Why Most Managers Stay Overwhelmed And How to Fix It

Many leaders don't burn out because they're overworked. They burn out because they're carrying the work of their entire team.

In this episode, Nathan Bush sits down with Mayce DelValle and Missy Washam, co-founders of Impactful Messages, two leadership experts who coach managers across the U.S. and internationally on how to build confident teams, create accountability without micromanaging, and develop real leadership capacity inside their organizations.

Whether you're leading a clinic, a back-office team, or a fully remote group of virtual assistants spread across the Philippines, Mexico, or India, this conversation is a roadmap for becoming the kind of leader your team actually wants to follow.

If you're a healthcare owner, operator, or manager who feels like everything depends on you, this episode is the reset you've been looking for.

About Snapscale
At Snapscale, we help healthcare practices scale their operations with HIPAA-compliant virtual assistants trained specifically for healthcare workflows.

Learn more: https://www.snapscale.com

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In this episode, you'll learn:
• Why leaders burn out carrying their team's work and how to stop
• The real difference between management and leadership
• How to lead remote teams across cultures, time zones, and language barriers
• The "checkup from the neck up", why self-leadership comes before team leadership
• How to systemize connection so it sticks
• The "slow down to go fast" principle and why reflection changes everything

Connect with Mayce DelValle and Missy Washam:
Website: http://mpactfulmessages.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maycedelvalle/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/missywasham/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mpactful_messages/

00:00 - Introduction
02:00 - Why Healthcare Leaders Burn Out
07:00 - Micromanagement, Fear & Letting Go of Control
12:00 - Connection: The Hub of Every Strong Team
21:00 - Management vs. Leadership: The Real Difference
24:00 - Leading Remote Teams Across Cultures
33:00 - Systemizing Connection at Scale
43:00 - The Story That Proves It Works

#HealthcareLeadership #RemoteTeams #VirtualAssistants #PracticeManagement

Transcript

Introduction

SPEAKER_05 0:00

Welcome to the Snap Scale Show, hosted by Mike Jablanowitz and Nathan Bush. In every episode, we explore the real challenges and breakthroughs happening in modern healthcare operations. This is the Snap Scale Show. Many leaders don't burn out because they're overworked. They burn out because they're carrying the work of their team. In today's show, I'm going to unpack why this happens. My guests are experts at understanding how to work with remote teams and leadership and how to build these things into a way that's going to help you and impact your business. So without further ado, I want to welcome uh Macy DeVell and Missy Washam. These two are incredible leadership experts, co-founder of Impactful Messages. And they help managers build confident teams, create accountability without micromanaging, and develop real leadership capacity inside organizations. They've coached leaders across teams across the US internationally. And they they work with overwhelm managers to help them become study effect steady effective leaders who actually get results. Welcome, Macy and Missy. How are you?

SPEAKER_02 1:23

Hi, thanks so much for having me. Thanks for having us, Nathan.

SPEAKER_05 1:28

Yeah, absolutely. So how'd you get into leadership? Bring me up to speed and help me understand where impactful messages come from.

SPEAKER_00 1:36

Yeah, well, I'll start, miss, and then that sounds great as we always do. Um, so so I got into leadership because I had a series of really bad leaders. Um, I have the example of leaders that just were not so great and really just kept thinking to myself, there had to be a better way, and I was gonna find

Why Healthcare Leaders Burn Out

SPEAKER_00 2:00

the better way. I was gonna create the better way. And then Missy and I met at a conference, and as they say, the rest is history, right?

SPEAKER_02 2:09

Yes. And I would say the reason I was at the conference, Nathan, to begin with, is because I'm a former elementary school teacher. I left the classroom and began a franchise in my community, and I had about 20 women working for me. We were serving children in the community in preschools, and I suddenly realized that it was a lot easier to lead my 30 second graders than it was to lead 20 adult women. And I thought, I've got to grow myself so that I can lead them well and I can help them lead well within the community. And so that's how I began my journey toward leadership. I absolutely fell in love with it and met Macy, and we were given um some training and we connected and we were like, you know, let's go out and make a difference together. And so we believe in the power of partnership and the effectiveness that leadership can bring any organization. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_05 3:07

I I love that. A lot of leaders that we work with are in the healthcare space and they're working with clinics and patients and front office staff, back office staff. What do you think the real reason is that these leaders are getting overwhelmed? I hear it every single day when I'm talking to them.

SPEAKER_00 3:26

Yeah, I mean, I think there's a couple of things. I mean, one is they're trying to do too much, yeah. Right. Like when you're in a leadership role and you have your finger on the pulse. Now listen, you have to know what's going on, right? You're the you're the bot, you're the bottom line person. You need to be responsible for the numbers and the production and the productivity and all of that. But at the end of the day, if you're trying to do it all because you're afraid to empower, then that's where you're gonna get stuck, is because you're not giving other people the um really the control. You need to let go of control. People need to be able to do some things without you.

SPEAKER_02 4:07

Yeah. And I think you they have to let go of the idea of it's if it's gonna be done, it's gonna be done my way. Um, they they absolutely have this feeling inside of that they they need to be a part of it. Yeah. That they and they confuse like being needed or wanting to be needed to be a part of it for those end results to be done a certain way at a certain time with being effective.

SPEAKER_06 4:33

Right.

SPEAKER_02 4:33

And quite frankly, the the more they put their fingers in the pie to make sure that it ends up the way they want it, when they want it, and how they want it, the more exhausted they become, the more frustrated they become. And that's why leadership is so important, is because you want to be able to empower those people in a way where you're not as worried about how the results are created, but that they are created. And a lot of times they're created faster, better, more efficiently, than you could do it if you had your thumb in the pie. Yeah, agreed.

SPEAKER_05 5:14

Yeah, I mean, you're leading into something that is very important in leadership, which is self-leadership.

SPEAKER_00 5:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 5:20

We can lead anybody else, we've got to be able to lead ourselves. Can you talk a little bit about self-leadership?

SPEAKER_00 5:26

Yeah, I mean, I think self-leadership starts with an awareness, right? What kind of leader am I? What kind of leader do I want to be? And asking ourselves sometimes those tough questions. So if you could say, okay, what kind of leader am I? Oh, I am a micromanager. Like, that's not the leader I want to be. Or what kind of leader do I want to be? I want to be that empowering leader. But Nathan, you're exactly right. Like you have to know yourself first. You have to know who you are. And you, but I would say equally as important, when you know that, you also have to get to know people on your team, whether they're right next door in a cubicle or they are across the world in a foreign land, you have to know things about them in order to lead them effectively.

SPEAKER_02 6:14

Yeah. Macy and I often call it, Nathan, the checkup from the neck up. You know, that comes first. And so if you can't manage your own time, your own emotions and the way you communicate, your priorities, then the you certainly aren't going to be able to manage that with a team. So leadership does, it starts from within. And as you lead yourself well, it actually becomes inspiration for your team to lead themselves well. And they'll buy into what you're doing because they see it being effective, and they'll want to be like you in many ways. And that's what leadership is, right? Right. It's that multiplication. That's right.

SPEAKER_05 6:59

Yeah,

Micromanagement, Fear & Letting Go of Control

SPEAKER_05 7:00

a lot of these healthcare leaders run into the challenge, especially with remote staff for some reason, of feeling the need that either they micromanage or they don't manage at all.

SPEAKER_06 7:10

Right?

SPEAKER_05 7:10

There's there's only two typically ends of the spectrum that I've seen. I've seen some really, really good uh uh clinicians who do this well, or even uh you know, executives in healthcare that that work with our remote teams. But I see a lot of more often than not, either micromanaging or hands-off management. Can you kind of explain to me why people are one or the other and what they should do about it?

SPEAKER_00 7:36

Yeah, Mitch, do you want to go first?

SPEAKER_02 7:38

Yeah, I'll definitely I and I think it goes, it's a great segue from what we were just saying. And and I I personally feel like the reason leaders tend to micromanage, it really just comes down to fear. It's gonna be fear of mistakes, it's gonna be uh fear of losing control, fear of someone doing it better than them sometimes, right? It it is the the fear of not being in complete control, and so I'm gonna be in control of everything. So they go from one extreme of what a leader should be doing. You were talking about the hands off, to this micromanaging in a way that quite frankly, it doesn't feel good to people. Nobody wants to be micromanaged. Micromanaging um makes you feel like, why did you hire me in the first place? If you've given me this task, right? You've given me this task, then trust me to do it. And I think the reason leaders often don't is because of fear. What were you gonna say, Mace?

SPEAKER_00 8:44

Well, I was gonna say, yes, of course, there's always fear, but I think we always say that connection is the core to leadership, right? Like if you think of leadership as a tire and connection is in the center, and then you have all these spokes of the tire, right? But connection is the hub. And I think if if leaders aren't taking time to connect with the people that work with them, even if they're remote. Like, yes, we understand you do it at onboarding, but then how often are you connecting with them during the week or during the month or during the quarter or during the year? Like obviously it's challenging when you're remote, but we have a team that is remote. I mean, Missy and I are remote from each other, right? We don't even live in the same town, but we connect every single day. And with our team, we connect every single week so that there's these check-in points, so that there is that trust. Like Missy said, you hired me for a specific job, just let me do my job. And when you're connected to your people, that trust builds, and then you can let them do the job you hired them for.

SPEAKER_02 9:48

And just to piggyback on that, Macy, like micromanaging says, I don't trust you, right? Even if you're connected, right? It's like the the words you say don't matter if you're micromanaging. But when you can get to know your people, which is so important, you'll hear us say it over and over, like Macy just said, then you begin to understand where their strengths are. Right. You begin to know what they're good at, and then your level of trust will rise. But I know we're talking about remote teams here, and I would say that connection and that communication and that building of trust, it's not about proximity, it's about intentionality.

SPEAKER_00 10:34

Yeah. Right. It doesn't matter if they're down the hall or down the street or down, you know, or across an ocean.

SPEAKER_02 10:40

Yeah. It really is. What are you as a leader intentionally doing to know and understand your team?

SPEAKER_00 10:48

You know, Missy, you said something earlier about um knowing strengths and weaknesses. And of course, you need to know that, but also everybody communicates differently. You know, we're experts, we'd like to say we're experts in discs. That's a personality assessment that we use with our clients. And that tool can be a game changer for people, understanding how people like to be communicated to, because even though Missy and I work extremely well together, we could finish each other's sentences. We don't like to be communicated the same way. And it's very important that we understand each other's need for communication so that we can work effectively, right? Like there are sometimes, and even on our team, like sometimes communication is misdrewed because I'm communicating to someone that I, you know, get to the point. Come on, just get to the point. It's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, that's not the best way to communicate with that particular person in this particular instance.

SPEAKER_02 11:49

And I'm sorry, Nathan, go ahead.

SPEAKER_05 11:51

I was just gonna say that I let's see, I have a remote team and I work hard to connect with them, but yeah, you do have

Connection: The Hub of Every Strong Team

SPEAKER_05 12:00

to work hard at it. Well, one of the challenges that I personally have, even working with my own remote team, is that we're so focused on business all the time, right? Because we're we're stretched and we're across the world. It's not like we're having water cooler conversations when we're on a meeting. There's an agenda for that meeting, we're working towards a specific outcome. And I often have this real personal challenge of connecting with them in things that are outside of the mission.

SPEAKER_00 12:29

Oh, Nathan, you're gonna love the giveaway that we have for your listeners, and you're gonna be the first one to download it because it's a game changer. But I also want to add one thing, miss, before um you comment. We have learned and we share that every single meeting in a group should, and I would say even one-on-one, should have three pieces to it, right? Every meeting should have motivation or inspiration, right? So that's a quote, that's a feel-good. It should have information and hopefully not information that could be sent via email. And lastly, every meeting needs to have at some level a celebration. So, in a one-on-one, that could look like, oh, Missy, like you made the most appointments this month. And I just wanted to let you know that I appreciate you for that. Or in a group, it's like, team, as a group, we did X amount of insurance claims, and we need to celebrate that. Because when your people, whether they're in the room with you or remote, feel like you notice something about them, they're going to do more for you because they feel like their work is noticed and appreciated.

SPEAKER_02 13:43

Absolutely. And Nathan, to speak specifically into you and your team, I will go back to what I said earlier about it, it's not about proximity, it's about intentionality. And so you, as the leader, the your listeners who are the leaders, you use sticky notes, use whatever you have to do to remind yourself to take a moment, take a pause, and really let the person or the team you're working with know that you see them as individuals. And it might be that as you're starting off your your team meeting on Monday morning, you say, All right, before we get to the the business, to my to my bullet points, I want everybody to go around and and just and ask a question of the week. A question of the week is a huge way to connect. So you might ask, you know, if you could hop on a plane, train, or automobile right now, where would you go? Like specifically, not like to a mountain, but where would you go and why? Now, depending on the size of your team, you might have to have them put it into a chat. But what happens is that they as a team get to see the answer to each other's question. They might say, Oh my goodness, I was just there. I've got I'll send you a picture. Like it will grow your team collectively, and then you use that intel to connect with them more, to know them more. So maybe one week you say, you know, what is your favorite place to um to go out and eat like a burger joint? I guess you could ask that with international teams. I'm not a hundred percent sure, but fast food type thing. And then maybe you as the leader, you commit that to memory. And then you actually at some point send them a $5 card to that place. You know, so it's about intentionality.

SPEAKER_00 15:47

No, that's fine. Um, we had a leader that we were recently working with, and he is a great leader, right? On paper and even things that he does, like really great. And at the end of our coaching program that he was in with us, he said, you know, girls, we I know how much you preach connection. And I just want to let you know I was a little resistant at first because he's a man and probably didn't see the value and like thought it was too touchy-feely type thing. And he's like, But then when I opened my willingness to connect, I just have to tell you, it changed everything. And we know that people are resistant because it feels like at sometimes just one more thing to do. Oh my God, now I have to get to know my people. But when you take that step and really value them as a person instead of just an employee or just a remote worker or just an appointment center, but when you value who they are, everything is gonna change. I mean, it's just it's almost mind-blowing. It seems so simplistic. And oftentimes the simple things we don't do because they seem so simple. Oh, that's just too easy. Like connecting, I can't believe it would make that big of a difference. And what Missy and I love to say don't trust us, just test us. Test us. That's right. Just test us. We promise you it's gonna work.

SPEAKER_05 17:12

You know, Macy, I've been following a little bit of your work, and I know that uh one of the things that you say that you learn from your mentor, uh John Maxwell, is that uh leaders go first, right? And so I tried it this week. Like, yeah, I really did. I've been I I I try I learned things and I try to take action on right away. And so I asked the team, I'm like, would you be open to sharing something about yourself that nobody knows of you? Maybe it was a bit aggressive. I don't know, it's my personality type, right? Like it's just I am so, but I went first and I said, for my birthday, my sister and brother-in-law got me a Choon drum. And most people don't know what that is, it's a box drum, if you don't know. It's usually used in acute acoustic settings or whatever, and I'm really good at it. Like I can already play really well, I can play along with songs, and so I shared it with the team that was very excited that I just got you know this Choon drum. It and people were like googling it and looking, but they had no idea. So now they're sending like photos of people playing.

SPEAKER_00 18:07

There you go. You can with them in a way that that they needed you to, right? And I love what you said that leaders go first because they do. That's why you're a leader. That's the hardest thing to do, is to go first. But when you do that, I guarantee, Nathan, if anyone on your team were to get an instrument for their birthday, you're gonna be the first one that they run to tell. Like, I can't wait to tell Nathan that I got a clarinet. I mean, I wouldn't get a clarinet, but someone on your team might.

SPEAKER_02 18:35

So, Nathan, I want to know how they responded. How many were you meeting with, and how many were open to sharing?

SPEAKER_05 18:42

Yeah, great question. So I believe there was uh six people on that meeting. Okay, and three of them became way more open to sharing at that point. So they were willing to share and speak up and have a conversation about and here's what we know to be true.

SPEAKER_02 18:56

The first time is the first time, right? And so do it again. Ask another question, and then as you continue doing that and people start opening up and you see each other beyond the project, you see each other behind the task, they're gonna be bought in together as a team. So when you start saying things like, team, we're gonna take all our passion that we have for the drums and the ukulele and for um pickleball or whatever it is, we're gonna take that passion, we're gonna meet this next goal. Then they're connected in a way, they've got this trust for you because you're more than just the boss man. And you will go farther together. Is that gonna be worth five to ten minutes of a meeting as you kick things off? Is it worth stepping outside of your comfort zone because this isn't the way we've done it? We just go to the to the you know PL, to the bullet points, to what has to be done. It literally can not only change buy-in, it can change the culture of a team.

SPEAKER_00 20:07

And here's how we know a lot of people at work, for whatever reason, people don't think work should be fun. Like, no, we're all business, we're all clients, we're all, but like we spend most of our day at work. We need to have fun. And what you'll find, Nathan, eventually, if you keep doing this, you're gonna say, okay, Mary, next week you bring the question of the week. And like, it doesn't always have to be the leader. Find someone else who would find joy in coming up with the question. The leader, like you said, goes first, sets the expectation, sets the precedent, but the leader does not have to come up with all of the questions. There's 52 weeks round robin them if you meet on a weekly basis. Okay, I'm gonna pull the names out of the hat. This week it's Bob. Bob, what's your question of the week? Right. So it's there's a way to make even remote work feel

Management vs. Leadership: The Real Difference

SPEAKER_00 21:00

fun.

SPEAKER_02 21:00

Yeah. Your remote team is gonna rise or fall to the level of your leadership. And one thing I would also add is that one of the reasons you want to do this, we talk about buy-in. And what is buy-in? Buy-in is commitment, right? And we know that you require compliance. Like the compliance is a word. I've got a son that's in med school, I've got a daughter-in-law who is a new doctor, and I hear them using that word all the time: compliance, compliance. And it can be required, but commitment for your team to show up and do the things that they need to do to be compliant, it has to be inspired. They have to feel it, and that's what connection will do. Yeah, I love that.

SPEAKER_05 21:47

Yeah, and we took we're talking a lot about leadership, but I want to take one step back into management before we get before we continue the conversation around the leadership conversation because. There could be some people out there that's like, I understand the connection aspect of it, but I'm you know, I'm gonna move right past that. And they want to have the manager conversation today, they want to hear us talk about how do I how do I shift from you know getting them to doing to more developing with my team? They want to know how do I create accountability instead of pressure, even though those are leadership questions, they're management questions too, and they're coming to the show looking for that.

SPEAKER_00 22:24

All right, so here's the Nathan. Management and leadership is the here's the differentiator. Management is about processes and tasks. Leadership is about people. So someone can be a great manager because they've got the system in place, they know what boxes to check, they do the task. Management, or just because you're in management, doesn't make you a leader. If you don't put the people first, you're not a leader, you are just a manager. Both are required, right? Leadership does require management, but managing people is not a thing. You don't manage people. That's right. You lead them, you manage process and you manage task. And when you can see that differentiator, that's when this idea of, oh, I need to connect with Bob and with Mary and with Sue because I need them to do the task that I need them to do. But without connecting with them as a person, they're not going to do the task, or they will just do what is required of them. They won't stay late, they won't come in early, they will just check the boxes that are part of their job description, but they will never do more.

SPEAKER_02 23:43

And piggybacking on that, I feel like when you're in management mode, you begin thinking about accountability, right? Like I want my team accountable. And when people have are trusted, when they're known, when they have clear

Leading Remote Teams Across Cultures

SPEAKER_02 24:01

expectations, accountability can actually feel empowering. And so I think what leaders have to ask themselves when doing that management piece is to really take a look at their standard of clarity. How clear, clear are they being in those expectations? Because if the people don't really understand, if the team doesn't really understand your vision of exactly what they need to do, then there's this disconnect that accountability then feels harsh or cold because they don't know that they can lend live up to the standard because they don't know the stand.

SPEAKER_00 24:44

And I think sometimes it's a matter of understanding from a leadership perspective. Just because you said it doesn't mean they understand it. Right. Oftentimes we we tell our clients to say to someone, okay, this is what I want you to do. And then they tell them, and then they say, What do you think about that? Or what did you hear me say? And this is a whole nother episode, but generational differences, like what you tell someone may not be what they hear, right? You're telling them something and they're hearing Charlie Brown's teacher, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah. So it is important that you check in and say, This is what I need from you. But what did you hear that I need from you? Because again, I'm gonna repeat it for the people in the back. Just because you said it doesn't make it so. It doesn't make it clear. It's clear to you, you said it, but that's the least important part. Is it clear to your team?

SPEAKER_02 25:40

Yeah, and clarity will increase that accountability for sure. For sure.

SPEAKER_05 25:45

And and I want I want a lot of our clients and potential prospective clients and the whole nine yards to understand this concept. This is really important when it comes to managing remote teams because it's not just somebody that is remote that you're managing, it's somebody from a different culture sometimes, right? So cultural context matters to people. What people's norms in the US are different than they are in the Philippines or in India or in Mexico or wherever you're hiring your remote staff members at. And so building the connection is one thing and having the relationship with them, but you're talking about clarity of tasking, making sure somebody understands what you've expected of them. That's right. And people in a lot of foreign countries will agree with you out of kindness and respect to you, but not necessarily understand what you're saying to them. So they'll say yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, and you think that they understood what was said, but the communication never took place.

SPEAKER_02 26:41

Can you speak to that a little bit? Yeah, but do you want to take it or you want me to? Sure. Well, I I think how often do we do that, not even talking about teams span spanning oceans and continents, but with our own family, right? Like we say something and we think it's been understood, and yet it hasn't been. And that's when everything breaks down. And so just to piggyback on what Macy said, is you as a leader have to make sure that they are that it's landing like you want. And so it may mean that you have to spend a little more time explaining or you're creating images of what you want. Um, I know probably there are tools out there that help you easily take an SOP and put it in another language where they can see it or create videos. Use tools that you have at your disposal to make sure the understanding has taken place. And even after you do that and you ask the questions, you know, maybe they do that with one task before you say, okay, hit the ground running and you baby step them into it. Now, I understand that time is money and you've got to do it, but if you can get that clarity on the front end, you're gonna have faster, more consistent results on the back end. So, what tools do you need? How can you position that communication in a way that you're baby stepping them into it? They feel confident, you feel confident, and then no more micromanaging. You've empowered them.

SPEAKER_00 28:12

Yeah. I think it's asking the hard questions and it's knowing, okay, in this specific culture, let's say, I understand from a leader perspective that they're gonna say yes because that's how they grew up, right? So knowing that ahead of time and then saying to them, you know, do you really understand? This is one of our favorite questions. If you're taking notes, write this down. What questions do you have? Notice I didn't say, Do you have any questions? We're taking the assumptive approach that they have questions. Why? Because just because I said it doesn't mean it's clear. Right. Right. So when you say, What questions do you have? you're opening the door that they could feel really comfortable saying, you know what, Nathan, I didn't really understand what you just said. Like that's just not gonna work. For can you help me understand better what you mean when you said XYZ? So sometimes it's a reframing of how you're teaching, how you're leading, how you're asking questions. So good. So good.

SPEAKER_05 29:17

It it's it's incredible when you slow down just a little bit to learn, to teach, to share with other people, to build connections. I I feel like we're in a culture of rush, rush, rush. We're in a culture of push, push, push. We're in a culture of the next patient is here, so I have to work with the next patient and the next one and the next one. We're in a culture of shrinking, diminishing insurance, uh you know uh insurance revenues back to organizations. We're in a culture of people who just came out of hyperinflation where they feel like everything's pinched. And this puts a lot of pressure on leaders. Sure. How do leaders navigate this pressure that they feel along with the connection they're trying to build with their team?

SPEAKER_02 30:09

So good. I want to say one thing as we move into that, talking about the pressure, is you are right, Nathan. Macy and I teach this, it's one of the things we teach and preach, so to speak. And it is that leaders have to slow down to go fast.

SPEAKER_06 30:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:26

They have to slow down to go fast. You've no matter what it is, you if you will take the time to do it right on the front end, even if it's slower, whether it's getting to know your team or or for any doctors who are listening or are getting to know your patients, like slow down. And then you can go fast. When you take the time to look at your systems and processes, when you feel that pressure, when you take the time to reflect every day, what happened great today? What didn't? Where did I feel that pressure? You take the time to reflect and then ask yourself those questions. What could I do so that this doesn't show up again tomorrow? Because you know there are patterns. There's patterns that people have, there's habits, and they every day they end up feeling the same way. If they would slow down to go fast and think in what's one step I could do to make this better now.

SPEAKER_00 31:26

And I also will say, and you guys have probably seen this, it's all over social, like, choose your hard. Right? It's hard to connect with your team. Well, choose what's the other side of that? Disconnection, low buy-in, low trust, low productivity, low profits. Yeah, right. So choose your hard. Make time for the things that matter, put it on your calendar. Like every single person on your team, you should know their birthday. You don't just send them something elaborate. Like, I listen, people are on Facebook all the time wishing people happy birthday, right? I get messages from people that I don't even know. I'm not wishing someone a happy birthday for a show. I want them to know I mean it. So I don't post on Facebook. I pick up my phone and I text them because that matters more in my eyes. I don't know if it matters to the receiver or not, but that is an intentional thing that I like to do is when I see it's someone's birthday, I just shoot them a text or a Teams or a Slack or is whatever, you know, whatever it is. But it's it's getting to know again, and the and the giveaway that we have for your guests, I think is really gonna help them. But it is a matter of choose your hard because either you do it or you don't, and they're both hard. That's right.

SPEAKER_05 32:44

One of the best things I've learned from one of my mentors over time was that anything worth doing is worth systemizing, right?

SPEAKER_00 32:54

Yes, love a system.

SPEAKER_05 32:57

Is is there a way to systemize

Systemizing Connection at Scale

SPEAKER_05 33:00

this connection process so that you can be stronger leaders like birthdays or favorite cars?

SPEAKER_00 33:06

This is one this is one way, right? You got to calendar it out. So if you put on your calendar every Tuesday at two o'clock, you're gonna send a random email. I mean, we have a client, he works in the oil business, so his team doesn't really get cell phone reception, and he just every single week for 60 something weeks now, maybe even longer, sends a connection question in a group email and they reply all and they give it. So, and again, the tool that we're gonna give is really gonna be helpful to find out those things to create the system. Then you could spreadsheet it out if you're really anal and want to be OCD about it. And then you've got to make the time, you've got to put it on your calendar. Um, like my husband runs a nonprofit, and on his calendar every Friday, it says write handwritten notes. Why does he write handwritten notes? Because nobody writes handwritten notes. So that sets him apart from other people out there, right? So what are those little things? But you have to have a system, Nathan. You're absolutely right because if you don't, then you're gonna do it once or twice and forget it, and then your team is gonna be like, well, I guess it wasn't that important because it's not happening on a weekly basis or a regular basis.

SPEAKER_02 34:17

And just to piggyback on that, we were talking earlier about different ways people communicate. There's also different ways people lead. And so if you are one of these visionaries and systems you just want to give to someone else because you've got the vision, you've got the dream of what you're gonna do and how you're gonna do it, and you want to give it to somebody else, there are people who can help you put systems into place. Somebody you work with would love to be the person that puts a sticky note on your desk every day that tomorrow is so-and-so's birthday, or maybe they take your phone in the morning and send that birthday message, or maybe it is someone who helps you come up with the question that you'll ask. Every Monday morning, and this we believe leadership crosses boundaries from work to home. I mean, everywhere you are, you're influencing people. Every Monday, Nathan, it's part of my system and my routine. And I did have it on my calendar until it was just completely innate. Is I send a group message to my family and I ask them a question of the week every Monday. And so you have to think about what of those ways to connect and to lead well and to stop micromanaging do you want to incorporate into your leadership formula, right? That's uniquely you, and then find a way to strategize, put it in place so that you can actually follow through with it.

SPEAKER_00 35:47

I have one more thing to add to that. You've got to pay attention to what people are answering too. So, for example, if you ask, you know, what's your favorite soft drink? And you, if you've ever been around Missy or me, you know that we drink Diet Coke. Like that's our poison, right? Diet Coke is a thing. If you wanted to do something kind, you would bring a cold fountain. I love fountains. So you'd bring me a cold fountain diet coke. But if you brought me a Pepsi and you knew me well, then that just shows you don't know me well because I don't drink Diet Pepsi. I only I prefer Diet Coke. So it's those little nuances that matter, right? You can't ask someone specifically what soft drink is your favorite and then bring them something else because you think you're doing something nice because you're bringing them a drink. It doesn't matter if you're not listening to the answer.

SPEAKER_05 36:38

Yeah, you're kind of stepping on your own feet in the sense, not not really helping yourself at all.

SPEAKER_01 36:44

Right. That's exactly right. It's taking it the opposite direction.

SPEAKER_05 36:49

Yeah. Yeah. Well, one other thought.

SPEAKER_01 36:52

Oh, you go ahead, Nathan.

SPEAKER_05 36:53

I was gonna say, speaking of opposite direction, why do teams then sometimes become dependent on their leader? Like they gotta know everything, the leader's opinion on everything, know everything about their leader. What happens with this bottlenecking that happens inside a business on the opposite side of this uh conversation that we're having?

SPEAKER_02 37:14

Well, Mesa, I'm I'll I'll start and then you can hop in. What I would say, Nathan, is that it's always the leader's responsibility to dot, dot, dot. And it really doesn't matter what it is, the buck stops with the leader. And so the leader has to ask better questions, the leader has to give better directions, the leader has to be clear, the leader has to set those expectations up that you don't have to know everything to accomplish this one task, right? So it really does come down to the leader being responsible for that bottleneck and figuring out a way for his people to show up differently.

SPEAKER_00 38:01

Well, I think too, it's like people do what they see, right? It's that old adage of you know, the kid does something because they saw their parent do it a million times. People, it's easier to do what you're seeing. So if people are feeling dependent on their leader, like Missy said, the leader created that. Yeah. The leader wants them to feel dependent on them, it makes them feel good when someone depends on me, right?

SPEAKER_02 38:28

And they may not even realize it, Macy. That's why that checkup from the neck up is so important.

SPEAKER_00 38:33

Yeah, I just think that is uh it always goes back to awareness, right? Awareness is a catalyst for so many things. And if you notice that your team is coming to you every single time there's a problem with no solutions, you need to put it back on them. Well, what is it that you think we should do? Yes. What idea do you have to fix the problem? Because if you keep giving them the answer, you've created the system that they keep coming to you for answers. You've created it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 39:05

Yeah, I absolutely love this conversation. We've been talking about a lot of different stuff. We've talked about micromanagement, we've talked about connection, we've talked about, you know, beyond connection, getting to know the relationship with each and every employee. We've talked about how to systemize that connection and that relationship with people. If I'm a leader and I'm sitting through this conversation, what and we're we're learning the same stuff together that we've learned today, what's the very next thing that you would suggest this leader do tomorrow to start the process of improving their leadership?

SPEAKER_02 39:44

Great question.

SPEAKER_00 39:46

Macy, you want to go first or do you want me to take it? Um, well, I'll say a thought I have is identifying the greatest need. So is the greatest need, okay, I need to know what kind of leader I am and what kind of leader I want to be. Is the greatest need I need to organize my meetings, information, motivation, celebration. Is the greatest need that I need to connect better? I would say from all the things that we teach, and we teach a lot of different things in this instance, based on what you just asked us, Nathan. Reflection is going to play exactly what I was gonna say. The hugest piece. Reflection is not in the car ride home, let me think about my day. Reflection literally is five minutes every single day. What are three things that went well? What are three things that didn't go well? And what can I do tomorrow to fix today? But that taking the time, that slowing down to go fast can change everything in a leader and in an organization.

SPEAKER_02 40:54

And I would say you wouldn't believe the stories we have, Nathan, from people who've done just that. Relationships have changed, health reports have changed by people who really prioritize that reflection. Um, it it it changes their work life and it can also change their personal life. But since since Macy uh took reflection, what I'm gonna going to suggest they do is what we believe is the secret sauce um of leadership, and it it has a lot to do with connection, but it's it's adding value. It's asking yourself, it's looking around intentionally and seeing who you can add value to that day or in that moment. Maybe it's just one person a day because as you begin adding value to your team, maybe it's slowing down, as we've said several times, and it's teaching them a process. Maybe it's that you've noticed someone's not themselves that day. And so you bring them a diet coke. It's looking, just start with one thing a day. Ask yourself, who can I add value today? And intentionally look for it. Stop drifting through your days and intentionally look for ways to connect and add value, and you'll begin seeing immediate change in your team with your relationship with them, their buy-in to the goals that you have for them, and how they show up together. It's gonna take a little time, but take the first steps. Take the first steps.

SPEAKER_05 42:34

And can you share just a little bit with the audience before we go about maybe one or two different clients that you specifically have worked with from a coaching perspective, from a training and development perspective, that you've been able to have these conversations and the shifts or changes that happened inside their business?

SPEAKER_00 42:53

Oh, it's almost, I mean, I would say it's all of our, I mean, we were I've got a story. All right, go ahead. I was

The Story That Proves It Works

SPEAKER_00 43:00

just gonna say we're so intent. Like we we practice what we preach, right? So we're not just saying go connect. Like in our group coaching program, every week there's a connection question for them to respond and for us when we get on our group calls to be able to discuss and and and tie it back. So, miss, I will let you share since you're so anxious with the story.

SPEAKER_02 43:21

Well, so Macy and I worked with a cohort from a speci a specific company, and they had invited us in for an awards night to um to see all of the great things that have been done, and we're there. And Nathan, we're across the room and we see this guy coming toward us. He was in one of our first cohorts, and he's coming to us, he's got a smile from ear to ear. And he comes over, his name's Kurt, and he he crosses his arms, and we think he's about to tell us something because he's actually almost unrecognizable to us because he's lost so much weight. He just has this healthy, strong, confident glow about him. He's like, girls, I've got to tell you something that came about because of of the training. And we were like, okay, what? Now we of course later talked and we said, Oh, it's good, we just both thought it was gonna be the weight loss. He said, just want you to girls to know that I took some of the lessons that you taught me about priorities and I applied it to my family. And you saved my marriage. And we were just like like you know, mouth hitting the ground. And we I even said, Well, Kurt, I thought it was gonna be this weight loss journey your own. He said, Oh, that too, that too. My priorities changed. And he said, and as my priorities changed, my health improved, my marriage improved, and I got a Rolex. He had gotten one of the awards. And so it's it's things like that when people take these little things that Macy and I teach and apply them both professionally and personally, and they come back with stories of transformation like that. Like, how can you argue with the smile that was on his face and the results he had?

SPEAKER_06 45:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:17

And it's not rocket science, right? We're not teaching theory, we're teaching real world people. Like what we're teaching, we know that everybody, if they wanted to, could apply, right? This isn't like go spend a lot of money or go do or go get a no, this is stuff that you could literally, we're teaching it today. That this gift that we're gonna give your listeners, download it right now. Like, go get it and start applying it, and then your next team meeting, start using it. Like it's so simple if you would just take the moment and do the thing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 45:53

Well, I don't want to withhold that with that kind of uh passion behind it from my audience.

SPEAKER_05 46:00

So, where can they get this gift and how can they connect with you? What's the first step if they uh are interested?

SPEAKER_00 46:06

So, to get the gift, you're just gonna go to MM for impactful messages or Macy and Missy, MM Team Connect. Mm teamconnect.com. You're gonna be able to, oh, there you go. It's right on the screen. You're gonna be able to download it and you are gonna be able to put it into practice this afternoon. Use it with your family, use it with your team, use it with other people in your life. Like you're just gonna love it. And then, Missy, do you want to tell people how they could follow us?

SPEAKER_02 46:36

Sure, they can follow us on LinkedIn, um, Macy Del Val, Missy Washam and Impactful Messages. We have a business page as well. And give us a DM. Tell us what you thought about the podcast. We know Nathan does such a great job. We'd love to hear what your takeaways were.

SPEAKER_00 46:54

Yeah, we'd love to hear from you.

SPEAKER_05 46:56

Yeah, guys, put in the comments today. For if you've watched this show to the very end, put in the comments what was your number one takeaway? What did you learn today? I'm sure Missy and Macy would both love to hear that information from you. Macy and Missy, any final words for the audience before we go?

SPEAKER_00 47:11

Yep, I'd like to say just take action on one thing. We did share a lot, Nisa, that you can't. We did. So a lot, thank you for allowing us to do that. And it can seem overwhelming. We don't want you to feel like we're adding all of this to your to-do list. So choose one. Choose one thing until it becomes a habit, until it becomes intentional, and then choose something else, miss.

SPEAKER_02 47:32

So I would say that your leaders that are listening have high expectations for their team. And people will rise and fall to the level of your expectations if they are connected with you. When I taught school, Nathan, I had a sign outside my door that said, I teach with love and high expectations. And so you may not in the workplace want to use the word love, but we'll we'll um switch it out for connection. And just know when you're connected with your people, they will rise to your level of expectation and you'll have a win. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 48:15

Well, thank you very much, Missy and Macy, for being with us today. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 48:18

Thank you so much for so much fun.

SPEAKER_05 48:21

Yeah, yeah. Thank you very much. All right, guys, and that's gonna wrap up our show for today. Uh, we sincerely appreciate the time that you spend as the audience investing in your learning and your knowledge and your education. We try to bring you the different resources and tools, you know, here on the SnapScale show in a way that's gonna help you elevate your business, whether that's in operations or leadership or any number of different areas of focus for your business. You know, at SnapScale, we provide HIPAA compliant healthcare virtual assistance for the healthcare industry. These are hand-selected and dedicated team members that work on your team. They work in our offices in the Philippines, Mexico, or India. And that gives you the ability to feel comfortable understanding and knowing that our organization is signed to BAA with you. They're working under our computers, under our networks. They have managerial teams in place on our side to be able to help better support the operations of your business and your team member, then we provide the opportunity for you to record and document the trainings with them. So as you had a second or third team member and you continue to scale your business, uh, SnapSkill's right along there with you, providing you the resources of staff that you need in order to achieve that. With that said, we talk a lot at SnapScale about HIPAA compliance, but I don't want you to take our word for it. I I'm gonna leave you with this show with one of our consultants that we brought in uh from digital compliance. When they finished up our audit, this is what they had to say about our compliance.

SPEAKER_03 49:48

Mike, Mike is an interesting example. Mr. Yoblanowitz and SnapScale, previously Brobisco or BBC Global. Um we don't know HIPAA training, doesn't do webinars. We don't partner with clients and help them market. My purpose of being here is not for marketing. I'm not interested in generating sales from web contacts. What I am interested in is taking information that shows up regularly and becomes problematic regularly for our clients so that you know you're conversant and know how to ask questions and know what the answer should sound like. Mike is an obsessive when it comes to compliance. Uh, the way he approached compliance when he became our customer three, two, three years ago uh was yeah, but but how do we do better? But but I know what the minimums are, but but you know, I've got some clients that are concerned about VAs and what do we do to bolster, you know, Matt, honestly, how do we just how do we show up as the best in the market? And it was a year, maybe a year and a half working together on a system that didn't exist. It doesn't exist anywhere. I can tell you we have dozens of virtual assistant platforms that work through Hippatraining.com, and there are probably a hundred more that work through other of our peers in the industry. And uh the reason SnapScale is the only organization that we will do this with is because they exceeded the minimum standards, then they exceeded what were considered exceptional standards, and then they started creating their own standards that are so far and above, they're so beyond the pale that um uh it's going to generate a new standard in what is considered remote virtual health care.