Diving Into a New Way to Work with Beth Jacobs

I think the live better is really get to know yourself, and that is much harder than it sounds. And you might need to get to know yourself through what other people tell you. And on both ends, the good stuff and the bad stuff, somebody gave me positive feedback, and I was like, who are you talking about? And they're like, you. You do that. And I was like, really interesting. All right, yeah, I'll do that a little bit. Everybody doesn't do that.

I was just going to pull it to something you said at the very beginning that I didn't want people to miss. I earned the autonomy, autonomy and flexibility through performance. I was performing. In fact, I was a high performer. Right. And this is something I think is lost in translation a lot of times is like, if you are performing.

Yes.

Autonomy and flexibility to show up. And generally, truthfully, a lot of hyper. They should. Right. And if they don't, though, then your high performers will leave.

Yes.

Because they're like, no, I'm performing and I'm still being.

Yeah.

Managed this way. Deuces. I'm not. I'm not going to deal with that. But then what happens is you have the top performers, and then you have the rest looking going well. I want that.

Yes.

Why? Why? Beth doesn't have to come in the office, so why do you? Because Beth is at 200% of her goal. You get to 200% of your goal, you can have it, too. And so I do think there's been this pushback on understanding what our results are. In our job, if you are hitting them, hit them. But if you're not, that's when you get held accountable, is if you're not producing what you're supposed to produce, that's when there's a little bit more tightness or structure to get on track with that. So, like, talk about that a little bit. Just around, like, you know, maybe having some of those tough conversations. I know a lot of leaders, it's like, okay, we're remote now. I don't really know what Beth's doing out there. Like, maybe he's doing her job, maybe she's not. The results are okay. They're not good, but they're not bad. Like, talk about that a little bit. Especially in this remote world.

Yes. So the. I mean, the first part is clarity, Right. What are the metrics that we're trying to hit and why are they important? So if a leader can't clarify what they expect from their team, whether it's a sales team or anything else, you're not going to get anything because people aren't working on the things that they should be working on to move the organization forward. So first thing is like clarity of role and clarity of expectations. And now that's easy to say if you've been in a company who's been around for a long time in a smaller business where things are constantly changing as they are at Beachy and a lot of other businesses, that's much harder to do. So it really is breaking it down for that individual and their role of what are the things that must be moved forward and people, we cannot move everything forward at the same pace at the same time. So what are those top things that have to move in order to move the organization, the team, forward? Get into those things, be clear about them and then have those conversations. And you know, if there is one thing I learned managing rides at amusement park, it was document, document, document. So like, what is happening? What's going well? What isn't going well? And be really clear with folks. Look, it's this piece of your job is going really well. This is not what's going on here. Do you need support? Do you not enjoy the job? Is this not what you expected? Is this, is this environment working for you? Is it not working for you? Have you worked from home before? Have you not? What are the, what are the pieces that you need to be successful? And so those are a lot of the conversations that we have if things maybe are not going as well.

And then of course I love that because it's. Yeah, so like one of my favorite business books is not a business book. It's the Checklist manifesto.

Oh, I haven't read that.

Like, oh, you, you will love it because also you've lived it, especially in an amusement park, right?

Like the whole you say checklist, it gives me a little trauma.

Like amusement park one. Like there's a checklist and what the whole concept of the book is actually written by a surgeon. It's not written by a business person, it's not written by a leaders surgeon. And talking about how checklists, right. Reduce death rates in hospitals, they reduce infection rates, reduce, you know, how long people stayed in bed, right? Like, all just from the simple checklist of like, hey, did you change their IV today? Like, what are those things that are necessary? Same idea. What do pilots do before every flight? Yeah, they go through their pre flight checklist. Right. And the whole concept there is to your point, the documentation of best practices. Right? You don't got to checklist everything. Like, okay, did I log in? Yes, I Logged in. Did I check my email? No, no, it's not that, but it's like. Did you ch every individual's seat belt on the right?

Yes, exactly.

Did you ensure that the surge protector was flipped to whatever. Like, those are, like, the make or break things that.

You know what?

We should checklist it. And to your point, I, with my teams, we talk about the D3 method, which was define document, demonstrate.

Yes.

Define what good looks like, document it, and then demonstrate it. Show, teach, coach what good looks like. Because that's the only way to make it repeatable is especially in this remote world, because people aren't seeing it as much if they're not in the office, if they're not next to someone making that call or hearing something. You need to share this stuff more remotely, which I think is key. And so. All right, so as we start to wrap here, I knew there was no way we're gonna keep this to 30 minutes. Too good of a topic, right? A lot of this already blends into the theme of why I started this show is this concept of live better sell better. This idea of, like, I have this weird idea, right, that if we took better care ourselves, if we had more energy, if we knew what made us thrive, if we held ourselves more responsible so we didn't have to be held accountable, like, we'd also sell better. The results would be better as well. So what would your live better advice be for people listening? And it might be in line with what we've been talking about, or it might be something completely different. But, like, what would that parting live better advice be?

I think the live better is really get to know yourself, and that is much harder than it sounds. And you might need to get to know yourself through what other people tell you. Some of the best my self awareness has come from other people telling me something, and I'm like, oh, yeah, good. Or. Or not so great. So listen to others and get to know yourself, because what I'm saying works for me, may not work for you, and that is okay. But get to know where and how you thrive and find it.

I was hoping you'd come back to that word because that was how you described it to me. Like, this is how I thrived in understanding what does bring the best out of you. But being open to other people's opinions, I think that's phenomenal. Like, I haven't heard it phrased that way before. I love it. Like, a lot of my self awareness came from third party feedback, which is true. Like, I've never thought about it that way, because if you do, if you just sit in there, your viewpoint is different than how other people can see. We all have blind spots. Yes, all have blind spots.

And on both ends, the good stuff and the bad stuff. Somebody gave me positive feedback, and I was like, who are you talking about? And they're like, you. You do that. And I was like, really Interesting. I'll do that a little bit. Everybody doesn't do that.