thriving workplace culture.
Presented by John Wandolowski and Greg Powell
Well, hello everyone and welcome to Success Secrets and Stories. I'm your host, john Wondoloski, and I'm here with my friend and co-host, mr Greg Powell. Greg, hey, everybody, yeah, and today, in the terms of leadership, we had an interesting subject that makes it to a lot of the lists trust and transparency. And Greg and I have had experiences with our backgrounds in terms of organizations that maybe wouldn't be considered the best for trust and transparency, to put it humorously, and organizations that actually did foster it. The other element of, I think, what Greg and I tried to do in our careers is obviously do the trust and transparency components.
Speaker 1:So when I was doing the research, I found this very interesting article from Alec York, senior content marketing manager at a company called ClickUp, and the article was building team trust in the workplace and they had 10 strategies and it's a software company.
Speaker 1:You can find the information on wwwclickupcom slash blog, slash building team trust, and I thought it did a very good job of bringing in the subject and giving some context to it. Now I understand that they're a software company, so they're selling the software, but I think what's really important is this software is a social kind of network, an intranet kind of mentality, where it's kept within the company and the company can share this kind of valuable information. This is the stuff that you don't want on social media, because you want people to freely exchange ideas, and I think that's the element of ClickUp that makes a lot of sense for larger companies that are especially like in different locations within the state or within the country or even in the world. You don't want to exchange a lot of ideas without security, and this is one of those approaches that I think has a lot of merit. So, greg, why don't you start us out?
Speaker 2:Thanks, john. So let's start off with understanding trust. Don't you just love seeing the employees in your organization collaborate, celebrate wins together, support each other and during crisis as well and then they learn from each other? As an HR professional, I can tell you that made my day as a team leader. You can turn that vision into reality. Tell you that made my day as a team leader. You can turn that vision into reality. All you need is something that will be the glue holding your team together, that bond, that team trust. So when teammates don't believe in each other, the quantum currencies can be very far-reaching, impacting everything from morale to the bottom line of the business. So hence, when laying its foundation, every organization should create a system of judgment-free communication, transparent collaboration, creative encouragement and a conflict-free atmosphere.
Speaker 1:You know, when I was looking at this, when I was looking at the article, I kind of stopped there and you could almost put a bullet point that that is what we're talking about when we're talking about good communication. So that kind of what intrigued me with the article. But I'm sorry, I interrupted. Go ahead.
Speaker 2:That's good. That's good, john. So let's talk about defining trust in the workplace. Trust in the workplace is a confident assurance that teammates will act with reliability, they'll act with competence, they'll act with integrity to build an environment of open communication, vulnerability and mutual respect. Trust in the workplace promotes collaboration, innovation, shared success, ultimately strengthening the entire organization. But you must be thinking why building trust in the team is so important. There must be other, more objective, less complex ways to achieve the same. We'll explain why you need team cohesion and trust to ensure success.
Speaker 2:When trust building is practiced and maintained daily, you will notice significant benefits. First, enhanced communication and collaboration. Never take those things for granted. Trust creates open and honest communication. That dialogue you want eliminates silos and misunderstandings. Teammates collaborate freely, sharing ideas and their expertise, to even do some brainstorming for solutions. Second, boosted creativity and innovation. Oftentimes, that's the company's distinctive difference is their ability to innovate. If you have a trusted environment, people feel safe to take risks, ask questions, express vulnerabilities and explore unconventional ideas.
Speaker 2:Number three on that list is increased productivity and efficiency. Yes, there is a business reason to do this. Trust eliminates unnecessary micromanagement and second guessing. Teammates can actually focus on their areas of expertise, those things they're really good at. Knowing. Their colleagues will hold up their end of the bargain and readily offer support when needed. Nice exchange there. Next, improve morale and engagement, and this isn't just an HR thing. This is for everybody working at the organization. You want people to feel valued. You want them to feel respected, supported by colleagues, and it fosters a sense of belongings and purpose. Team members are more engaged in their work, motivated to contribute and excited to celebrate shared success. I think at one of these podcasts in the past I've mentioned, I had a senior leader say the enemy is not within this building, the enemy is outside of these walls.
Speaker 2:That's who we're waging war against business with. How about reduce conflict and stress Trust minimizes suspicion and misunderstanding. People looking over their shoulder around the corner right, creating a foundation for constructive conflict resolution Because there's going to be some conflict, but you want that constructive resolution approach. And finally, stronger retention and turnover. Back to my little HR hat. Businesses can create a stable and experienced workforce by implementing trust within teams. This saves costs associated with turnover and promotes institutional knowledge. So let's talk for a moment about the challenges in building team trust. Poor communication habits, that's when people are being, or leaders are being unclear, inconsistent or infrequent communication breeds confusion and suspicion. So you've got to have some regularity, some cadence with that.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Personality clashes you ever heard of those? No, here and there a few, yeah yeah. Clashes you ever heard of those? No, here and there a few, yeah yeah. Different communication styles or conflicting work methods can lead to misunderstandings and frustration among your team members. Inconsistency in holding team members accountable People have to be held accountable, but they have to be everyone across the board. Unequal treatment or overlooking missed deadlines erodes trust and fairness and leadership. John and I've talked before about the blame game. Right, shifting blame. Shifting blame cultivates fear and hinders individual ownership by creating a culture of finger pointing and avoiding responsibility.
Speaker 1:And holding accountable. What's interesting is what they were doing with this software is showing everybody their workloads so that the people who are actually pulling their weight aren't overwhelmed with somebody else's assignments because they get behind. It's hopefully creating that ability for them all to see the progress. It's hopefully creating that ability for them all to see the progress so someone who's falling behind can't hide behind better performers. It kind of pulls them out of the list. I don't know if they they. I don't know how the software works in terms of what that means, but I think it's designed to help leadership be able to document it, which is really a helpful tool. When you think about what software can do, it's interesting.
Speaker 2:Anyway, thanks, john. Another challenge in building team trust is unmet expectations. That's when you have unclear roles, unclear responsibilities or expectations that lead to disappointment and frustration when work starts to fall short. We've got a few other challenges in building team trust Fear of vulnerability, putting yourself out there right. Teams that hide weaknesses and maintain facades struggle to connect authentically and build trust. How about a high-pressure environment? We've worked through some of those right.
Speaker 1:Sometimes it's just that way.
Speaker 2:Things like tight deadlines, intense competition and constant stress can cause distrust and lead to hasty decisions or finger-pointing. It's just a fact of business life. The next one is lack of support from leadership. That's when you actively promote trust building initiatives and effective communication, you set a positive example for the team. And finally, organizational changes Restructuring, mergers, lack of appraisals or layoffs can create uncertainty and insecurity amongst employees, making it difficult for team members to feel confident, relying on each other every day. And despite these challenges and these things that can harm the ability to build trust, building a trusting team is not an impossible feat. Let's look into strategies to build a culture of mutual respect, trust and collaboration. John's going to go over that for us.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So the first one is encouraging open and honest communication, and one of the things that I've always found interesting Greg has mentioned it that feedback is a gift and encouraging open conversations and honest conversations is really the magic dust to promote people to experience trust. If you're going to give a little bit of yourself and talk about a mistake that you've made and people are helping you in order to try to find a solution that works, there's that sense of shared experience that helps make that progress happen. In this software package that they're talking about, they're trying to encourage that communication, that open exchange, or chat as they call it. I think it's a little bit different than a blog, because they're trying to give the ability for people to connect. Second is building transparency and, from their perspective, they're giving the workload schedule that they have for each employee and they're showing the work schedule to the entire team so that they know who's teamed up, who's doing it as a cooperative group, who's handling another task on their own, and it can encourage people to maybe pipe in and help when they see that somebody might be struggling with a subject that they understand. That transparency also gives the idea of who's carrying the majority of the load and that's. That's another tool that management can utilize.
Speaker 1:Three is creating a safe space to share ideas. When we talk about simply brainstorming and being able to connect and have a thought and put it into a format where people are mutually experimenting, trying to cultivate ideas, it's a way of encouraging those who are more of the extroverts to have some opportunity to express themselves and it's kind of fun. They have a wonderful example of how they're showing people, almost like whiteboarding concepts. So yeah, the software has some very interesting applications. Another side benefit, number four encouraging collaboration. Again, by seeing this and seeing the combinations, they have weaved a bit of the tapestry of the design and creating some more cooperation. That is just another tool, but I think the theme that you'll hear through these examples is transparency is because they have a vehicle to do that and it is happening all the time to everyone. It's not just one individual.
Speaker 1:Five Organizing work and delegating tasks clearly work and delegating tasks clearly. Whenever you talk about building trust and transparency, this is probably the one that I have found that I had to work on and concentrate on. It's delegating the information clearly, and if the people that you're working with are not comfortable on how the task has been described. They should feel comfortable to try to challenge you and say that you need more detail. If you can create that kind of communication, whether it be directly, where they pick up the phone or send you an email or they text you directly, if this can kind of activate that exchange of ideas and ask for the details that they need in order to be more productive. Now you're starting to get that trust and that transparency piece firing up on all cylinders. Six give and share feedback regularly. Again, greg.
Speaker 2:Not an annual performance review or project review right.
Speaker 1:Right and it's a gift. If you're getting feedback, somebody is trying to help you, trying to give you something that might be able to benefit you, whether it be the project or be you as a person or you as a leader you as a person or you as a leader. That's the whole idea of having open and transparent environment and trust as part of it. When you start getting feedback, you're on the right trail. You're actually making some headway. The part that interesting with software because it can give management executive management an idea of how the team is doing, which ones are actually productive and they're getting results, and other ones that are stuck, where they can help them add maybe additional resources or reassign the particular tasks. Management has to ask those questions and, trust me, greg and I have had the experience of doing the monthly report and usually you're too late. If you've waited four weeks before you said I don't think I understand the assignment. You're probably not making a lot of friends with your boss.
Speaker 1:Eight, manage time properly and strengthen morale. I think strengthening morale is more of a side effect of managing time and nobody should be working the 12 and 14 hours because they're destroying their home life. They have to find a way to be productive. The software hopefully shows or demonstrates where the weaknesses are at and they can put in the tools in order to try to get the timeframes right. But management should be also looking for people that are working those kind of hours and be careful that you don't have that burnout. You don't have the potential of people stretching beyond their capabilities without maybe training. This is where the software can really help management. Nine display leadership capabilities and I think I've kind of alluded to some of that. They're cultivating the trust with these tools these previous eight tools and they're trying to show how it is fairly being applied and the expectations of everyone being able to acknowledge their strengths and their contributions and create an environment where the team feels comfortable at this point to question their concerns the other part.
Speaker 2:yeah, greg, just to tag on what you're saying, john is, being a leader means being visible, being accessible, not just when you say office hours or this or this. Is that an important question? Or wants to challenge themselves and needs your assistance, that you stand up tall and make yourself available to help them help themselves, help the team.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. And I think when leadership is actually engaged in this process, if they're actually working with the tools that we're talking about, management now has a wonderful vehicle to encourage more feedback and more exchange, especially by other people that might not be on direct reports, and the more you can grow the organization and develop people that are on your bench that you want to try to bring up to executive positions, if they have this ability to hear and listen and challenge management like at a technician's level, that's where you're going to get your next leaders internally. That's the opportunity that the software, I think, gives you.
Speaker 1:Ten is acknowledge and celebrate team members. So how many times have we seen people doing a great job and they're like lost in the mix? And when we have this kind of software and we have the recognition and hopefully the congratulations that is shared within the team, that progress is being made on different projects, there's that ability to reward people and reward them in a public forum. That is such an important skill that I've heard different ways that people have applied it, good and bad, whether it be a note, whether it be a special letter. I think that this is another tool where the software can help that process of recognition, greg, what do you think?
Speaker 2:I couldn't agree with you more, john. We've even talked about handwritten notes and that, but helping people celebrate success in a public situation really talks about the kind of culture and environment you have for people to work in, and it does fire people up. It gets them to work even harder.
Speaker 1:So why don't you close us out with the summary? So why don't you?
Speaker 2:close this out with the summary. So, john, a quick story and this, I think, will help with the closeout. I work with a gentleman I'll say his name is Aubrey Johnson and my last company. And Aubrey was just the walking example of trust and transparency. And I remember he called me up, we hired him. He was a great hire, executive director level, so fairly high up in the organization, but a regular human being. It wasn't just that he was a nice, likable person, but the way he approached the job and people was very authentic.
Speaker 2:He worked in another facility. He didn't work in home office, but he came to home office to make sure he was there and seen with folks and they could ask him questions. And one of the first things he asked me he said Greg, you're in human resources, you know, I really want to get to know folks. I want them to get to know me. I got this idea. I'm going to introduce myself to them, I'm going to get on their plane, their level, and I'm going to say what can I do for you, not just what you can do for me.
Speaker 2:And he was very honest about that and that was what he did. He would work with high level leaders to individual administrative assistants. He treated them all the same way because he wanted everybody on the team to be successful. And when he had maybe a personal situation, I remember we were moving him from the South up to Minnesota. You'd never do that. It was a challenge, because he always had a smile on his face. He would tell you yeah, we're working on that, but I like snow. I'm getting used to the snow, right. I mean, it was just a great. The way he portrayed himself and carried himself made people want to work for him, and he was also a golfer. John, you're a golfer, and so he was able to get people out there.
Speaker 1:I actually helped aerate the golf course. The golf course, yes.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So he found that, in addition to enjoying playing golf, it was a way to get people more comfortable. They have different golf outings and get-togethers and that. But the company definitely benefited from his environment of transparency and trust, and you can trust him, there's no question about it, and folks that had a chance to work for him spoke highly of the environment. So when you think about that, when you think back about trust, you think back about transparency. It is important, it is worth the effort. We've shared with you some tools that you can use to help automate that process. But still, as a leader, there's things that you physically, actively have to do and you're going to reap an incredible are authentic.
Speaker 1:I will tell you that sometimes software doesn't give you that advantage, but it at least gives you the opportunity, especially when you have executive management, that might be miles and miles of distance and you can bridge that with, maybe, the software. That's where the technology really is a benefit, but you can tell people when they're talking and especially if they can have an opportunity to exchange ideas. Trust is something that you can see, something you can feel, and a lot of times when they have get-togethers, this software kind of encourages to meet people. And who should you meet? That you've been talking to, that you've been texting. How do you take that next step of communication? Don't lose sight of how important that is, and maybe you've got the introduction already. That's the secret of getting that opportunity to speak. So we've really enjoyed this subject and if you want to hear more on Greg and I talking about leadership concepts, I have a book called Building your Leadership Toolbox. We have the new second edition coming up, so it's something that you guys can start taking a look at. My book and my ebook are available on amazoncom. Success Secrets and Stories is what you're listening to, thank you. It's also available on other popular podcast formats like Apple, google and Spotify.
Speaker 1:A lot of what Greg and I talk about is from Dr Durst's MBR program, and his program can be found at successgrowthacademycom. If you want to contact us, we now have a website. It is wwwauthorjawcom. And, yes, my initials are J-A-W. The music is brought to you by my grandson, so we want to hear from you, and you have helped us make this program a little bit more effective, and we've been able to reach more people and it's really fun and, uh, this is something that we really like to do. So, greg, thanks, thanks, john.
Speaker 1:As always next time yeah.