044: The 3 Pillars of a Strong Team - Discipline, Ownership & Growth

What truly separates high-performing teams from the rest? Discipline, ownership, and continuous learning. These three principles shape a culture of excellence, resilience, and adaptability. In this episode, we break down how self-discipline goes beyond checking tasks off a list—it's about accountability to those who rely on you. We explore how true ownership means embracing both wins and failures as opportunities for growth, and how a commitment to learning keeps individuals and teams thriving in a fast-paced world.

Integrity is the foundation of trust—especially in remote work. Imagine a world where people stop at red lights, not because of enforcement, but because it’s the right thing to do. Just like traffic rules, workplace integrity ensures seamless collaboration, especially when no one is watching. We uncover how fostering trust, accountability, and ethical decision-making can transform your team into a powerhouse of innovation and success.

Whether you're leading a team or looking to grow as a professional, this episode will challenge you to rethink your approach to work, leadership, and personal growth.

IntegraMSP:
https://integramsp.com

Dan Gilligan on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dangilliganintegramsp

Chapters

• 0:00 Building Core Values Through Teamwork
• 13:12 The Importance of Integrity in Business

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

There's a lot of similarities between discipline and ownership, but I did want to just touch on that, which is being accountable for the results of your actions. If you can't fail, if you can't admit failure, how are you ever going to learn?

Speaker 2: 0:16

Tell me a little bit more about the discipline and what that meaning is to you.

Speaker 1: 0:20

Sure, so, for me, this one and the next ownership took me a long time to define Sure, sure, um. So, for me, I, this, this one, this one and the next ownership took me a long time to define, actually, um, discipline. Do the things you say you're going to do? That's, that's what I finally came down to it. Um, are you disciplined enough to to do the task?

Speaker 1: 0:42

And, and really, what what I look at is is something that that I, something that I feel like others tell me I do this very well and I'm, I'm a very I feel like I'm a very modest person, but I, I, when I go out to do something, I don't, I don't just start it, but I finish it, and when I finish it, I always want to make sure that the you know what?

Speaker 1: 1:08

I learned this from an old manager. The old manager said I don't care how good you did it and this is coming from my days as a tech and I still do it but he said I don't care how well you finish that project, make that person sit down in the chair and do whatever it is that you just fixed, because there's a possibility that they may do it completely different and it still doesn't work. So that's kind of where I look at the discipline side of it. And are you disciplined enough to not only do the task, perform the work, but to actually ask the person that needs to perform that job to do it, with you sitting right in front of them and be judged to see if you did it right or not?

Speaker 2: 2:01

Interesting. So, since they're validating your resolution or what you fixed, because they might be doing slightly different, and that would, I would think, also would hope cut down boomerang tickets, yeah Right, there's tickets coming back because this thing still doesn't work, or they did it slightly different, or there's another piece, another step. You didn't take as a technician to see this action or this result.

Speaker 1: 2:28

So no, I imagine that would help keep that down. It does, and I believe that that was the reason why it was told to me. It's just like, yeah, we don't want you coming back At the end of the day I didn't really. You know it was like. You know we can't afford to send you back, so make sure that things work before you walk out the door.

Speaker 2: 2:46

Yeah, especially if there's some distance involved, and obviously today we do. Obviously the majority of everything's remote, but there was a point where everything was required just to physically drive there and go do that thing, right yeah, and that was time and money and miles, and so I can definitely understand that. And your last piece was on learning and, um, I'm assuming you have not only an aspect of self-improvement in learning, but maybe also learning from mistakes, um, learning from you know experiences.

Speaker 1: 3:22

Yeah. So how I defined learning was continuously challenging yourself and others to grow and apply learned knowledge. So everything you just said, Mark, you know, learn from your mistakes, learn from the outside world. So, like I said, these are core values that I created as I started hiring people, and they changed slightly since I created them, but these are the ones that I landed on.

Speaker 1: 3:56

I'm someone that always wants to learn and I always want to just understand and learn new things, and I don't want to just set up a like in our industry. It's like set up a Windows server and learn new things, and I don't want to just, you know, set up a like in our industry. It's like, you know, set up a Windows server and like, cool, we're good, you got this for another 10 years and we don't have to do another thing with it. It's like no, no, I mean it's just there's so much out there. There's the cloud, there's Azure, there's servers, there's security, and so when I was thinking of this, I thought what's the very last thing that I haven't said that I would want someone on the team to desire? And it's a desire to learn and it's to learn on their own. I mean, they want to always be learning and learn from others, learn from their mistakes.

Speaker 1: 4:46

No, it's great the one other piece was was ownership? That was in between discipline and learning. There's a lot of similarities between discipline and ownership, but I did want to just touch on that which is being accountable for the results of your actions. So they kind of they're kind of the same and that's where the, that's where the whole um.

Speaker 2: 5:07

You know, if you do something, own it, and if you did it wrong, own it which is such a hard thing to do, because if you own it now, there's opportunity to learn something from that right, exactly If you, if you, you can't fail.

Speaker 1: 5:27

If you can't admit failure, how are you ever going to learn?

Speaker 2: 5:30

no failure, exactly because failure is opportunities to learn. I mean and, and typically what we're doing, dan, in our businesses. It's not life or death right for now 99 I feel like it's more important. But the client might think that at times, Right Right, you know, just because you know they can't open word doesn't mean it's life or death or something. Well, I'm glad you say that oh my goodness.

Speaker 2: 6:03

I thank you for sharing those. It's interesting here internally, as we kind of um defined our core values moving forward, um, I was really interested in hearing what the team felt they meant. Right, great, we picked these words, but what do those words truly mean to you? So, um, you know, recently, as you know, we're I'm starting on a journey and new to this journey, but it's a journey of change, is a journey of being better, and part of that journey was looking at, obviously, my organization and going, hey, look, what are we going to do to be better? What can we do to be better? Cause there's tons of room for improvement. We've been at a maturity level. I really feel that, you know, I've been very tech focused. I really feel that, you know, I've been very tech focused instead of business focused, right, more working in the business instead of on the business type of scenario, right.

Speaker 2: 7:06

So, okay, let's take a step back and look at these things and let's put some of this elementary this thing should have been done 13 years ago in place. So we said, okay, let's start with core values, right, and the way we handled that was I came up with a list of core values and I went to Microsoft Forms threw out an anonymous survey. Right, say, hey, vote on the or pick 10. You have to pick 10. No, one's really going to need five Pick 10. Right, so we got those 10. No, and we're only going to need five Pick 10. Right, so we've got those back. Said, okay, we got a guaranteed majority of this one, so we'll pull this out, everything that didn't get any votes. We'll pull these out, the ones that were low, and then we're going to reintroduce another form with these core values, and we're now we're going to pick whatever six.

Speaker 2: 7:54

Yeah, and then we got this back and said, okay, we get, we have clearly have. We don't have ties. We clearly have winners. All right, now let's take those and let's meet as a team and then review those, just to make sure everyone's on the same page. Now, all that was anonymous, cause I didn't want to single anybody out. I wanted them to be able to vote for what they want, without coming back to them and and feeling like pressured. Um, so then we met as a team and said, okay, this is what everyone has come up with, right? I mean, we voted and in my take of this is look, though, my name is tied to the company for responsibility Ultimately. Um, this is our company and I want my team members. You are the pillars of this company. We are going to build the skyscraper on top of it I love it right and I?

Speaker 2: 8:43

I want to know what's important to you as a person, what is important to you but the company that you work for, that you want to work for and continue working for. Let's bring those together.

Speaker 1: 8:56

That's beautiful, I love it.

Speaker 2: 9:00

So what as a team? Interesting enough, teamwork was unanimous. Absolutely everyone voted for teamwork. Okay, awesome, right. And then so we kind of had that discussion like all right, tell me what teamwork means to you. Yeah, and, just as any group. And we obviously tell me what teamwork means to you, just as a group. Obviously, we know that teamwork is teamwork. We know how that aligns and basically about sharing experiences, sharing knowledge, working together to accomplish objectives, helping each other A lot of sharing and exchanging, helping each other when they're in trouble. We're not on an island by ourselves. We have help, you know. Reach out. That's what a team's here for to support each other. When you're having a bad day. You know your strength is in the team.

Speaker 1: 9:49

Yeah, you know, I'll tell you. I mean, it didn't used to always be like that either. Where, where? Um, there used to be a lot of islands in our industry, a lot of silos, a lot of islands.

Speaker 2: 10:00

Sure, I really like that, um, next, as far as when it came to the voting, was accountability. So, and you start learning about your team members and what's important to them, and to hear that accountability was important to them, like wow, okay, cool, number one. I know I don't hold people accountable enough, right, so they're, they're asking for this, they think it's important to them, all right. And then asking what's that? What's that? That's that mean, you know, and then getting some of the feedback and, and you know, telling how it helps to self. You know that accountability helps to suffer self-improvement. A lot of improvement answers can help identify weaknesses. So, once again, so we can improve on those, right. So everything about the accountability was kind of like you talking about ownership, right, like taking ownership and then having that accountability to it and you're going to improve from that. You fail, right, we learn from that. We know we're not crucifying anybody. Right, we learn together, we grow together.

Speaker 1: 11:03

That's right. That's right and it's all part of the teamwork. It all kind of goes back to that.

Speaker 2: 11:08

Right, definitely, and that's why I said a lot of these align with each other. Right, they weren't obscure things and I think a lot of organizations at least in my limited research, I would like to think a lot of organizations have similar core values. I'd like to think, as people, that we naturally want a lot of these things. I know I do Well good, I hear your values and they said yeah, um, uh, how can you have?

Speaker 2: 11:39

teamwork if you have one person that's not being accountable true, you know well, and by by them helping to select these, knowing they're important, that accountability piece is much easier to put into play because, face it, as a team, we selected these and we felt that these are important for us. So guess what? Now we can say we can hold each other accountable because we know his accountability is important and and we talk about recognition and obviously those, those tools we use, we talk about and other things, yeah, as being core values. You know, it allows them to obviously appreciate each other by showing that through, obviously, the specific team values that we've now established, and I see the teamwork one, a lot People being thankful for the teamwork, you know, because they help me.

Speaker 2: 12:33

Even I had a team member yesterday. It was out without internet and one of the other team members helped her load up some prepaid data so she could still work and function until her internet came back up. And I'm like going that was teamwork, right, like they, she didn't have to do that, but no, she helped her make sure she could, cause she couldn't, she didn't have an internet, she couldn't have to do that, but no, she helped her make sure, because if she didn't have an internet she couldn't get to anything. So her team member, from her working computer, got everything set up and reactivated so she had data, so she could work and I'm like, hey, that's amazing.

Speaker 1: 13:06

It's not only camaraderie, it's everything. It's fantastic.

Speaker 2: 13:09

I love it. Thirdly was integrity, and we talked about integrity and that aspect kind of a little bit with you just a few minutes ago, so, and I thought what was interesting is hearing one of our team members come back and say integrity to this individual was the string that ties all the values together. Was the string that ties all the values together? It's like the string, the glue right, like the integrity, and obviously no integrity means but going. Hey, that's a really interesting way of seeing that right and like I never thought of it that way. But they also talk about doing the right thing right, whether it's independently, even when no one is looking or watching.

Speaker 2: 13:54

Yes, what are you going to do?

Speaker 1: 13:57

when no one else is looking, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 14:00

Especially. That's really important too, when you know everyone's working remotely in our organization. So there's not. I mean, yeah, we're in teams all day, but it's not like we're staring over people's shoulders watch what they're doing, so knowing the integrity is important to them.

Speaker 1: 14:15

You know it's so funny. I'm going to give an analogy for a second. But you know, in Texas we used to have red light cameras and then they got rid of them and I often see, unfortunately, people run red lights. And I often see, unfortunately, people run red lights and I have to wonder, do the people that not run the red lights if there's no one else around? Are they running the red light? Because for me, I don't want that person on my team. If that person is going to do something like that when no one else is looking, what else are they going to do?

Speaker 2: 14:57

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