(EOS Episode 35) You Do Not Need a Title to Lead

If your leadership team feels like it’s rowing the boat while everyone else watches, the fix might not be more pressure or better perks. It might be process. 

In this episode of Traction for Your Workplace Goals, certified EOS Implementer Michele Mollard about how clear, simple processes create the kind of workplace clarity that drives employee engagement, accountability, and better results, even when people are busy and the business is moving fast.

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EOS-Traction for Your Workplace Goals is a Livemic Communications production.

Transcript

Welcome And The Big Goal

Richard Piet 0:01

I'm Richard Piet. Welcome to Traction for Your Workplace Goals. We talk about attaining those goals and recognizing the fruits of that labor. Michele Mollard is a certified EOS implementer, and we benefit from her knowledge here in this series, but more importantly, you can from her guidance as an implementer. Welcome back, Michele.

Michele Mollard 0:31

Thank you so much, Richard. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Richard Piet 0:33

We've spent some time, I think, from the perspective of the leadership team, at least in the last episode or two.

Leadership Without The Title

Richard Piet 0:43

Now we're talking about folks who are employed and who are working for the leadership team and helping them through a process that involves this kind of understanding that EOS brings and clarity, right?

Michele Mollard 1:00

Yeah, absolutely. Uh thinking about a leading through process, um, this is kind of where my head is at with this, but it's not leading from a management down leading, it's a leading in an organization internally, right? And so how do I lead right where I'm at? So I do not need to have the title of a leadership to be a leader, right? There's lots of books written on that. Uh, and but that's a passion of ours. And so people say, Oh, Michele, I can't get the employee engagement I want to get. I can't get this, I can't get that. You guys, the hardest the component, there's six in EOS, the component is called process. It is one of the last ones that some of my clients do. It's the hardest one, but it will give you the biggest impact in employee engagement that you'll ever see. Lots, you know, I hate to poo-poo other ones, right? Some other implementers are probably listening to this. You guys know what we mean. All of them are important, but there's so much about this that when we can give clarity for our people through processes, through training, through measuring them and holding them accountable to a scorecard and activities. There's so much of that that touches on and catapults their ability to lead the organization, to be in this boat rowing with you as hard as you are. And so, leaders, I was just with a team out in Montana yesterday, sorry, Tuesday. And they're, you know, five of them, I say around the table, right? We're at a conference room. So five of them are in the boat, right? The table's the boat. And I said, and what happens if you had five other people rowing with you in that boat, rowing as hard as you? And I go, no one will row as hard as I. And I go, you wait and see. Because when we're done with all this, you wait and see because that's what we're trying to do. And so if you're a leader in your organization, you feel like you're rowing harder, it might be because this process component is not as dialed in as it should be. And I'm gonna change the script here in about uh three minutes about what we mean about it, because it's not a 600-page SOP binder that nobody looks at. And so that's what you're thinking. Scrap that idea, listen to the next few minutes, and I'll share with you what it is in our minds to be able to help this move

Why Process Drives Engagement

Michele Mollard 3:14

forward for you.

Richard Piet 3:14

So boy, I'm lingering on this notion that you don't have to be in the leadership team to be a leader. Think about that for a second.

Michele Mollard 3:23

Right. And so think about like if I knew, if if if if I was a salesperson and I was very clear on how to execute the CRM, right? Customer relationship management platform tools, right? There's plenty of their I don't get paid for saying any of them, so we'll just leave it at that. But they they right, we had there's lots and lots of details of that. And so if there's one of your salespeople that are just doing that well every single time they're putting it all in there, they're putting down birth dates and and everything like that, right? And so if I could literally pick that up and be like, hey, oh, it's a reminder that it's Richard's uh secondborns of you know, sweet 16 today, and I can email my customer and say, hey, congratulations on your daughter making 16, you know, like great, like she's driving all the things, and we're engaging on a personal level. Uh that's a whole nother story about that. But if they're doing that process well and there's other salespeople on there, and that person, I will tell you out of experience as well, because I've been doing sales my entire life, that relationship that they're having with their customer on the sales on is very different than somebody who's transactional. They're building a deep relationship with their customer. And if that other person, if the if the process is written, that these are all the things, the details that we want to have in the CRM, and people are like, why do they all need it? I have a relationship with them. If that's where your ego is, it's not about that. It's about doing that process well. And so, Richard, if I'm doing that process well and there's four other people, I can bring them along. I can lead my co-workers right along. It doesn't have to come from the sales manager, and so everybody can lead right where they're at to make the company great. And so now I am on that boat, rowing as hard as my sales manager, right? And that's we're trying to get to. And I can help others be accountable to help get on this boat.

Richard Piet 5:10

And that can be invigorating.

Michele Mollard 5:12

I hope so.

Richard Piet 5:14

And motivating. Yeah.

Michele Mollard 5:15

Yeah. And I would say that if it's not invigorating and not motivating, find somebody else that it is, right? Because if that's not it, I mean, I love it when even some of my customers, when I was out in Montana, we went fly fishing together. I've gone skiing with these guys. I've had dinner at their house twice with their kids, right? And we're building this relationship that is un undividable, right? Um, and we're knowing everything about everybody and doing all the things. I actually invited them to go on vacation with us. We had a ski vacation and we had two people back out and I just threw them in there. I'm like, you want to come with us? And I I've known them nine months, six months, six months. Um, but we build that relationship, right? And so uh I would say that, yeah, if they're not, if your salespeople aren't jiving and trying to get that, um you're missing the boat because these guys, I mean, I you know, they they're probably listening. They'll leave me eventually, right? We only we have them for two years, but we're building a lasting relationship that won't change. Like I know all their kids, right? Like it's just it's just a cool experience.

Richard Piet 6:11

So you become a part of that process. There's that word again, but you become a product of that process that uh is very uh indelible. So why is process the hardest?

The 20 Percent That Matters

Michele Mollard 6:23

Our our mindset, this is how we believe strongly about it. Uh, it is the hardest because people do think that I need to make a 70-page binder writing all the details out. So here's this actually exactly four minutes in. Uh, so here's the secret 2080. I said that right. 2080. Write that down.

Richard Piet 6:46

Yeah.

Michele Mollard 6:47

So we are going to look at as a leadership team, we are gonna own and we are going to uh obsess about writing 20% of the processes, as far as we're gonna write them all, but only 20% of the detail. But that 20% will give us 80% of the results. And so in our world, these are called core processes. There is five to 15, 5 to 15 max core processes within any organization. There's a sales, there's a marketing, there's an HR, there's a handful of operations depending on what you're doing and from a company standpoint, right? Uh, there is an accounting function, and there is a customer service function. Now, again, there can be some more nuances, right? Depending on how big you are. There might be an IT function, there might be right different things, but five to 15, and all you're doing is a major outline. So let's use HR and say we've got to know that there's a a problem, a missing link, right? We've got to search for them, we've got to interview them. Once we get them, we've got to onboard them, we've got to train them, and ultimately we have to terminate them, sadly to say, but we might, right? And so those are the steps. Those are the major steps of HR. If we miss one of those major steps, 20%, we are not gonna get 80% of the results. If I forget to interview somebody, we got a problem. If I forget to identify the need, we got a problem. If I forget to terminate, you're getting the point, right? Yeah. So I'm not trying to belabor it and be funny about it, but I am. And so sales has the same things. So core processes, owning those 20% to give us 80%. Then, Peter, you're the sales manager, you're on the leadership team, you own the sales core process. Now you go to train me. That core process has to turn into some sort of training process, more detail, right? And so the CRM, let's use that, right? It's a it one of the major steps is enter data in the CRM, right? That's a major step. And if that's not done, but now I need to know what data you're looking for, right? And so now you bring me on and say, okay, Michele, today is the CRM training day, right? And here is when you have a new customer. This is all the information in the first six months that I want you to gather on them. It's not right away. I'm not gonna be like, and your kid's birthday and your wife's and what's your anniversary? Like, no, just get it organically by building a relationship, right? But then filling in this data. Now, their EIN, right? Their address, some of these things are majorly needed, right? But what do I need and what's that order? That isn't an SOP that you, Richard, and Michele own and design and go. And then we train Michele on it. We measure Michele on it, meaning that hey, CRM data must be put in in 24 hours. Did you do it or didn't you do it? There's a scorecard. If you've been listening to these uh podcasts, there's the scorecard that I need to manage Michele on it. And the beauty of managing Michele on it is it's clear. Here is the CRM tagline, here's all the things that I need you to do. There's nothing unclear about what I'm expected to do with the CRM. And so when you manage Michele, you're not managing Michele's personality, which sometimes is a pain in the butt, but you're managing the process, consistency managing the process. And so Michele was there, and Joe was there, and all those. Joe, you didn't do the fourth thing in CRM. Why didn't you do it? I didn't feel like it. Well, it's kind of not negotiable. Now we got right now. We're dealing with personalities. We don't deal with personalities. Managing humans is so much fun if we're clear, they're fully trained, and managing them is just like there's a process, and I'm clear and you're clear, I'm gonna execute all day long. All day long.

Richard Piet 10:33

So this is why this is tough, because a fair amount of the time we may not have clarity on our processes, and that gets that gums up the works.

Michele Mollard 10:44

It gums up the works, and that's what I'm saying. Like slow down to go fast. And some people say, Well, we can't slow down, we can't take time. You have to. I'm begging you to slow down, right? And as a leader, you don't have to know all the details. And so you might have heard me say this in the past podcasts. Those that use the broom should buy the broom. So leaders think that they need to write the sales process, except they haven't done the full sales process in 10 years. Stop it. You don't know it anymore. Core process, major steps, heck yeah, you know it. As far as how that is all done, and they have learned in the sales force, the sales team saying, Hey, um, you know, this is the kind of ideal time to ask uh what their birthdays are or get personal or do is they know better than you do. Sorry. Sorry. I I I probably ticked off a lot of people, and I'm hoping you'll come see another podcast of mine. I do everything out of love, but sometimes we have to put up a mirror and saying we are the problem. Um, and so when we don't have it and we don't have clarity, we don't have engagement, people don't come to work saying, can I screw up today? Let me see if I can screw up. No one's wired that way. They have maybe learned that way and are upset enough that they are doing that. I'm not saying no one's doing that. So hear me. When they come in, they're not wired that way, right? They want to do good work. People, most people want to do good work. It's just this clear expectation of what's done and the consistency from Michele salesperson to Joe salesperson to Betty salesperson, that this is the way we do

Systemize Predictable Then Humanize

Michele Mollard 12:22

it. And so there's another expression that I would love for you guys to write down. It's called systemize the predictable so we can humanize the exceptional. So systemize everything that Michele needs to do in this CRM, Joe needs to do, and Betty needs to do in the CRM. And when Michele or Joe or Betty goes above and beyond, we can celebrate or humanize the exceptional, right? And so all we're doing is systemizing the predictable. And people say, oh, that takes the fun out of it. Heck no. If I know exactly what I need to do and I can take my relationship to my customer and go skiing with them and fly fishing with them, I'm humanizing the exceptional. Absolutely getting to the level that we now need to do that. There's an absolute stickiness in our relationship. But I've done everything right to now.

Richard Piet 13:08

So that's how we know we've hit the mark on this. There's no cloudiness about what needs to be done and who's doing it.

Michele Mollard 13:18

And again, some of the cloudiness comes from the leadership team pushing down what they think is happening in the field and it's not happening, and you're pushing back and you're not listening to your people. And sometimes the people are pushing back and they're trying to cut corners. Don't hear me that say that's right, right? But they but get on the same page and be like, this is the way I think it needs to be done, leadership team. This is the way it's actually get done, and listen, because there could be a better mousetrap in there that you just haven't thought about, but there could be really workarounds that are really crappy and we're not gonna accept it either. But listen and work together as opposed to push and mandate. But they are the ones using the broom. They are doing this day in and day out. And so just it's not, it's not, no one's 100% right, right? You're not and they're not. But we've got to do this together. We've got to be able to do that. And you give them power like that to be heard, your employee engagement goes through the roof. We just say we don't have time, we don't have time, we don't have time. Make time. You've got to make time for your people. Got

Signs Your Process Is Broken

Michele Mollard 14:14

to.

Richard Piet 14:14

So at the risk of asking something that might be obvious, but let's be clear. If someone doesn't have this process nailed down right now, yeah, what are some of the symptoms they would see, the results of that?

Michele Mollard 14:31

You'll see uh inconsistency from one person doing that same job, right? So if you have thir first, second, and third shift and you're making a widget and it's not flowing the same from one shift to the next, or they're not making the same amount. Um, some of that stuff you may learn that first shift does a certain way, second shift does it a certain way, not consistently done, right? So you'll see differences in execution. I've had this too, where you see teammates going at each other, right? And so they're saying, but you did it this way, but you did it this way. They don't know what's right. And so they're even getting pitted against each other, right? And so they don't know what's right. And so you'll see that. Uh, you'll see a lack of performance. You'll see a lack of, well, if they can't tell me how clear to do this, I'll just wait to wait, get directions, right? And so instead of somebody being able to see the process and run, once done, checklist, checklist, checklist, they'll go checklist, checklist. Well, there's no other thing, nothing over there. I'll wait.

Richard Piet 15:26

Wow, just stop.

Michele Mollard 15:27

Richard, well, I'm I'm done and I'll wait for you to give me my next thing to do. And so sometimes you see that, right? Because they're just unclear of how that journey goes and what they own, not from a business ownership standpoint, but what they own of the process. Let them be fully engaged to drive, right? Humanize the exceptional, right? Or not just talking, just celebrating what they've done, what they should be doing. It's when they go above and beyond, and they're not going to go above and beyond if you give them nothing. What other things that you're seeing that I see out there that is uh those are the kind of the biggest ones. Um you know, I do think there's, you know, you'll you'll have your top performers uh and you won't have the ones that are not as top performers. That that's kind of always right. So I don't think that's really a great indicator, but sometimes it is. Um, you know, you've got your top performers that are just gonna figure out how to make a better mousetrap, and the other ones are just gonna wait. So a little bit of both.

Richard Piet 16:18

Okay. Does any of that sound familiar to you? Maybe you'd like to run that by Michele just to make sure that's what you're seeing. Yeah. You're available for a 30-minute call and there's no obligation there,

Make Process Videos And Next Steps

Richard Piet 16:34

right?

Michele Mollard 16:34

Absolutely. I would love to see you guys put the core processes together, you know, the five to 15, and just outline them like a table of contents. It ends up like a table of contents in a binder. And I don't mean a binder because you could use Google Drive or you could use OneNote or OneDrive, or I don't even know all the things anymore. Um, but right, it doesn't matter where you house it um and and call it, but it is a table of contents. And then you can link it and then there's so many, there's so much great stuff out there technology-wise, of making videos. Stop writing, stop, stop writing processes, writing, physically writing processes, stop, make videos, people are not gonna read it. Start making videos, they're really real. And oh, by the way, you don't have to make a leadership team. Have the person on the floor make the video. They see their coworker making the video, they see themselves in that, they don't see this mucky muck up there, right? Even if it's a small organization, they still feel that way. And so when Richard and I are on the same line and I'm training Richard and he's seeing me, the line person making a video about how to make this widget. There's a there's already a level of understanding and a level of camaraderie because we're at the same level. And I don't mean that derogatory either, right? So, you know, if you have written documents already, my next thing is make a video out of it and let somebody else make it. It doesn't have to be massively produced either. Like, right? Grab the iPhone, grab yourself. Hey, how are you doing? This is how we make that. That's it. Rue it real and raw because if you're waiting for a huge production, you'll never do it. It's too much money, too much time.

Richard Piet 18:03

How to lead people through the process. That's the focus of this Traction for Your Workplace Goals. There are many others that we have uh explored and lots more to come. Subscribe to Traction for Your Workplace Goals, and you'll be in the loop when these episodes come available, and you'll have quick access to the ones we've already done, and you can have a look. And as Michele said, she's happy to talk to you. Contact info in the show notes. Click through today and schedule that. Michele Mollard, we'll be back soon.

Michele Mollard 18:38

Thanks for having me, Richard.