How To Improve TEAMWORK In Your Canadian Business

When you have a large, growing organization, what we encourage our teammates to do is to operate in their unique ability. Find the right who's who are strong where you're weak. I know it sounds ridiculously simple.

But so few people act on it. There's really something powerful about believing in someone, and there's something even more powerful about helping them achieve the breakthrough of.

No belief is more important than the belief they have in themselves.

I have Jason Lowe, CEO and founder of Ascendant Financial, on, I think for the last time this year. But.

So we're going to talk a little bit about wrapping up 2021, going to 2022. It gets timely these. When we have these, it's almost seems like almost every time it's a day after we've done a strategic code session. Right. Like it's been some one of those kind of things. But I think it's maybe because there's so much education, training and all that that's built into beyond what we do. Infinite, just infinite banking. But it's also all these other elements are so important to building, building a business, building a team, building something bigger together. Important to have these sessions. So basically shut down the company for the day yesterday to do a strategic coach session with a couple of folks from that team. Maybe tell us about the session a bit and kind of what your thoughts are and I'll weave in what I thought as well, for sure.

You know, the whole idea was to talk about unique ability, teamwork, and when you have a large, growing organization, what we encourage our teammates to do is to operate in their unique ability. So these are, you know, the tasks, the things that fascinate you, that bring you energy, and the things that you find, you know, maybe frustrating or de energizing or you may even call it, gosh, you know, that kind of work is just crappy to me. It's just not something that energizes me at all. Someone else on the team finds those activities fascinating and energizing. And so yesterday, in being able to get clarity on what unique ability teamwork is, we were able to even further deepen relationships with each other as teammates. And we were able to connect, we were able to describe unique ability, talk about teammates and what their unique abilities are, we took a deep dive into Colby and the impact that Colby has in organizing work and determining, okay, who possesses the unique capabilities to get the houzz done and who the right people are to get those things executed. And what an incredible day. And strategic coach being an organization that Dan Sullivan co founded And Dan Sullivan is my coach and I've been in his 10x ambition program for the past four years. The impact that he's had both personally and professionally on me has translated to my teammates. And so it's by proxy impacting everybody in a very positive way. And so that unique ability session was just outstanding. And it was perfect timing too, because at this time of year, we already have all of our objectives, our goals, our stretch goals. Everything is already pinned down for 2022. What happens with so many people is that they, they coast. So if they've got something done, hey, we've got it done. Let's coast into 2022. But everything that you do now to finish this year strong is going to have a direct impact on what your results are going to look like in 2022. And so my responsibility.

In the leadership role that I presently occupy in our ascendant organization is to make sure that we're not taking our foot off the gas. We're pressing down on the pedal even harder. We're finding a new gear so that we get into 2022 off to the right start. We've already got momentum before January 1st. I'll tell you, the number of people that I talk to that they reserve creating what's coming up for the next year ahead, they reserve that until the next year ahead already begins. Why, why wait? Get all that planning in place. You know, we have that well pinned down before the end of November every year. I love that because my brain is immediately already working on like I'm already in 2023. I'm already thinking about because I've got a sense of excitement and comfort that the plan for 2022 is already in place. My brain's already in 2023. I was listening to an interview that Jeff Bezos was doing and he was remarking, he was saying when we have a great quarter and we get off the phone call and Wall Street's really impressed with the quarter that we've had and people flag me down in the hallway and say, hey, congratulations on a great quarter. He's like, what people don't realize is that this quarter was baked two years ago.

So, you know, the much like Jeff, you know, the people that report to me, I'm not asking them to be, to have their brains in the current quarter. I want them thinking about what are we going to get done in 2023, in 2024, and how do we start preparing for that in building capability, process, making sure that we are who finders. Let's become Better who finders and get the right who's who possess the capabilities to get the how's done and always being well ahead.

That session, typically, I'll tell you honestly, when I look forward on my calendar, I'm like, it's a whole day session. I kind of feel a little bit drained. But it actually is one. It was one of the sessions that came out with a lot of clarity and things like the Colby and you know, understanding that it's more of a strength finder. Right. And to, to work with that strength. Me being the quick start, right. That I'm a quick start. I just go and do things, I break things and, or. But you know, knowing that, you know, it's, it's about how you work within your unique ability. How do you surround yourself with the right people to accomplish objectives, even down to things like email. Like I can outsource that right within the company, essentially. Right. Like that's. It's a pretty. I know for you it's a pain. For me it's a, it's a super pain too. Like all those things that de. Energize you if you're able to offload them, allow you to spend energy on what energizes you, doesn't feel like work. Right. And think about this, Peter.

Have you ever heard, met someone who's talked about, hey, you know, I got to work on, I got to work on my weaknesses. These are my weaknesses. You know, I got to get to work on those. Well, don't do that. All you're going to end up with is stronger weaknesses. Focus on, focus on your strengths, show up that way and find the right who's who are strong where you're weak. I know it sounds ridiculously simple, but so few people act on it, especially in the business realm, because the, the typical business owner thinks, oh, I can do it better myself. I have to do everything. I have to be in a position of control and I can just do, do it better on my own. And you've heard that saying, you know, if you want something done right, do it yourself. Nonsense. If you want something done right, find the right who. Who possesses the unique abilities to get the how done. And that's the, that's what we have embraced completely inside of our company. And you could see yesterday, Peter, in that session, the teamwork is genuine. It's not baked, it's not forced or fake. You can just feel how genuine it is and that creates fulfillment. It's not work. You said it yourself. It just doesn't feel like Work.

There literally were collaborations that were happening throughout the day too, which is, which was awesome to see. And what I like too about, you know, as we do some of these things, such as the strategic coach, how much it actually bleeds into personal life as well, where just I feel like I've got extra tools to be able to talking with other team members on those breakout sessions. It's like, oh, you know, one was saying, you know, she has problems with tech and she's like, her husband does it because it just totally de energized it. I'm like, yeah, that, that sounds familiar in my household too. Like I know why my wife isn't trying something based on kind of all that that we went through yesterday. And you know, just. It, it was good. It was good for sure.

Yeah, it was a lot of fun. It was a great day.

2022 is already baked in, in the books. Kind of went through that session back and November already, right?

That's right.

And so you build out on a three year plan. Is that typically how that works? The painted picture?

That's right, yeah. The painted picture vision is presently a 36 month timeframe. And what we do is we create literally a word picture of if we were sitting down December 31, 2024 and we look back to today, what specifically would have had to have happened in order for us to make feel like we made significant progress and to feel really happy about that progress. And everyone on our team had a voice. Everyone on our team was able to share that description of what came up for them. And so everyone on our team had a brush, paint, blank canvas. We collected all of those painted pictures, grabbed all the components and said, okay, this is what the next 36 months is going to look like and this is what we're going to set out to achieve. And it's like coach described yesterday. We know the game and we know.

What contributions and what positions everyone are going to play.

And no one individual can carry the weight of the team. No one individual can score all the goals. You got to pass the puck, you have to work the play. You have to trust the game plan. You have to trust the process. You have to continually work on improving your skill set. We don't want Connor McDavid to become a good goaltender. He knows his role is to be a great centerman, a great, great captain. That's his role on the team and to help others be successful. We used so many sports analogies yesterday and how this whole construct of unique ability, teamwork and what that looks like and that just solidified the strength of our planning going into next year and to our next painted picture vision. Because the current painted picture vision we've achieved and it feels remarkably fulfilling, but it also, it creates this anticipation and builds this excitement for what's next. What's our next summit? Let's go. You just, I don't know if you know the Netflix series or the movie that came out, 14 peaks. No, you got to see that. This is a guy with a group of people who summited the world's tallest peak peaks in less than seven months. Took the last guy over 16 years. So it talks about what's possible. People's minds immediately when they heard me describe that, they're like, that sounds impossible. Let's be in the realm of what's possible.

Looking back on this year, what kind of things like gains did you see for yourself personally in terms of how you go to market or how you work with your, with your team? And what kind of things are you working on into the new year?

Wow, that's a really good question. You know, for me, the gain, the significant gain was personally through taking a six week sabbatical and really recognizing that trust matters. It really does matter. And when I went through that, that sabbatical, six weeks and three days, it's the longest I've ever been away from work since I was a fetus. And it scared the out of me. And so that was big personal growth for me. To be able to go through that, to come back, to be so proud of how our business grew, to get over my feelings of feeling expendable. By about week four in my sabbatical, I was like, oh my God, am I even needed?

And that was a feeling that I just manifested in myself. And what Dan Sullivan, my coach, did such a great job helping me to rethink my thinking. He just said, no, your purpose has been amplified.

Your purpose is to help other talented people find and develop their purpose. So you're not expendable, you're needed more than ever. It's just the way that I was thinking about it. And so that was my biggest personal gain. Watching everybody grow really, truly brought me an incredible sense of pride.

Because I love that. I love coaching and drawing potential out of people, even if it means pushing them into a zone of severe discomfort, helping them achieve breakthroughs. There's, there's really something powerful about believing in someone and, and there's something even more powerful about helping them achieve the breakthrough of.

No, no belief is more important than the belief they have in themselves. And if they don't see the potential, it's because in many cases they're hiding.

They're. They're conveniently hiding from the breakthrough that they deserve and that they should have. And the role of a coach is to help bring that out, whether it's through a hug or a kick or a combination of both. But you have to love your players in order to bring the best out of them.

And so that was the biggest gain for me this year. I had every confidence in our team to achieve the goals that we set out to achieve.

That's why we set them so big.

You know, But I love my players.

2022, what's your big. Did you have that in mind that you. I guess you must have it planned out that sabbatical. Do you have anything kind of really big on your mind that you want to accomplish that will help you get to your goal next year? Is there anything kind of scary that you're looking at right now that can come to top of mind?

Yeah, you know, I think, you know too the stretch, the stretch targets that we've identified for next year, they've got a very healthy mix of fear and excitement and that's what I love. Bring it on. And so for me, it's anticipation of getting the year going. I can't wait. I'm beyond excited and afraid, too.

But I run head on into that.

I'm not going to turn around and go the other way. I just don't know how to do that. I'm incapable of it. And so.

Big, big breakthroughs are in store for many of our teammates next year. And.

It'S going to be an incredible year.

You know, it is a growing company, so we're looking for. Always going to be looking for good people to join as well. So maybe talk about that.

Specifically in terms of the types of people you're looking for and you know, what how people can get in contact with you or with ascendant within, with our team to go through and what that process looks like, I guess.

Yeah, well, you know, one of my responsibilities as a leader in organization is to always be on the lookout for great talent and to strengthen our bench, you know, to make sure that I'm. I'm putting, for lack of better description, I'm putting the best team out there to win and that. That's my job. And so I'm always looking for great talent. And what I. What do I mean by great talent? I am looking for people who will be a great addition to our team, not a great fit There's a difference. And when you, when you add capability to your team, you know, the people that we're looking for are people who first and foremost have a genuine passion for the message, for the process. And what I'm describing, of course, as becoming your own banker. The infinite banking concept and the transformational impact that that has on people, people who truly are passionate about that message and who want to be of service to others. You know, we encounter people who approach our organization and they lead with, what are you going to do for me? We're going to give you some of your time back and we're going to end this interview. That's about all we're going to do for you.

I think there's the great thing we're finding as we go through being part of it is you find really, truly same as that exercise yesterday, unique ability, allow you maybe to find something you didn't even know and be able to lean into that, which is the people.

Who, the people who are great additions.

Are the people who you just know. You spend a few minutes with them and you already get a good sense of where their heart is and what their capabilities are and they're leading with. These are the things I think I can add to the team. These are the things that I think I can contribute to the team.

That'S coming from a place of selfless and servant leadership. Those are the character traits that we're looking for. We can teach you the skill if you're coachable. We can help you achieve and realize your goals and where you want to go. We can help you identify what your potential is. There's no achievement of that, by the way, because you just as a person continue to expand and grow in recognizing what you don't know. You've got to be able to work really well alongside.

Some pretty damn amazing people.

And the attitude is where it all begins, that you can pick up on whether it's attracting or repelling very, very quickly.

And people, if they haven't visited ascendantfinancial Cat, just ease on over there.

And click on the Meet our team and just get a feel for some of the folks that are in our group and the people that we're looking for.

You will know if you're attracted to what we do. Read our Painted Picture Vision. It's on the website. We put it out there and it's original format, Word for word talked a.

Lot about the coaching that's woven into the company and how that, you know, helps in terms of how we work internally. But Also, with our clients, we didn't really talk about the process itself. Process Becoming a Banker Banking concept. Can you maybe point people to where they can learn more about what we do and so they can learn more about about the process itself?

Oh, definitely, Yeah. I would wholeheartedly recommend that people read R. Nelson Nash's book titled Becoming youg Own Banker. It's a 92 page read. It'll take you the better part of an afternoon to get through it. Becoming your own Banker describes the process which the essence of is to recapture the interest, recapture that money that you're presently paying to banks, to finance companies, to credit card companies for all those things that you need to purchase throughout your lifetime, property, vehicles, business, business equipment, technology, investment opportunities, etc. Have that money flowing back versus flowing away. And there's no such thing as having too much money in the bank. But if you've got too much of it in someone else's bank, recognizing that you can have too much of it in your own rather than someone else's, I think that's something that you'd probably want to discover and know more about. And the best starting point is get your hands on a copy of that book. A couple of channels we got Banker's Vault. Again, that's Bankers Vault. So if you just go onto the youtubes YouTube.com and type in Bankers Vault, that channel is awesome. You're going to get a ton of content. And the other channel is Wealth Without Bay street, which is a podcast co hosted by myself and Richard Canfield on the youtubes wealth without Bay Street. Again, that's wealth without Bay street. And just subscribe to those channels. We pump out new content every single week and we hope it's helpful for you.