Susan Steinbrecher - Jumping the Virtual Hurdle: How to Engage Employees from Home (#57)

Tom Bronson, host of the Maximize Business Value Podcast, chats with Susan Steinbrecher, President of Steinbrecher & Associates, for a second time on this week’s episode. In episode 7, they talked about coaching, but this time around focuses on engaging virtual employees. Business owners need to take their teams into consideration when determining which hybrid model will best fit their employees. Creating an A team to formulate a plan will help those hard workers feel involved in the decision making process. If you build trust with these individuals, you all will be able to solve problems more efficiently. Listen now to hear the most up-to-date advice from an industry leader.

Susan Steinbrecher is an executive coach, speaker, licensed mediator, author, president, and CEO of Steinbrecher And Associates, Inc. A management consulting firm that provides professional development services in the areas of executive coaching, group facilitation, and leadership training. Susan has co-written several books: Meaningful Alignment: Mastering Emotionally Intelligent Interactions at Work and in Life (spring 2019), Heart-Centered Leadership: Lead Well, Live Well (Second Edition, February 2014); Roadmap to Success and Straight Talk from America’s Top 10 Speakers. Her Amazon best-selling book KENSHO: A Modern Awakening, Instigating Change in an Era of Global Renewal is a business book that delves into the realm of personal development. How well do you handle emotionally charged, high-stakes conversations? Take the Interpersonal Dialogue Profile™ assessment and find out!  Reach out to Susan on her website: https://steinbrecher.com/. 

Tom Bronson is the founder and President of Mastery Partners, a company that helps business owners maximize business value, design exit strategy, and transition their business on their terms. Mastery utilizes proven techniques and strategies that dramatically improve business value that was developed during Tom’s career 100 business transactions as either a business buyer or seller. As a business owner himself, he has been in your situation a hundred times, and he knows what it takes to craft the right strategy.

CONNECT WITH TOM
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/masterypartners
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-bronson/
Website: https://www.masterypartners.com/

Please be sure to like and follow for more great content to help YOU maximize YOUR business value!

Tom Bronson is a serial entrepreneur and business owner. He is currently the founder and President of Mastery Partners, Mastery Mergers & Acquisitions, and the Business Transition Summit. All three companies empower business owners to maximize business value and serve business owners in different capacities to help them achieve their dream exit. As a business owner, Tom has been in your situation a hundred times and knows what it takes to craft the right strategy. Bronson is passionate about helping business owners and has the experience to do it. Tom has two books to help business owners on their journey to a dream exit: "Maximize Business Value Playbook," (2023), and "Maximize Business Value, Begin with the EXIT in Mind," (2020). Both are available on Amazon.
...

Transcript

Announcer (5s):
Welcome to the maximize business value podcast. This podcast is brought to you by mastery partners, where our mission is to equip business owners, to maximize business value so they can transition their business on their terms. Our mission was born from the lessons we've learned from over 100 business transactions, which fuels our desire to share our experiences and wisdom. So you can succeed. Now, here's your host CEO of mastery partners, Tom Bronson.

Tom Bronson (36s):
Hi, this is Tom Bronson and welcome to maximize business value of podcast for business owners who are passionate about building long-term sustainable value in their businesses. In this episode, I'd like to welcome back our guest, Susan Steinbrecker, president of Steinbrecher and associates. If you've been a long-time listener to this podcast, you met Susan last year on episode number seven. So we're almost a year. Since the first time we hosted Susan on the podcast. On that episode, we talked about developing great leaders today. We're going to shift our attention to engaging remote employees, something that looks like it's going to be with us for a while.

Tom Bronson (1m 17s):
Susan has authored or co-authored three books: Heart-Centered Leadership - Lead Well, Live Well. I knew I was going to do that. Kensho - a Modern Awakening, Investigating Change in an Era of Global Renewal and Meaningful Alignment - Mastering Emotionally Intelligent Interactions at Work and in Life. You can find those on her website on Amazon, or there'll be a link to them in our blog post this week. So welcome back to maximize business.

Susan Steinbrecher (1m 49s):
Oh, thank you so much, Tom. It's my pleasure to be back with you. I always enjoy our time together.

Tom Bronson (1m 54s):
Yes, we just don't get enough. So remind us a little bit about Steinbrecher and associates.

Susan Steinbrecher (2m 0s):
Yes. Thank you. So I formed Steinbrecher and associates in 1992, which I can hardly believe this is our 29th year of being in business. That's crazy as I even say that, and we specialize in leadership development. So what does that look like? We customized leadership solutions. We provide executive coaching services, we'll facilitate offsite, strategic planning, team building types of sessions for leaders. And then as you mentioned, I've have coauthored or authored three books. And so I speak on that. So anything around the leadership development space that really helps our leaders be the best I can possibly be both personally and professionally.

Tom Bronson (2m 39s):
Yeah. Tell us a little bit about your, by the way, 29 years. That's amazing. You formed a company when you were seven.

Susan Steinbrecher (2m 47s):
Thank you. I'll take it.

Tom Bronson (2m 50s):
What was your background and why did you start a Steinbrecher 29 years ago?

Susan Steinbrecher (2m 55s):
Yeah, so I think it's kind of like a lot of people there was that sort pivotal point in their life where I was working for an organization and it was one of those situations where they said, well, we're going to agree. We're going to move our headquarters to another city. And I was like, you know, I so appreciate the offer to, to move because not everybody was even extended the offer to stay with the company and move, but I knew it just was not right. It wasn't right for my personal life. I was married at the time. It was a terrible move for my husband. So I went, you know what? I feel like this is my opportunity to launch off and try something on my own. And it was absolutely the best decision I ever made.

Tom Bronson (3m 36s):
That's awesome. So I'm so glad that you did because that launched you onto a great career and, and three great books. So a little over a year ago, actually, right. When we recorded our first podcast, the world basically shut down because of the global pandemic. Many businesses were surprised to discover that they could actually work remotely. And some of, yeah, some of them have even declared that this is the way that they're going to work into the future. So Susan do business owners really need to rethink the way they engage with their employees or can they just maintain the status quo and be the way they have always been?

Susan Steinbrecher (4m 17s):
No, they're going to need to rethink it because the reality is, is there's things that have certainly worked. There has been productivity. Some things have, you know, business has gotten accomplished, completely understand that, but there's a lot of things that have not worked. So number one, it's just not the same. I think everybody would agree being in person with somebody around somebody is different than viewing somebody through a screen. It's better. I mean that they're on video, at least be on video for heaven's sakes, no audio only kind of stuff going on, but it's just not the same. And you lose the benefit of just walking down the hall and saying good morning and connecting that way you lose the benefit of somebody, you know, a leader, being able to read the body language of their associate to kind of figure out what's going on with them.

Susan Steinbrecher (5m 7s):
What kind of day are they having so far? So all of that is missed in this virtual space. So you absolutely have to strategize as a leader. How am I going to keep this team engaged and how I'm going to, how am I going to keep productivity up while making sure that these individuals are staying healthy? And that's a whole nother issue where we're recognizing it's really concerning.

Tom Bronson (5m 32s):
Yeah. We had a podcast a couple of weeks ago on wellness in the workplace and, and working remotely that does it, you know, we're, we're social animals we are built or that interaction. And, and while we've discovered that we can work like this, it is sometimes difficult. I was just having a conversation with someone early this morning who said they really just miss being in the office, you know, they work remotely and they've got a great gig. They work from home, they're paid well, but they just miss interacting with people. So what are you hearing from your clients regarding the challenges of everyone working from home?

Susan Steinbrecher (6m 8s):
Yeah. Thank you for that. Well, first of all, I will also share from talking to a lot of my clients, you know, and I have very large clients. These are fortune 500 mainly, and I coach a lot of C-suite level or maybe one level below. So I'm really hearing from the horse's mouth where they are. And almost every one of them has declared. There will be a hybrid system as they call it. And the hybrid specific numbers I'm hearing almost from a hundred percent of them is a 60, 40 mix, 40% in person, 60%, you know, remote. And so what they're struggling with is how to best do that since they're making that decision, that's kind of happened.

Susan Steinbrecher (6m 51s):
And so some, a lot of structure around that, okay, well, if the, the 60% that is going to be, or the 40% that's going to be in home or in office, rather, we want that to be Monday, Wednesday, and Friday or whatever that looks like others don't want the structure at all. And then some they're discovering that when they try to put a structure to it, which makes the leader more comfortable, frankly, the associates are really putting, pushing back. So I think what needs to happen is leaders need to sit down with, you know, take a core group of their A-players. They know the ones that are responsible, the ones that are really being productive, the ones that are really being efficient and do a mini little focus group, or a number of those and say, listen, we've decided to go this hybrid approach, but you know, ultimately we've got to get work done.

Susan Steinbrecher (7m 40s):
We need your help in the best way to structure this. It's going to, that's going to be not too structured, but structured enough to where we can know that we're all going to be in the office at the same time. Because if we don't have some structure, everything's going to be, someone's working remotely over here on screen, as we're trying to get things done. So just sit down and talk to your employees is my recommendation and ask them what would work best with them, recognizing what the goals of the organization, what they have and what needs to be done, how would they best go about, you know, supply supporting that? So that's my recommendation is that talk to your people around. What's the best way to do this concept

Tom Bronson (8m 24s):
Was surprising concept, especially coming from you, right? The, the 60, 40 I'm intrigued by that whole 60, 40, 40 in the workplace 60 for remotely, is that driven by our businesses starting to feel like they need to, if people are Kevin back, that they need to kind of call the herd that they don't want everybody back at once because of being together. Or is it that they're just feeling like, well, I think we can actually do our job with 60 40. I'm curious about the behind that Percentage makes sense. But I wonder if it's just trying to keep people more distanced.

Susan Steinbrecher (9m 2s):
No, I think it's, it's, it's an outcry from a lot of employees. They, a lot of them love working from home, but a lot don't right. This is where again, they're trying to, it's not worked for everybody, but it certainly has worked for many. So this is where they're going. All right, we're gonna, we're going to meet this halfway. We get the benefit of, of getting out of the two hour commute every day, we get the benefit of you actually getting more work, done, potentially less distraction of people walking into your office every five minutes, interrupting you. So we want to be able to leverage that and we want to be able to help your commute and everything else. So we're going to honor that because we have frankly found we can get work done. However, we are all are also all suffering from the lack of connection.

Susan Steinbrecher (9m 46s):
And we feel like we're stalling out. In some places I had one leader said, you know what? I worked really well last year. It's beginning to not work now. And they're saying, we're starting to notice some of our employees are sort of using the excuse cycle of please be compassionate for me. Although I think that is critical. And that's where again, the boss connecting with their associate at a deeper level and really understanding what's happening with each of those individuals is going to be very important. So the 60 40 I think was the compromise of we get that there's benefits to this, but we also feel like the disconnection is real. So the compromise is some kind of a hybrid approach

Tom Bronson (10m 27s):
That is a brilliant strategy to get your high performers together and have them come up with a, with a suit. And I think that that works well. You know, it's interesting people not everybody's built to work at home, right? I've got a great friend, one of my favorite stories that, that they shut down. He worked for a big company. They shut down the office and send everybody working from home. Now he was in sales and, and he said, Tom, I can tell you every price on the prices right now that dates us. Right. So, you know, he knew he was, he was basically, you know, screwing around the house and not getting his job done. He said, I woke up one time at the end of the third quarter.

Tom Bronson (11m 7s):
And I realized, Holy cow, I'm going to get fired if I don't meet my numbers this year. And he said, that's when that's when it clicked for me. And I learned how to work from home, by the way, he just, so you know, he is the CEO of a middle market company now, and those work remotely, but, but it does take some getting used to. And so, so I think we've had a lot of talk about how employees are kind of handling this, but what's been, we don't really talk a lot about the managers and kind of the impact on them regarding the necessity of working in home. So, so talk a little bit about kind of both the impact of the employee and the manager.

Susan Steinbrecher (11m 43s):
Yeah. Thank you. Because that's very real as well. So one of the biggest request I've received is Susan, how do I, as a leader, engage my team in this environment, like how do, what do I need to do as a leader to do that? And so I said, you know, there's, and we even do a little workshop on this because we've had so much requests. Like we did a four hour workshop that we've separated over time. So that's not too much any one time, but we really handled that in two major buckets. One is that is leveraging the technology that these applications provide that create engagement and connection. And the other side of it is the emotional intelligence of a leader.

Susan Steinbrecher (12m 27s):
So how are you showing up? Are you showing a certain amount of vulnerability and connection and compassion and empathy where needed, right? And that's kind of the Q side, are you really listening and dialed in to what is happening to each of your associates? And that's where a lot of one-on-ones need to happen. Find out where the state, you know, state of affair emotionally, mentally, physically, virtually in some cases that individual is and showing that you understand where they are and then are they showing their active listening skills when they're in meetings or one-on-ones, are they showing that they're actually caring about what's happening with, with the challenges these folks are having?

Susan Steinbrecher (13m 12s):
For example, I was teaching a class virtually, and this person that was at one of the participants had a four year old come and sit on their lap and sh she was horrified and I'm like, it's totally okay. It's totally okay. Take a deep breath. You know, I'm like, Hey, it's fine. Like this is our world right now. And so she relaxed, but she was worried about her boss would say, and so you, as the boss, when something like that happens, how are you responding to that? The other side of the equation is the engagement tool. So for this we're on a zoom platform right now, there are tons of engagement tools.

Susan Steinbrecher (13m 56s):
Are you putting people in breakout sessions for further discussion at times, are you using and leveraging all the annotation tools, taking a poll, using the reaction tools, all of that creates engagement, because if I have to be doing something other than just sitting there, then I have to be engaged, right? So are you the leader doing that? Or are you multitasking? If you're multitasking, they're watching that please request that your people are on video and not audio alone because you're inviting people to shut out and multitask if they're on audio only. So I know there's pros and cons to that, but the more that you can ask people request that in advance, especially for those really important ones.

Susan Steinbrecher (14m 39s):
So using the technology and then showing up, you know, the emotional intelligence side of things is going to be brilliant.

Tom Bronson (14m 45s):
You know, you bring up an excellent point about the Holden multitasking I witnessed, or I had the opportunity to attend a presentation from the brain Institute, which is based here in now. It's such an amazing place and a lot of work, and I've always considered myself a multitasker, right? I'm doing many things, but the reality is, is our brains can't do that. We can only do one thing at a time. So even though you have something playing in the background and you're focused on something else, you're really only doing one thing at a time. The argument was that airline pilots after multitask and actually the brain Institute acquiesced on that.

Tom Bronson (15m 25s):
And I said, no, airline pilots run a checklist. They're doing one thing at a time, very rapidly. And they're, and they're very trained to do that, but, but there's no such thing as multitasking. I, I get frustrated when I jump on a zoom call or a presentation and people turn their cameras off. Cause I'm always just assuming that they're doodling or, or working on emails or whatever else that they're doing. So, so, but I, you, you mentioned the, the emotional intelligence of it, all this, this pandemic has caused managers to really lay, raise the level of emotional intelligence because, you know, regardless of what's going on in our businesses, this has impact in people's lives.

Tom Bronson (16m 10s):
And, and our level of depression out there in the workforce workforce is astronomical. You know, the number of suicides is up. And so managers have to, if they don't really understand emotional intelligence now is the time for managers to really do that. A great way to do that is, is your book, your most recent book, I'm drawing a blank on it, right? Meaningful alignment, you know, and I will tell you that, that the principles in that are, are spectacular. Susan shared some of that with us on our, on our last podcast. And I, I actually put those to work in a conversation that I needed my emotional intelligence, and I can tell you works.

Tom Bronson (16m 54s):
And so, so, all right, we're up on a break here. We're talking to Susan Steinbrecker, lets take a quick break. We'll be back in 30 seconds.

Announcer (17m 3s):
Every business will eventually transition. Some need to employees and managers and some externally to third party buyers, mastery partners, equips business owners to maximize business value so they can transition their businesses on their terms. Using our four-step process. We start with a snapshot of where your business is today. Then we help you understand the way you want to be and design a custom strategy to get you there. Next, we help you execute that strategy with the assistance of our amazing resource network. And ultimately there'll be able to transition no business on your terms. What are you waiting for more time, more revenue, if you want to maximize your business value, it takes time.

Announcer (17m 44s):
Now is that time get started today by checking us out at www.masterypartners.com or email us at info@masterypartners.com

Tom Bronson (17m 55s):
We're back with Susan Steinbrecker and we're talking about engaging a remote workforce. So Susan, what are some, One of the skills that leaders need to have now in order to make sure that their employees are as productive as possible?

Susan Steinbrecher (18m 13s):
Yes. It's like you mentioned that people are, a lot of people are really struggling. They, the isolation is at an all time high that level. And we know that when one feels isolated, that impacts their physical health, their brain health, everything. So that's one of those challenges that leaders really have to be aware of. So compassion, empathy, authenticity, transparency. Those are all things that a leader really needs to have, which is again, emotional intelligence skills. These are things that they have to be able to demonstrate to say, Hey, listen, I get it. It's difficult. You know, we, a lot of folks do not have homes where they were designed to have, you know, kids working from home.

Susan Steinbrecher (18m 59s):
That's getting better, but certainly that's still a, for some like a situation as well as perhaps potentially two parents working from home. They don't have the physical space for that. So that's caused all kinds of disruption. And so just having the empathy for that, with accountability, this is not about not holding people, accountability to performance, but if you want to motivate me to perform at my very highest, I'm going to be much more motivated to perform for you. If I feel like you get me and you get my situation and you care about it, and you actually help coach me through knowing that I'm dealing with all of this, what can one do to help mitigate those issues so that you feel like you can get your work done when they coach an employee or an associate in that manner.

Susan Steinbrecher (19m 47s):
It shows that associates that you genuinely care and you're working towards getting solutions for what may be potentially an issue.

Tom Bronson (19m 56s):
You know, when having, having owned multiple businesses through the years, a hundred businesses that I bought or sold through the years, you know, the old school thought, you know, back in the eighties and the nineties, when people were working from home, you know, the thought was, are they really working? All right. You know, are they really working? And, and, but we've proved that, that we can do it. So if a leader effectively kind of puts these things in place and is able to, to work remotely, is this gonna work? I mean, th th the businesses, are they as productive as they were prior to the pandemic that does all this work?

Susan Steinbrecher (20m 37s):
Yeah, I think it does work. I think you, again, have to be mindful of the challenges of it. I do think a hybrid effect really, really hybrid type of solution really matters. A percent isolation. I don't think does work. So I'm always saying, Hey, if, if, if, and when people feel comfortable and safe and you've got, that's a slippery slope for leaders too, and you have to frame it that way, if you feel comfortable, we will do the six foot distancing. We'll do the masking. We'll do whatever. If you feel comfortable, we would like to bring this team back together and let them choose, never push anybody into something they're not comfortable with, but let them choose and give them the option to come back together in person when, when people feel comfortable doing so, I think you really have to do that.

Susan Steinbrecher (21m 21s):
And if it does turn to a full hybrid type of model, which most of our top leaders are talking about, they will be back in person again. And being able to physically connect. You know, it's interesting. A colleague of mine owns a business that 200 of his employees, their business model from 20 years ago, we talk about ahead of the game was a hundred percent virtual and they had, so this has been nothing for them because they were a hundred percent virtual anyway, but they do two conferences a year where everybody comes together and they spend a week together. So they make up for it by doing those conferences, providing those connections. So it absolutely can work.

Susan Steinbrecher (22m 2s):
And I think looking for the ways to make it work is going to be the right path.

Tom Bronson (22m 7s):
You know, I think it's about being creative and, and thinking a little differently and looking for resources, I've got a client, same situation that has worked for 20 years, a hundred percent remote. When I started working with them, they're a sizable company and in a number of different countries, but they use all of the technology to keep people on the same page and routine meetings and all hands on deck meetings, which is challenging when you've got a bunch of people in the United States and a bunch of people in the Philippines, right. Challenging to have an all hands, but they do that. And they figure out ways. And then once a year, they bring the whole team together to, to be able to interact.

Tom Bronson (22m 50s):
And, and they've figured out a way in a business that I hadn't previously considered was actually capable of being remote, but they figured out how to, how to be able to do that. And so I think it's about being creative and looking for all the resources. So what are, what are some, are some resources for developing the skills that you can point our viewers and listeners to,

Susan Steinbrecher (23m 12s):
Yeah. Me in terms of the emotional intelligence aspect, you know, frankly in meaningful alignment, we're teaching, how do you show up more emotionally intelligent as a leader? What are some skills that you can adopt to do that? Like how do you handle emotional composure in the moment when they're getting triggered emotionally? What do I do in this moment? I'm in this, one-on-one with one of my employees or I'm in a group meeting and someone says something and I'm like, ready to blow a gasket. What do we do in the moment to calm ourselves down as well as proactively? How do we build what I call the reserve strength to call upon emotionally? So in the moment it's pausing, it's asking questions, it's deflecting.

Susan Steinbrecher (23m 52s):
And other words get the energy off of you and onto somebody else so that you can take a moment to take a deep breath and to pause. Sometimes it means delay in a conversation. Those are all tools. One can use in the moment when they feel that they potentially are triggered as an example. And then also a meaningful alignment. We teach a six step process, right? With how do you actually have conversations to gain alignment with another person? Those are all skills. One can learn. I also just came off. I'm a, I'm a, what they call a sidewalk talk leader in the Dallas Fort worth area. We get out on the streets, we pull up chairs. We just, anybody walking by can sit down and be listened to the whole purpose of it is people want to be listened to you do not offer advice.

Susan Steinbrecher (24m 34s):
And so there's some very deep level of listening training. I've gone through called here. It's fabulous. It's the most amazing thing I've ever done, but you go through additional listening training to be able to do something like that, as you might imagine. So sidewalk talk is an organization. That's all all about. That is another great resource for people to learn some skills of how to do this more effectively.

Tom Bronson (25m 2s):
Oh, sorry. I lost my train of thought. I was lost in what you were saying. I was listening so intently

Susan Steinbrecher (25m 8s):
Good for you.

Tom Bronson (25m 11s):
Wow. That I, you know, that is a lost art listening is a lost art. And, and most, you know, I don't want to go down this rabbit hole, but most people think that's the job of a salesperson is to talk. The job of a salesperson is to listen, to ask great questions and to listen. So yeah, there are all kinds of, of tools to be able to, to be able to do that. So, so how does kind of rethinking the way we engage with our remote employees build long-term value of a business?

Susan Steinbrecher (25m 42s):
Well, you know, right now, certainly some of my clients, which is kind of interesting, we've gone, you know, full, full one end of the spectrum to the other. Now they're all scrambling to find talent. So, you know, it's crazy. And here we were like, the unemployment was so high and now they're all scrambling to find talent, you know, especially in the hospitality industry, which is my background. So I'm hearing, I'm hearing restaurants literally now close their door because they can't staff it before they were closing their doors because of the pandemic. So it's crazy. But I would say if you want turned on tapped in emotionally connected, highly motivated employees, all the things we've talked about today helps create that.

Susan Steinbrecher (26m 25s):
So making sure that you are connected to your people, that you're understanding where they are, where they now feel motivated, perform the very highest for you is going to be really important and keeping them with you because they're going to leave. If they feel that they're cared for, listened to understand empathized with. And so when you talk a productivity, you're not going to meet goals. If you're losing your best people. So keeping your best people, making sure you're retaining them by meeting them where they are and, and working through what challenges there might be, certainly impacts productivity and therefore impacts business performance.

Tom Bronson (27m 7s):
That's a, that is amazing. You know, it's almost a similar answer to what I got in a couple of weeks ago on our podcast with Rick Robinson, he was talking about leadership development and he made a comment that I've never heard before, but, but it's one of those quotes, you know, I like quotes and things that I can ponder said, culture is your only sustainable competitive advantage.

Susan Steinbrecher (27m 30s):
Yeah. It really is because brick and mortar can be reproduced.

Tom Bronson (27m 34s):
That's it? And, and so what you're talking about here is creating a culture that will attract the right people and will ultimately build value. So, yeah, so that, wow, you're just singing my song here. I love that. So let's get to the last question here, the last business question, and we've asked you this before, so I'll be interested to hear what you say today. The podcast is all about maximizing business value. We've talked about all kinds of things today, but what is the one most important thing you recommend business owners should do to build long-term sustainable value in their business?

Susan Steinbrecher (28m 12s):
Yeah, I think honestly, it's invest in yourself as a leader because no one ever is perfect. And the more you're willing, you know, Hartson leadership principle, one's called know thyself. The more that you can look in the mirror and own how you show up and take personal accountability responsibility for that, the good, the bad and the ugly, the, the bigger and stronger leader, you're going to be number one. And then secondarily invest in your people, especially millennials and the generation coming next, entering the workforce, digital natives or gen Z, they're sometimes called they are all about development.

Susan Steinbrecher (28m 57s):
So if you're not offering development, you're not offering a roadmap and a path of how you can enter into a certain job. And here's, what's possible for you here in our organization in terms of moving up and taking on more responsibility, they're going to go with someone who will provide that and then secondary. And then the other part of that is especially that generation millennials, for sure. And especially this next generation coming up, they're all about wanting to work for companies that provide value and have values. Meaning what do you stand for as an organization? I know what you do, you make widgets, but who are you? And what is your value based proposition of giving back to the world is critically important to these generations.

Susan Steinbrecher (29m 45s):
So you better be looking really long and hard about that. So I would say all of that long answer,

Tom Bronson (29m 52s):
Very closely related to the answer that you gave the last time we did this. And so I didn't know that back then. That's right. I went, I see, I went back and listened to it again, so I can refresh on that because, you know, it's one of those things now that we're actually having you are our hour. I think that this is only the second time we've had a repeat guest. And so in the first one was a podcast that was really kind of two parts. And so this is the first time. So I've got a little trepidation about asking my last question, which I always ask at the end of the podcast. So I'll ask it and then I'm going to give a twist. So that is the bonus question of what personality trait has gotten you into the most probable over the years.

Tom Bronson (30m 37s):
And if you, since you've already answered that, you can answer that or you can tell us what personality trait has given you the most joy throughout the years.

Susan Steinbrecher (30m 49s):
Oh, that's really interesting. I kind of liked that second one since I've answered the first one. I think my ability to connect has given me the most joy, because not only have I been able to teach others to do that more effectively, I just find that I can be with a total stranger and stuff comes out of their mouth, that they often I hear them say, I can believe I'm just, I can't believe I'm even sharing this with you. So I'm doing something that's allowing people to feel safe, which is really what we're about creating those safe spaces. Because if you create the safety, you build connection. If you build connection, you build trust.

Susan Steinbrecher (31m 29s):
If you build trust, you solve problems. And that's, that's what it's all about.

Tom Bronson (31m 36s):
That's awesome. What a great answer. So I had to do that on the fly cause I was sitting here going, gosh, should I ask the same question? That is, that is awesome. So, so how can our viewers and listeners get in touch with you?

Susan Steinbrecher (31m 50s):
And I would love to hear from people always love to hear from folks, people like, Oh, well she won't answer my call or it's my email. Yes, I will. And just, I mean, you know, so you can reach me at meaningfulalignment.com, the website, you can reach me at steinbrecher.com the website. And then of course there's emails, contact us, whatever, contact me, all of that. I do look at those. I do answer those. So yes, please, by all means, reach out, love to be of help.

Tom Bronson (32m 17s):
And she wasn't kidding. You know, she is someone who really is able to connect in that starts with, if you reach out to her, I promise she will respond to you. I, it feels like as Susan and I've only known each other for maybe a little over a year, we were reconnected by a great friend, Beth Denton last year. And I feel like we're just old friends, Right? That's exactly having an uncanny knack for that connection. So thank you Susan, for being our guests today. Thank you. It's been such an honor and a privilege to spend this time with you. Thank you. Awesome. You can find Susan Steinbrecker at steinbrecher.com or on LinkedIn, and of course you can always reach out to me and I'll be happy to make a warm introduction to my good friend, Susan Steinbrecker by the way, we're going to have Susan back again later this year, a third and unprecedented furred, a time to talk about her first book, Heart Centered Leadership - Lead Well, Live Well.

Tom Bronson (33m 20s):
Be on the lookout for that podcast. Later this year, this is the maximum This business value podcast, where we give practical advice, the business owners on how to build long-term sustainable value in their businesses. Be sure to tune in each week and subscribe wherever you found this podcast. And by the way, if you're like me and a voracious note taker, while you listen to podcasts and books, we make that easier because we post a complete transcript of every podcast, right on our website, mastery partners.com. So until next time, I'm Tom Bronson reminding you to develop a plan to engage your remote employees while you maximize business value.

Tom Bronson (34m 2s):
<inaudible>

Announcer (34m 6s):
Thank you for tuning in to the maximize business value podcast with Tom Brunson. This podcast is brought to you by mastery partners, where our mission is to equip business owners to maximize business value so they can transition on their terms. Learn more on how to build long-term sustainable business value and get free value building tools by visiting our website, www.masterypartners.com that's master with a Y masterypartners.com. Check it out.

Tom Bronson (34m 35s):
<inaudible> that was perfect. I wouldn't make any changes on that.