Episode 130: The Bottom Line - MIT Your Team

So the big question is this: how do small business owners like us grow our leadership, develop our teams, and scale our business in a way that allows us to get our products and services out to the world yet still remain profitable?

That is the question, and this podcast will give you the answers.

I'm Bradley Hamner, and this is the Club Capital Leadership Podcast.

Welcome to The Bottom Line, a new weekly podcast series that we drop every Thursday to complement our weekly Monday podcast interviews with the industry leaders. These podcasts are going to be designed to give you short, impactful, and value-driven information that you can start using right away in your business. I value your time and attention and will do my very best not to waste it. Just get what you need and go. So with that, let's get into today's episode.

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Hey everyone, welcome back to another solo episode of The Bottom Line. This is episode 2 in this little miniseries that I'm doing. You guys like those miniseries on Netflix? They're, they're pretty good, aren't they? I love the ones that are 4 to 5 episodes long. So I guess this is my play on that. So last week I introduced you the idea of what's the most important thing that you can do for yourself. This week we're going to talk about what's the most important thing you can do for your team. And then next week we're going to talk about what's the most important thing that I think you can do for your business. And so just to recap a little bit, if you haven't listened to last last week's episode, I said the most important thing I think you do for yourself is to protect your confidence and get in the habit of capturing the wins and doing that certainly weekly. And consider doing that with your team whenever you're running their one-to-ones as well, because they'll begin to scan for those wins. And, um, whenever they're scanning for wins versus scanning for losses, opportunities— and there's a time again to certainly think about the areas that you can improve, but starting with wins because it's so easy to get into the areas that we need to improve. So this week is, what's the most important thing you can do for your team? I think the most important thing you can do for your team is give them your energy. I think that, uh, we know more than anything else that they are feeding off of your energy. I can't be the only one that you walk into your office, or even if you're running a mostly virtual remote team, and you hop on Zoom, they immediately are going to pick up on your energy. I was joking with, uh, Ellie on my team the other day. She'll end up listening to this. Uh, it was probably 4 or 5 months ago. I was having a really bad day and it was a bad morning. It started off bad and I knew it. And I knew this— here I am talking about this concept of your team feeding off of your energy. They, they need that. And I had no juice and jumped on. And about 5 minutes into it, I said, you know what? I just don't think this is going to do more damage for us to try to go through this Zoom huddle, Zoom weekly team meeting with me being in this state than it would if we plow through. And she said, you know what? I remember that. And I think that stands out, just the fact that she remembers how terrible of a mood I was in because my energy was negative and it was going to rub off on the rest of the team. And so whether we like it or not, the team is picking up on your energy. And I, I think there's been some studies done that if you're— they did some studies on the subway that even if, if somebody is anxious and they can read your body language, or it sends out these vibes that, that they're picking up, I think you see that with your kids. Your, your kids can know when something is wrong if you and your spouse are having an argument, a disagreement of some sort, you know, your kids are so perceptive of that. I think we as humans just have that ability to pick up on it. And so I think that you— it's hard to give something that you don't have. You— it's really hard to pour from an empty cup. A lot of times you've gone on an airplane, they talk about, uh, in the event of loss of cabin pressure, to make sure that you put your oxygen mask on first before you go through and begin to help others. And I think that that is so true. Maybe the most selfless thing that you can do for your team is to lead yourself first. You have mentioned before, I mean, I love Craig Rochelle and his saying is, on his podcast, When the Leader Gets Better, Everyone Gets Better. And that goes and comes in a lot of different forms. I mean, the obvious when I'm talking to energy is people will think about, you know, your physical energy, like, do you feel well? And that certainly is a type of energy. But I think it's also that it factor, right? That you do— you just have the juice that day. And it's not just how you physically feel, you know, Whenever you're sick and not feeling well, it is really difficult to fake it. But I also think it's the emotional energy that you're bringing. It's the spirit that you're bringing to the— whenever you're around your team, especially whenever you're front stage with your team in one-to-ones or team meetings, or whenever you're front stage, you know, certainly with customers, but specifically with your team. When you're there, having an awareness to make sure that they are going to feed off your energy, right, wrong, or indifferent. And so I think that there are some things that we can do to be aware of how we show up. And I'm not going to go through the typical ones, which is get more rest, eat better, drink less alcohol, don't rely on caffeine, drink more water, work out regularly, yada yada yada, get 8 hours of sleep, wake up at 5. You guys I mean, you've heard all of that, but I think one of the things is not being aware of our own energy rhythms. And what I mean is, is then by architecting your week in a way that allows you to be front stage with your team at the times that's best for you. At the time I'm recording this, it's actually later in the afternoon, in the evening, much later than I usually would record something like this. But I get a burst of energy, uh, from around 4 PM to maybe around 6. I have the most of my energy between, say, 8 AM, especially 9 AM, 9 AM to around 12, and I'm a lot lower energy, uh, from lunch, right after lunch until that mid-afternoon time, and then I have a little bit of a burst and then I fall off of a cliff after that. And so the reason I tell you that is because whatever your energy rhythm is, building and architecting your perfect week based off of that is important. And so if you're just not a morning person, maybe it's not the best time for you to be running one-to-ones with your team at 8:30 in the morning just because it may be the best time for them. If you're not showing up in the best version of yourself, then they're going to pick up on that. If 1 o'clock in the afternoon is the best time for you, then maybe that's a good time for you to start running, you know, run one-to-ones with your team and meet with your team during that time because they're going to feed off of that and you show up as your best self. So what's the most important thing you can do for yourself? I think it's to protect your confidence. What's the most important thing you can do for your team? Is you got to give them your energy. They're going to feed off of your energy, right, wrong, or indifferent, but you've got to have the energy first. You've got to put your oxygen mask on first, and you can't pour from an empty cup. And so doing the things, of course, that you need to do physically, yes, but also emotionally, intellectually, spiritually— what are the things that drain you and what are the things that give you energy. When I have the time to think and reflect and put time in my own development by listening to other podcasts, by, uh, listening to audiobooks, by reading books, it helps me to make so many connections, and it fills me with energy. Of course going to the gym makes me feel good. Of course I'm more aware. I actually went to a— there's a restaurant in town called Rosie's. It's a Tex-Mex, um, place, and it's awesome, and I love their chips and I love their salsa. But I went to lunch with a friend and ended up getting a taco salad because what I really wanted to get was fajitas and eat the chips. And I, I knew if I had one chip, I would just go downhill from there, and my energy would be completely zapped the rest of the day. So even something as simple as that, and being aware of how food affects your energy, how sleep affects your energy— some of you wake up early in the morning and you are raring to go. You bust through the doors at 7:30, 8 o'clock in the morning, and you are excited to take on the day. But by 3 o'clock, 3:30, you're, you're spent. Well, that's not a good time for you to, um, late in the day if that's how your day is. Understand that, have an awareness of it. So there's no judgment whatsoever. Different people's sleeping rhythms affect how their energy is. And I think there's a great book that I would encourage you to read, um, on this, and that is Win by Daniel Pink. Win by Daniel Pink. Some of you may have heard him speak. And he doesn't just talk about energy rhythms, but he certainly gives you enough to chew on based on what I've shared here. So again, knowing what your energy rhythm is, knowing that your team is going to feed off of that, what's the best way for you to structure and architect your week based on how your energy goes up and down? I hope this has served you. As I always say, I appreciate your time and attention. I hope you got a good return on it. We'll finish our little 3-part miniseries here, and we'll talk about what's the most important thing that you can do for your business. All right, everyone, appreciate you. Lead well. If you're listening to this podcast, I know you're someone who has a growth mindset and you probably want to be able to grow your book of business as well. 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