Unlocking Team Potential with Transforming Communication

Join Anthony Karls, President of Rocket Clicks, and Matt Hacker as they discuss the importance of leadership training and development in driving revenue for local businesses. Explore Rocket Clicks' 'Transforming Team Communication' workshop and learn how it helps improve team alignment, productivity, and retention.

00:00 Introduction to Revenue Roadmap
00:17 Leadership Training and Development
00:42 The Importance of Melon Hats
01:45 Transforming Team Communication Workshop
03:42 Understanding Leadership Voices
05:48 The Power of Your Voice
06:56 The Art of Collaboration
09:13 Optimizing Team Performance
10:26 Common Pitfalls in Team Development
11:06 Implementing the Workshops
18:40 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

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https://rocketclicks.com/client-education/team-potential-transforming-communication/

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Transcript

Anthony Karls: 0:00

All right, here we go. So this is Revenue Roadmap, where we talk about driving revenue in local businesses. I'm Anthony Carls, president of RocketClicks. Today I am with Matt Hawker. Thank you for being with us today, Matt. So today we're going to continue our conversation that we had last time. Talk about one of our big pillars here at Rocket Clicks, which is leadership training and development. Uh, you help participate in that. You lead our, you lead one of our, uh, workshop series that we run here internally called transforming team communication. Uh, so we're gonna talk a little bit about that, what it is, why it's important and how it important, how it helps drive revenue in businesses. So big question before we start is why do you like Mellon hats?

Matt Hacker: 0:45

Why do I like? I do. I love melon hats. Um, they're a little on the pricey side for a hat, but you get what you pay for. So melon hats, uh, this is not an endorsement, but I would, I would endorse them. Uh, they are waterproof first of all. So I have a bald head. Okay. Uh, I also live in Iowa and I like to swim. Those things don't mix if you don't have any hair. So I wear a melon hat. They're waterproof. So first of all, that's amazing. Second thing is it's also really, really hot. And when you, when you sweat normal hats, they leave like a salt ring around, not melon hats. They don't, they don't stain melon hats. Don't sweat. Don't have no sweat stains. So, and they just look cool. So those are the reasons why I love melon hats.

Anthony Karls: 1:33

Yeah. Matt's been talking about them since he started. But my first one, I thought I'd wear it for this podcast, just to support Matt and his endeavor to advocate for them. So, all right, so let's talk about transforming team communication. So that's one of our, one of our workshops we run here. It's all about leader. One of the things we believe here is if we're going to grow, our team's got to grow. One of the ways we help our team grow is through. Leadership development. So one of those programs we run that every team member here needs to go through is called transforming team communication. So Matt, what, what is this overall? How does it fit into

Matt Hacker: 2:13

Absolutely. So transforming team communication is part of giant, which we talked about last time and. Basically, it's, it's a series of workshops where we, we lead our team through each one of these series to help them understand what their leadership voice is, uh, to help them understand how their voice communicates and, um, interacts with other voices. Not all voices, uh, are, are easy. Some voices, uh, go against each other's natural tendencies. So how do we, how do we work with that and how do we collaborate? Uh, with with people that have different voice types. Um, how do we create the best, the best teams possible? Uh, utilizing all of the different voices on our team. And then lastly, excuse me. Lastly, there are things that, uh, will be kind of like the kryptonite. of this being able to be ran flawlessly, not flawlessly, but being ran within your organization. And we, we touch base on those because we want people to understand like. There's going to be things that work against you in your, in your pursuit to make this happen. And this is, this is how you get through those. This is how you work through those things. So, um, those are kind of all of the different workshops and parts of what transforming team communication is all about.

Anthony Karls: 3:40

nice? Well, you, so you mentioned a couple of things. So one of them is one of them, you mentioned the word voices. So tell us what those, I think we talked about a little bit last time, but remind us what are, what are voices in the giant lexicon and how do we figure out like what voice order we are?

Matt Hacker: 3:57

So we take a there's an assessment, uh, that we take at the very beginning and then, um, part of workshop one is, um, you will you will go through this and you will kind of self assess based off of the things that you learn, right? And and from that, uh, there are there are five different voice types. So there's a nurture creative guardian connector and a pioneer. So each voice type has certain attributions. Or each voice type, uh, is like the champion of a certain type of, of, of thing. So for example, a nurturer is the champion of the people. Like they're all about relational harmony. Okay. Uh, creatives, they're champion of like future ideas and innovation. Uh, Tony happens to be a creative, uh, a guardian. They are really big on like due diligence, asking questions and then asking questions about the questions. Uh, to make sure that they get the right answer. Connectors. I am a connector. Uh, we are all about relational networks, collaboration, people. Um, I know a guy who knows a guy if you need a thing done. That type of a thing. Uh, and then pioneers. Pioneers are really big on strategic vision, problem solving, resource oriented. So, basically. Our team self assesses and then we go through workshop one and after workshop one they can kind of reassess what their, what their self assessment was to see if, if anything needs to change within their voice.

Anthony Karls: 5:30

So then, uh, so after we kind of get an understanding of, so in workshop one, we're understanding what the voices are, uh, what they're the champions of, uh, kind of what they feel like so that we can understand like, is this me or is this not me? Um, what do we do in workshop two? What does workshop two look like?

Matt Hacker: 5:48

Uh, workshop two is all about like understanding all about your voice. So it's called the power of your voice and it's what do you bring with your voice to your team? It also teaches us like the negative impact of our voices. So, um, we all have what are called weapon systems. And, uh, if we're not careful, it's easy for us to let those weapon systems out from a collaboration and leadership and team communication standpoint. So it kind of teaches us about that. Um,

Anthony Karls: 6:26

So really brings, so really brings awareness to strengths, strengths of others, and then potential natural tendency downfalls. Uh, and helps start creating bridges between people.

Matt Hacker: 6:38

Absolutely.

Anthony Karls: 6:39

Nice. so and then, so we do so we do that. What's the, what's the third workshop about? So, we're, we've got five, five of these in this. And then we'll talk, at the end, we'll talk a little bit about how we, how we implement this. Uh, how long it takes typically to get through all five of these. So, what's workshop three about?

Matt Hacker: 6:57

Workshop three is the art of collaboration. And basically that is all about enhancing your team's communication. Um, how to leverage the strengths of each person on the team, how to enable each person on their team to bring the best to the team, and then how to increase capacity in general.

Anthony Karls: 7:16

Yeah. A good example of like how to leverage voices is, so I'm a, I'm a creative pioneer, so I'm very future oriented. I'm very logic driven. So when we do team communications, I'm not the person that should really be the person writing what we should do. Cause in my head, the work we're already there, we're already moving on to the next thing. Let's just go. Uh, and all of our present oriented, uh, high emotional IQ people, um, they don't, they don't, that doesn't get, uh, Accepted well, uh, because they want to know the details. They want to know how it impacts us today. How does this impact all the people, all of the questions that should be asked, they will ask well. Uh, so when we do an example of when we do change, uh, we recently, uh, did a large change here at Rocket Clicks. Um, from, uh, how are we going to. Uh, I had version one that I wrote up and I passed that off to several people on our team that are not future oriented logic driven. They were more present oriented, emotion driven, and we created a way better communication to the team because it didn't necessarily I didn't I didn't draft it and all the things that were on it after I, So my version, which was like two lines, uh, this is the change. Um, it. was way better written, way better received, way less concerns. Cause their look, the, those, those voices were looking around the corner. I'm like, here's all the things that everybody's gonna be concerned about. I'm not concerned about all those at all. Good thing, good thing you were, you were involved. So that's about how do we leverage each other, um, practically, because like, you might have a good idea, you might be way out in front, but if you don't have a, if you're not leveraging each other, you're likely leaving people in your wake. Um, is a good way to describe it.

Matt Hacker: 9:08

Yep, that's exactly it.

Anthony Karls: 9:10

Cool, so what is, what's Workshop 4 about?

Matt Hacker: 9:13

Workshop 4 is called Optimizing Team Performance. And basically this is where we get into the conversation of like the characteristics of really high performing teams. And honestly, who doesn't want that, right? So I love Workshop 4 because, you know, getting through Workshop 1, 2, and 3, as we take people through it, There's you will you will learn along the way, and people will start to understand more. And I think when it gets to when we get to workshop for and we start talking about, like, high performing teams and, like, what those characteristics are, what those look like, and how each voice, um, connects to those people really start to get it. And that's when I see people really start to get. excited. Um, because what we're doing is we're really, uh, talking about the, the importance and putting emphasis on like team alignment in, in workshop four. So workshop four is, is a great one for that for so many reasons, because those things connect to businesses in so many different ways

Anthony Karls: 10:15

Yeah. Nice. And then you said, you mentioned the word kryptonite. No, that's kind of the last workshop. So these are kind of the

Matt Hacker: 10:22

I did. Yeah. So

Anthony Karls: 10:24

water. What's what's workshop five about.

Matt Hacker: 10:26

yeah, basically. It's the five most common reasons that a team won't fulfill their full potential. And it's giving people a heads up on, Hey, this is going to happen through the progression of, of creating a team like this. Um, this is how you can be aware of it. This is how you work through those things, um, to hopefully lessen the impact. We can't make those things not happen because it's naturally there they're going to, but we can, we can, we can change and we can be ready for them and adjust. If, if we, if we know kind of what to look for and how to, how to work through that.

Anthony Karls: 11:05

Nice. So let's start a little bit next about what do we, like, how do we implement this? So like, what does that implementation look like? How do we do these, how do we do these meetings? How long does it take? Like, what does that look like?

Matt Hacker: 11:19

So we have a meeting, uh, we have, we have different groups of people, uh, well, these are video led meetings. So there's, there is a video series that we watch that we will, we'll pause the video and, and there's like a time for team collaboration. We, we talk through things, we work through things. Um, And each each meeting is an hour every week. Um, and I don't really try to push like we have to get through this today. Um, from from that standpoint, because when when conversations naturally starts to happen, I like to let that conversation within our team flow because that's when that's when learning happens. That's when growth happens from a communication standpoint. So I let that naturally go. So

Anthony Karls: 12:03

How many, how many people are how many people are generally in these?

Matt Hacker: 12:07

So I would say anywhere from like, Six, any less than six. Like sometimes you get that awkward quietness and I I'm very good at just sitting and being awkward and quiet if I need to be, but, uh, from a communication and a leadership perspective, like it's not really what giant's all about. So I would say six. Anywhere up to, like, 10 to 12, um, you don't want to have too many, like, people in on the conversation because then it's really hard for everybody to get their voice heard. So I think what I found is anywhere from like that 6 to 10 to 12 people is is really a good size.

Anthony Karls: 12:48

So you're, so you're meeting,

Matt Hacker: 12:49

session less. was gonna say each session lasts an hour. Um, we meet every week. Um, and I would say like the duration of all of the workshops for trans, um, uh, transforming team communication, I would say it takes anywhere from like four to five months to get through.

Anthony Karls: 13:08

So in your, and through, through that, through that process, the team's getting to know each other more, they're developing relationships and like in the, you're meeting weekly, you're playing, uh, playing a video, you're pausing it, and then you guys are workshopping that content and sharing and how, how does that land with different perspectives? So each week, like the team is learning more about voices that are different from theirs or similar to theirs and how the world is processed through their,

Matt Hacker: 13:32

And what's really cool is like you can see progress throughout Giant. Throughout the duration of that four to five months. So we'll, we'll talk about something one week. And then when we talk again, the next week, people will bring up, Oh, that thing that we talked about last week, like there was a practical application of that, that happened since we last met. This is what it looked like. We're like, cool. And that's how we can learn from each other along the way. It's not just giant. Isn't just a train giant is also a way for us to learn from each other throughout this practical application of this four to five months.

Anthony Karls: 14:06

Yeah. The other, the other thing that's been, um, cool with giant is how it applies to your relationships generally. Cause it's not just, it's not just your work relationships. It gives you a lens to see the world, see, see through more clearly all of your relational interactions in the world. And like, maybe you're, maybe you have frustrations with somebody and they're, they may be more built in like your, both of your natural tendencies and you're unaware of that. And now you might be more aware of it. And it might give you a little more patience and tools to lean into that conversation and approach it differently. And we're literally changed the dynamic of the relationship. So it's

Matt Hacker: 14:49

Yeah,

Anthony Karls: 14:49

valuable in my own life for, with my wife, you know, it's been helpful for the team.

Matt Hacker: 14:55

absolutely, this isn't just a work thing, like the things that you learn from, from transforming communication to Giant in general, those are things that you can take with you in other areas of your life. Um, you know, as you go through this, you learn about like different voice types are different. They, they're, they think differently from like a, some voices care about the, the, immediate future and like right now and some people care about the future a lot more. Um, as you meet people and you, you learn about them and you hear them talk like you, I can pretty much tell like, okay, this person is a future future thinking person. So that's the, that's how I'm going to be successful in this conversation and talking to them. And I learned that through giant and the rest of our team is learning that as well.

Anthony Karls: 15:38

How would you, so as it, as it pertains to, you know, the point of this podcast is how do we help, how do we help, uh, local small businesses drive more, drive more revenue and improve their business? How does this, how does this particularly. Supporting that.

Matt Hacker: 15:57

Yeah. Um, team, especially when you're a small business is going to be one of the most important things for your business and making sure that your team is aligned and everybody's speaking the same language and everybody understands how to communicate with each other, knowing that the, that multiple people aren't necessarily the same, uh, they think differently, they act differently and that's okay, but they understand how to communicate with each other Um, that's going to, that's going to be mind blowing from you from a productivity standpoint, from, uh, a business growth standpoint. Um, if you have an unaligned team that are doing unaligned tasks. Using different phrases and verbiage for everything that they do, uh, your business isn't going to be in business for very long because your team is going to fail. People are going to leave. People are going to get frustrated. Um, so making sure that everybody is aligned is going to keep you. It's going to help keep you in business. It's going to help help you grow your business.

Anthony Karls: 17:07

Yeah. So really is that we, I know we use this for like too big, the too big, like if we're going to boil this down to metrics, it would be, how do we improve, prove our retention and how do we increase our productivity and that will show up because we're, We're having the real conversations. We're solving the right problems. The team is more engaged because we see, we, they see us as investing in them and their growth. I think it was Henry Ford that said you have two options with your team. You can be afraid to train them because they might leave, um, or You can not train them and they could stay and his, his perspective. And I think he did. Okay. It was, I'd rather train them and give them the opportunity to leave, but actually create that culture versus not train them. And then I have the problem in my business and they are still here. Um, so, you know, this really helps us. Attack those, those two very specific problems is how to, how do we improve our team member retention? Um, how do we increase our overall product productivity and how do we build that next, next person up mentality within our team? So as we grow, we're able to absorb the opportunity.

Matt Hacker: 18:16

Absolutely. There's a, there's a quote. I can't remember who said it, but you know, in, in business, sometimes the, the question is, you know, I don't know if we can afford to do that. And when it comes to this, it's like, I don't know if you can afford not to. Like, you can't afford not to invest in your team. The way that we've done that is through Giant and transforming team communication has been vital in us to build the team that we have.

Anthony Karls: 18:40

Awesome. Well, appreciate it, Matt. Any closing thoughts before we wrap up?

Matt Hacker: 18:44

Uh, no, I know that we'll be back to talk about some other things, uh, in depth, so I'm excited for that and, uh, I appreciate your time. Thank you.

Anthony Karls: 18:52

Appreciate it. Thank you, sir.