The Winning Formula: Building Elite Teams with Precision with Stephen Morris

What does your team understand about the power of relationships when it comes to performing like an elite team? How can you create and motivate community, consistency, and clarity with your team based on camaraderie and precision? Having the right skillset as a leader to bring together and build an elite team of performers is not outta reach. And our guest, Stephen Morris of Renowned Leadership, is here to tell you exactly how you can do just that. Turning your team and yourself into a high-powered team resembling the most elite special forces groups out there. Stay with us. Welcome, welcome, welcome to Shading the Corporate Bitch, the podcast that transforms female corporate executives into powerhouse leaders by showing them how to shed the challenges and overwhelm along with any fear, insecurity, self-doubt and negativity holding them back. I'm your host, Bernadette Boas of Ball of Fire Coaching, bringing you powerhouse discussions each week to share tips, advice, and sometimes tough love so you create the riches in your work and life you deserve. Stephen, how are you?

I am fantastic, Bernadette. I am so freaking excited to be here. So let's go.

Oh, let's go. I'm excited to be here too and to be talking to you and this fabulous conversation because I love the twist you put onto it or the angle you take on it when it comes to building elite teams. So we'll get to that in just a moment. But I really like to always start off with our community getting to know you as a person as opposed to the businessman. That you are. So if you would, could you tell us a little bit about yourself and then we'll dive into all the great conversation?

Yeah, of course I can. It's kind of weird to hear businessman put as like a potential title for me, but yeah, definitely. My name is Stephen Morris. I'm a retired Army veteran. I was in the Army for a really freaking long time. Got out of the Army, got into the corporate world, and I hated it. So I started my own company. And I just, I love to serve my community, right? Like, I've found the most fulfilling things in the world are like, I can take all these experiences I've gained and give back. So whether it's volunteering or talking to you fine folks on your podcast or serving my clients, I love just giving back. And just, this is how I formed all the knowledge or wisdom. Oh man, that's weird too. But this is how I formed all of that and tried to make it in a cohesive unit that I can give to people. People and help.

How long have you been out of the Army?

2017, July 11th.

Okay, so it's not been that long. So you're still transitioning into this like weird world of layman citizens and business people and that kind of thing. It's hard making your own rules and, and making sure you follow your own disciplines, that kind of thing.

That part's easy. The hard part was getting into the corporate world, and I just wasn't ready for it. But, um, You know, it's completely different than being in the military.

What was your big lesson from that though?

That we have great managers and horrible leaders. And people get all offended a lot of times when I say that. And they're like, well, managers and leaders are the same thing. And it's like, no, no, they're really not. A manager is a corporate block. They check boxes. A leader checks people.

Oh, I love that. I love that because that's so true. My whole platform with Ball of Fire Coaching is around go from a so-so manager to a powerhouse leader. And because I believe that same thing. Now, I am interested in understanding your response when you said that you're not really accustomed to hearing businessman when it relates to you. Where is that coming from?

It is, you know, if you'd have told me I was going to be a businessman entrepreneur, being on podcasts. If you told me that, what, what is it, 6 years now, 7 years almost, when I left the Army, I would have told you you're totally full of crap. I, I never would have imagined I'd be here today. But, um, I had a very strict rule in the military with my, my teams, and that is, I don't care if you have a problem, you, you can come complain about it as much as you want, but show me that you put thought into it and come to me with a solution as well. It doesn't have to be a good solution, just put put thought into it. So, you know, not wanting to be a hypocrite, that's why I started doing what I do is because I saw a problem that needs fixed. So I decided to fix it.

And what did you find that problem to be?

You know, I read an MIT study. This is fairly recent. I believe it's MIT. Anyway, they said that surveying however big their pool was, the average person in the United States doesn't receive formal leadership training until they're 42 and a half years old. Or 44 and a half, somewhere in there. Wow. And it's like, yeah, it's insane. 'Cause you know, for me, I started receiving leadership training when I was 18. Right. So when you think about that, that's way— think about all the bad habits you've developed in that 20 years.

Sure, absolutely.

So why wait on bad habits to form? And one of my favorite analogies is I can teach you how to shoot a gun. A rifle, right, at a long distance. If you've never shot a rifle before, I'll teach you in 8 hours and you will hit every single time at 500 meters. If you grew up shooting with your dad or whatever, it'll take me weeks to teach you how to shoot at a distance because you've developed so many bad habits over the years that we have to untrain and then retrain. Right, right. So why do we wait on all these bad habits to form? Before we start, you know, it's just, it's idiocracy. It's crazy.

Say it like it is, Stephen. That's what we love here at Shedding the Corporate Veg. So do you find that in order to build an elite team, as you talk about, that you can't rewind, you know, to that 20 years, but you can certainly ensure that as you're getting new people in, especially if they are on the younger demographic age spectrum, that you are providing that guidance, that training, that coaching. Is that what you're, you're kind of trying to advocate out there?

Honestly, Bernadette, I'm not scared of a challenge. So come to me with all your bad habits and I would love to systematically crush every single one of them. And we will learn together how to build an elite team. And literally, I'm not talking just like a proverbial— no, I'm talking about a team that has your back. I'm talking about a team that you go to and be like, guys, I screwed up, I just cost us $500,000. And everyone in your team goes, oh my God, how did this happen? First question. Second question, how do we help you?

Right, right. Now, don't you find though that the foundation of that is actually building a team or the, or the leader working to build a team that's based on trust, because that takes a lot of trust from the employees to feel comfortable and safe to go and raise up issues and even failures to their bosses. So where does trust fit into building an elite team?

Trust is everything. You know, if you don't trust somebody, how can you give yourself to them. You know, like a marriage. If you don't, you know, if you're married to your partner and you don't trust your partner, that marriage is pretty doomed from the start, right? Like, trust is everything. So that is same for building an elite team. But it— trust comes from, from what I call the 3 C's: community, clarity, and consistency.

Love it.

And actually, I said that backwards, and that's probably my fault. I probably sent it to you backwards. It's actually community, consistency, and clarity. But that's fine. But it all works the same.

It all works the same.

But community, right? Like, you got to know your people. Like, this is such a missed aspect of leadership. Like, we feel like, oh, we can't be friends with them because they're our charges. That is such archaic thought, right? Like, people understand who's in charge. As long as you place boundaries, they're going to understand when it's okay to be a friend and when it's like, okay, time to shut up and work.

Right.

Right?

Right.

So I mean, it's just about establishing boundaries, but we miss this mark so much of, if I may share a personal story, I had my superstar, my rock, right? She was anytime I needed anything, she was right there. I had leaned on her for everything. She was the best, like the best. And then one day she just kind of disappeared. And I didn't know why. And I did every— I tried to talk to her, coach her, counselor, like everything I could think of to try to figure out what was going on. Like she was still physically at work, but she was checked out and I didn't know why. Did I burn her out? Like what happened? Come to find out she had been married for like 20, 30 years and she had just found out her husband had been cheating on her for like 2 years and they were going through a real nasty divorce. There was a significant amount of money, there were children involved, like it was bad. It was a bad situation. And I just, when I found out through the rumor mill, mind you, I was like, man, I thought we were cool. Why didn't she come talk to me? And I realized I didn't create an environment safe for her to come to me with these things and feel safe talking to me about it. And it's like, man, I failed her on so many levels.

Yeah. What does a safe— because, you know, the psychological safety is talked about and the terms thrown around all over the place and create a safe space. And a lot of people will be like, Bernadette, what the heck is a safe space? You know, I mean, is it a closed door? So how do you describe a safe space for someone to— like her— to have come to you as opposed to allow it to swirl in the rumor mill?

Yeah, absolutely. And you're right, it is such a buzzword, and I'm guilty for using it. I know. No, no, no, no, no.

Yeah, we— yeah, yeah.

But no, it is a buzzword. But the thing is, you, you have to create a space where there is mutual trust, right? Lack of judgment. You got to be an active, engaged listener, right? You're not jumping to solution first. You're, you're just listening. People just want you to listen to them, right? They need to feel comfortable that it stops at you. You're not going to go talk about it to Joe Schmo at the water cooler. That information is sacred and it's safe with you. They have to know that it's not going to affect their work. You're not going to start reprimanding them just based on them coming to you. Of course, there are extenuating circumstances where if they screwed something up, but in general, it is just completely safe, that there is no repercussion for them coming to talk to you. And a lot of times it's like, I can't go talk to him about this because if I can't control this at home, you know, maybe, maybe I got a DUI. And, you know, maybe I can't go talk to my boss at work about me screwing up and getting a DUI because if you can't even trust me to drive, how is he going to trust me to handle millions of dollars?

Right, right. And that's big, not just the DUI example, but it's big to have that trust and that camaraderie you talk about.

Right.

And so where does the community consistency and clarity come into play when it comes to building that space, building that elite team?

That is what goes into building the elite team. You have to create that community where everyone feels safe, everyone feels heard, everyone feels valued. Everyone feels like they're a part of a team. I, I've seen soldiers from back in my military days that would just be complete eggheads, um, and I don't mean egghead as in smart, I mean just as smart as an egg or as useful as an egg, just not good soldiers get to me. And they spend a few weeks, it just takes a few weeks of being in an environment where everybody's a team where everybody matters, everyone's voice matters. And all of a sudden, like, you start seeing these soldiers come around. That community is so important. That's why it's first. Consistency. You want trust from your team members? Well, first of all, you have to consistently trust them, right? Trust isn't freely given, and you have to trust them before they'll ever trust you. I know it seems counterintuitive, but I promise you it works.

Right.

You have to consistently make decisions, show up the same way every single day. I know it's hard because we have bad days and some days we just don't want to show up, but we have to. It's our job, right? They need us to show up and make decisions the same way, communicate the same way. Our demeanor is the same way no matter what. They see us as a rock. An immovable object, right? And then clarity. We have to communicate consistently, constantly, whatever word you want to use, and clearly. Like, that communication piece is so important. If your team knows where they're going, what they're doing, and what their mission is, I promise you, with those other two pieces in place, you're going to see drastic results.

So going back to that rock star that you had that all of a sudden kind of fell off, and you made a comment that you didn't— not that you disappointed, but you just didn't support her, like you weren't there for her. So one, how did you recognize that, and how did you feel when all of a sudden you recognized that? But then more importantly, what changes did you make to transform yourself and the approach you took with the team in order to now kind of be that leader that ensures that they have created community, consistency, and clarity?

Yeah. So the first part of your question, I felt hurt. I felt like she stabbed me in the back. I thought we were tight. I thought we had that relationship, but I was wrong. Right? I was taking for granted our relationship, basically, and I wasn't putting in the work.

The work being what, do you think?

Just being engaged in her everyday life, right? Like, that's all part of creating that community as well, which I didn't talk about. But you know, you have to know them as people, right? And I didn't take that step. I couldn't have even told you her husband's name, right? And that's my bad. You know, in the military, I knew all my peoples. I knew their spouses, their children, their parents, their birthdays, their anniversaries, the day their mom died. Like, I knew all of those things. And then I get into the corporate world and I guess the corporate world ruined me a little bit for a short period of time, poisoned my mind, if you will. But, and I had to get it back. But yeah, that's what happened. The changes I made is just went back to my roots, understanding that this is how I build elite teams in the military and this is how I need to build elite teams in the corporate world.

I love that. Now I have to ask, because it's been pinging me mentally since we started the conversation, how much of your— the structure and the rigidness of what at least people perceive the military to be, and the discipline, and then even the, um, consequence— how does that show up or is received by the teams and the leaders that you work with? Because corporate, a lot of corporate doesn't, they don't, you know, they don't necessarily want all of that structure and rigidness. They need it, but they don't necessarily want it.

Look, one of the reasons I started doing this is because I had a mentor tell me, you know, dude, if you could bottle this and sell it, you'd be a millionaire. And I'm like, well, I can bottle it. So let's go, bro.

Do it.

And, and, uh, so if, if that's what you want, then the discipline, I wouldn't say rigidness, but the discipline is a must, right? But there's a great thing about it, about discipline is it's not inherent. Discipline is learned.

Mm-hmm.

Right? So I know it sounds daunting. I know it sounds horrible.. But I promise there is nothing more freeing than going into your team and being like, hey, I need 2 people to do this. I need 1 person to do this. And I need 3 people to do this. And they're like, oh yeah, I got that. Yeah. You know, and they divvy up amongst themselves. They're like, yep, we got it. You're like, cool. Call me if you need me. Yeah. And you have absolute trust that your work is going to get done and you are free to go do the things you need to do because your team's got you. And if they don't, then they will come to you. So, I mean, I know the idea sounds scary, but I promise you it's not. And I promise you it's not near as hard as not doing it and then suffering the consequences later of having just a completely toxic team and a completely toxic work environment. Again, with the buzzwords, just sucks. And then your retention goes to crap, and then then all of a sudden you're paying out the wazoo for onboarding and training new employees and then ads to try, you know, and then you're in the Walmart loop. And sorry to throw shade at Walmart, but I mean, you get a reputation for a reason.

Yes. Oh, I absolutely agree. And the reason why I actually asked about that too is one, you mentioned boundaries. And I think, I think that's really the foundation of what it is that you describe that you had with the military is you had boundaries. And I often talk to our— I often talk to my clients and our listeners about very much leaders and their people are like parents and children. You know, the children will fight, kick and scream for discipline and boundaries and, and saying no. But yet when you let it all go and say, okay, go free, you're free, they kind of lose it. They need that structure. Is that an analogy that you can relate to?

100%. And it's funny because in the military, people think that we're basically prisoners and that's not it at all. We actually have a lot of freedom, but there are very heavy consequences that come with our freedom. And so, I mean, yeah, 100%. And like I said, once you get that discipline established within your team, of course they're going to fight it. Of course they're going to hate it. Like, who wouldn't? I would. And I'm the one telling people to do it. And like, you know, whenever my wife's like, we have a new rule, this, and I'm like, ew, not doing it. And then we go at it and of course she wins. And then, you know, But no, of course we resent it. We don't want it until we realize we kind of do because it kind of benefits us.

Yeah.

So, I mean, you just have to weather the storm, but I promise, beating my fist against the desk, like it's going to pay you dividends in the long run.

Right. Yes. I just absolutely love that. Now, another concept that you talk a lot about that looks like it has to do with your Community, consistency, clarity is precision. So I— well, let me just ask, so what does that look like in the work that you do with the leaders and the teams to gain precision? What exactly does that mean?

So whenever we onboard a new client, the first thing we do is we have all parties involved do two things. One, they all take a leadership assessment, and then the second thing is they all take a personality assessment. We want to know exactly the archetypes of each person, right? And then from there, we're going to build literally from scratch the plan to get you to have the team that you need to have. And sometimes that is they're looking— they're entrepreneurs looking to hire a team, right? They're ready to start scaling and they need starting to onboard their team. And some of it is that they've already got a well-established team or organization, and they've found that they've created a toxic culture. So we go in and we just analyze every single person involved, and then we start building the package. We call it the target package of what that organization or leader is trying to gain. And then from there, like, We just refine it as we go. And that, that's— I cringed a little bit earlier when you were like talking about rigidness, because I know that's a perception people have of the military. It's actually not very accurate. We're actually very, very fluid. We are able to adapt to situations very effectively and very fast. That's part of our training. So when I think of my soldiers and being rigid, that doesn't really clock in my mind. And it's the same thing goes with this, like it's not rigid at all. This is very fluid. So as we work and it's like, oh, you know what, this was the plan, but I feel like this would be a better direction. We're going to switch and move over here. A precision guided bomb, when it gets dropped, its angle of attack changes as it gets closer to its target.

Oh, wow. Okay.

All right, it's not an exact straight down, like, you know, it gets released, you know, could be 10 miles out. So its initial angle is maybe 2 degrees, and then as it gets closer, it's going to start changing its angle of attack. So I mean, precision comes from many different angles, and that's how we approach it, is we understand that as we, as we work with you, things are going to change and we're going to adapt and and evolve our game to match those changes. Did that answer your question? It did.

Absolutely. And actually it provided great clarity because, you know, I'm one of those, I don't know what you call us, laypeople, citizens. I watch a lot of NCIS, but you know, whatever. But I would've definitely, well, I used the words rigid and precision. I thought kind of fit into that of being exact. Like it never changes. It's exact. So yes, you answered it around fluidity and exactly the scenarios that you, that you brought up, you know, provided great clarity. Great clarity.

Student of the game.

Student of the game. I'll work consistency and community in here somewhere. Well, okay, so how can, how can our listeners and our viewers kind of structure, community, consistency, and clarity to where they can start kind of considering how they can be implementing that with their own teams?

Too easy. All three. You can start tomorrow. Community, just start talking to your team. How was your day? How was little Johnny's baseball game this weekend? And don't just ask, like, actively listen to their answers.

But what do you say, Stephen, to some of those— and I won't even call them old school, meaning they're more seasoned like me, you know, they've been around a while— but what do you say to those that still have this philosophy that business is business, it's not personal, and I don't need to know 'How Johnny's game went,' you know, of one of my employees. What do you say to those type of people who kind of push back on that personal relationship building?

So I laugh because old school people typically don't like me very much.

I love you. No, I'm not old school. I'm old. I'm not old school.

Yeah, they typically disagree with me a lot. But to say that it's not— business is business and personal is personal is fine. You're welcome to say that. But that's going to say that being a professional soldier is not business, right? Because we understand that if the family's not good, you're not good, right? If Bernadette is having trouble with her two kids at home because they're being knuckleheads and they're going out partying, and she's not sleeping, you know, but 2 hours a day, guess what? When you show up to work, you still haven't slept for but 2 hours. Your kids are still knuckleheads and you're still stressed out and worried. Yeah, right. Those problems don't leave the second you clock in. We have to understand that, right? We have to be, to an extent, accommodating to that, right? Obviously, we can't let people take advantage. But it's like, hey, look, my kids did this. I'm exhausted. Yeah, go, go take a half a day. Go get caught up on sleep. When you just come back at noon after lunch or whatever and get back to work.

Because they're no good sitting there like a zombie at their desk.

You're paying them for nothing.

Right, right, right.

So why do it, right? It just doesn't make sense. No matter, no matter how the old school person can break it down to me, it's not going to make sense. All right. They're people. People are always going to be people. We're not robots. I understand business is business. Yes. People are people. Yes. But these two things have to merge and coincide from 8 to 5 or whatever your hours are.

Right, right, right. And then you started talking about communication when it came to that clarity. Piece of the 3 C's. Where do you find the biggest challenge for many? And I'll call them so-called managers, not that are working their way to being leaders, but what is the biggest challenge they have when it comes to communicating with their team?

I will answer your question with a question, and I apologize because I get really mad when people do that to me, but this has actual educational purpose. So bear with me.

That's okay.

Think about your last boss and what was your company's mission? Okay, that's fair. What was your company's vision?

To be the largest global technology leader. I do know that.

That was it? Hopefully it was a little more refined than that.

It was more refined than that.

That's fine. What was your company's elevator pitch?

That I couldn't tell you. We're 14 years away from my last boss, but yeah.

My point is, that's the start of where we fail. If our team can't articulate our mission, if our team can't articulate our vision, if every single person on our staff, from the receptionist to the call booker to whatever, doesn't know our elevator pitch, we have failed in communicating.

Well, what steps does the leader take with the team to ingrain that and get that clarity out into their team, if not the whole company as a whole?

I mean, there are a million ways you can do it. My personal favorite's to gamify, right? And so, each week, I'm going to create a silly little game. And it can be via email. And it's gonna look something like, hey, the person that comes up with the best paragraph that includes our vision is going to win a free day off or something. And it'll be a community vote, right? Everybody gets a vote on the best one, no one's going to know whose is who. And I'm going to select the top 3, everybody gets to vote on the others, you know, you're going to gamify it. And obviously, I'm not putting a lot of thought into this. This just came off the top of my head, so don't judge me. I wasn't prepared for this question, so, like, just throwing it out anyway. But no, I'm going to gamify it, right? And this is just me. This is my leadership type. I'm very energetic. I'm very active. I love to play games. So automatically, I assume everyone else does too. And so that's how I'm going to do it. It could be, you know, when you have your or a Monday morning meeting, the very first thing you say to open the meeting is the vision statement.

I love that.

And then everyone's going to hear it and they're just going to remember it over time.

Right.

Right? There are a million different ways. It just depends on your personality and how you communicate that will resonate with the people. But you got to remember your team, again, they're not rigid, they're malleable. So they're going to adjust to you as the leader. So Don't be afraid to embrace who you are and communicate the best way you communicate. The best leader I ever saw since I left the Army— well, your show is called The Corvettes Shedding the Corvette Bitch, so I'm pretty sure I can say this. He had the worst resting bitch face I've ever seen in my life, and he never smiled. He was very gruff, kind of like Clint Eastwood-esque. But his team freaking loved him, right? And it wasn't about the pleasantries. It wasn't about the standing at the door every day telling— and he never did that, by the way. He never told anyone they did a good job unless they legitimately did a good job. But his team freaking loved him just because he embraced who he was and used it to benefit his team. The most important thing that I saw him do is he always put his community first. He always showed up consistently the same way every single day, and he always communicated very clearly with them. They always knew where they stood. They always knew what their job was. They never had questions.

The 3 C's right there. Woo-hoo! Give it up, give it up. Stephen, that was awesome. That was absolutely awesome. It got me out of my seat. That was absolutely awesome. Is there any last closing comment, statement, tip that you would want to leave us with? Although that was pretty damn good.

Yeah.

But anything else?

Yeah. Just be yourself. Right? You don't have to be, you know, MLK or JFK or Ronald Reagan, whoever you want to choose. Like, you don't have to be Jesus Christ. Like, just be yourself. It's enough. You are enough. And if you show up authentically and just authentically be yourself and then consistently work on yourself every single day to be a little bit better, a little bit better, you're going to do fine. My mentor in the Army, my greatest mentor of my life, the only thing I actually really remember that he taught me was, um, there's no such thing as a wasted day as long as you learn one new thing. Every single day. Just be yourself and keep improving.

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Stephen, thank you so much for this fabulous conversation. Very enlightening. A lot of fun. Thank you. And definitely elite to building a team with clarity, consistency, and community. I went back.

Close enough.

No, I went backwards. Oh, okay.

That's fine. Like I said, it doesn't matter how you say it, it all works the same.

So I shook it up a bit. I shook it up a bit. Well, thank you very much for being part. I really appreciate it.

It has been an absolute blast. It's been my pleasure, and I hope you have me back sometime.

Oh, absolutely. We might have to get into like the whole how do you be yourself conversation.

Yes, I'm good at that one too. Took me, took me 40 years to learn that one.

You and me both. Thank you, Stephen.

Thank you so much, Bernadette Boas.

What a powerhouse Stephen was. Stephen Morris of Renowned Leadership. I had a sense when I even first saw his profile without it saying anything about it that he must have had some military background because everything that we talked about had to do with building an elite team, precision, camaraderie, Trust, discipline, boundaries, and how critical all of those things are, despite the fact that many of your employees want to be kicking and screaming to not have to have any rules, have any structure, have any boundaries, have any restrictions. And yet how critical it is to really being high-performing individuals and then a collective as a team. So he, you know, talked through his 3 Ps: community, consistency, and clarity. He talked about that power of relationships, more so the relationship that leaders have to have with their people. You know, I always talk about the fact that people are not robots, and therefore we have to, as leaders, and if we consider ourselves as leaders, we have to get to know our people. And he even talked and shared about his philosophy around the fact that if their family's not good, they're not good. So if one of your people are off or just not performing how they typically do or even to their capability, then there might be something else going on than what is happening within the confines of work. So he talked about the importance of really learning and getting to know and connecting with your people and building that community. It was a fabulous conversation. And you have to admit, I don't know, I had a lot of fun. Did you have a lot of fun? I had a blast talking with Stephen. So I hope you did as well. And we would love to know what your feedback is in regards to, you know, the conversation, what comments you might have, what questions you might have. So feel free to follow me on LinkedIn and leave your comments. All right. And then if there are any questions, over and above all the conversation that we had, then be sure to book a call with me and let's discuss it. Let's figure out what you might be challenged with when it comes to being a powerhouse leader and building that powerhouse team. You can book a call with me at coachmebernadette.com/discoverycall. I'm so honored that you were here with both Stephen and I today and look forward to having you for another episode of Shedding the Corporate Bitch. Take care.