Three Ways to Boost Team Engagement Today

Have you ever noticed how the best leaders aren't necessarily the ones with the biggest titles or the fanciest offices? They're actually the ones who make you feel like you matter. But the problem is too many businesses are hemorrhaging good people because their leaders have never learned how to connect. And no, the occasional, hey, good job email blast doesn't count. But that's what we're talking about today on Marc Haine Live. Welcome to this episode of Marc Haine Live. This is where small business owners, entrepreneurs can pick up core skill sets to create the show-stopping, jaw-dropping experience that their customers and their employees deserve. I am your host, Customer and Employee Experience I'm Marc Haine, and today we are diving into probably one of the most underrated and the most powerful skills in leadership. And that is the ability to truly connect with your team. Because let's face it, if your people don't feel seen, heard, or valued, they won't stick around. And you'll never know who was the last person to use— leave that little pod in the Keurig machine. Because the person who did it is just invisible to you. So, stay with us. This is going to be a high-value episode today. I know you're going to want to take lots of notes. And please, if you know somebody who could use this information, please make sure you share a link to this episode. Send it to them and say, hey Steve, guess what? I came across this episode. It's awesome! Trust me, it'll be awesome. We hear it all the time though. People don't leave companies. They leave their managers. But what if I told you it goes actually a little bit deeper than that? When your team feels disconnected, unheard, or unappreciated, your leadership and your profits really take a hit. And that brings me to our Question of the Day. Okay. So, on a scale from 1 to 10, how confident are you that your team feels connected to you as a leader? Now, your ego might come in to kick in and you're gonna just kind of just lie to yourself and say, oh, they're so connected to me. I would challenge you and actually go out and ask your team that very question. Then, what I'd like you to do is share this episode on your favorite social media platform. #ExperienceLeadership and put your rating down and tell us why you got rated that way. I'd love for you to be part of this conversation. As I mentioned, today's guest knows a thing or two about real leadership. The kind that lifts teams up, fires them up, and keeps them around for the long haul. Tania Doucette, affectionately known as Coach T, is a Certified Leadership Coach, a Speaker, an Executive Program Facilitator with the Maxwell Leadership She's coached executive leaders and entrepreneurs across the globe. She climbed the ladder herself from executive assistant to leadership positions during her 20 years in the insurance industry. And just for fun, she spent 7 years as a Zumba fitness instructor because if you can connect with a room full of sweaty, heavy-breathing strangers, you can connect with anyone. Tania, welcome to the show. It's great to have you.

Thanks for having me, Marc.

Maybe you can dig a little bit deeper into who your clients are and how you serve them.

All right. So, my clients are executive leaders, entrepreneurs, and aspiring leaders who wish to discover the leader within, who want to grow their team and connect with their team and have a true team that they can have fun with but that they can also reach their goals together.

I love that. And being the whole thing about doing it together is really the key, right? Too many times, we're rewarding leaders for all the stuff that they're doing. But a lot of that reward and recognition component comes inside in a form of bonuses. And it's usually not based on really great measurement, is it?

No, exactly. You're right. And a lot of the times, what we hear about is those famous pizza parties. Are they really connecting if they're just buying pizza to their entire team, right? You need to really feel that connection.

Yeah. So, I mean, it was interesting. The Gallup State of the Workforce 2025 report just came out this month. And it indicated that employee engagement has dropped by another 4%. It was bad before. But now, we've lost another 4%. And it's costing the world economy over $430 $38 billion. So, Tania, what the heck is going on?

It comes down to connection. It's the lack of connection. If people don't take the time to actually get to know their people, people are not going to stay engaged. They're not going to want to increase their productivity because all they are is a number at the office. They check in and check out. So, you really need to feel that connection with them.

So, why do you think So many organizations still treat leadership like it's just about strategy and results. It's about KPIs. It's about driving the, let's lower expenses. Let's increase sales. Let's create profit. Why is our focus still all that?

I think it's because they view leadership as they attach it to the title. And they think that you need to have a title to be a leader. And it's complete opposite to that. Everyone is a leader no matter what position you hold in an organization. You all have a chance to lead someone in your organization as well as your home. You have influence on so many people every day and we don't even know it. I think that's what's happening.

It's interesting because when people say, oh, the manager is the leader. And in fact, I've had situations where I've gone into to work with hotels and stuff. And I'll go up to people and I say, so here's a problem. What do you think we should do about that? And they look at me, but you're the professional. You're the manager. Why don't you tell us? And so, we've actually created these cultures where the voices pretty much feel, that's not my role. I shouldn't be helping to make these decisions because you're the boss.

Hmm.

What's so— is this just solely a culture thing or is there something deeper going on?

I think it's a culture thing. And when we talk about connection, what exactly are we talking about? So, the 3 strategies that I talk about the most in my talks is finding common ground, making a connection, making it about others. And when you make it about others and you ask your team questions and you involve them in the decision-making process and ask them their opinion, that's when you actually get your team to become more engaged. That's when they're actually going to want to collaborate and work together.

So, I mean, a lot of times when I talk to leaders, there are some people who do put on that hat that says, I'm the boss. I make all the decisions. Obviously, typically those are the kind of corporate cultures that's kind of fraught with micromanagement and all that sort of stuff. It's not about outcomes. It's, I want you to do it this way. This is the way I do it. So, this is the way I want you to do it. As opposed to, here's the outcome. Here's what I need us to achieve. Just go and fly. Be free. So, are there any myths about being leader, for leaders being kind of better connectors that we need to bust? Because I do know some people are like, I can't let people see who I truly am because my role as a leader, I need to be respected. I need people to be able to listen to me. I need credibility. And they feel that if they show any kind of vulnerability whatsoever, they'll lose all that. What are the myths that we need to bust?

Yeah, I think that's exactly it. Leaders or people in a higher position feel they need to hide their real self to gain that confidence. When in reality, your team needs to know that you're a human too. And you need to be vulnerable and open up. You also have a life outside of work even though you're a leader, no matter what position you hold. So, I think it's important to be open and transparent with your teams. And The more you are transparent with them, the more you'll gain that respect, that engagement, that increased productivity. They're going to want to be there with you and collaborate. So, that open transparent communication is key to connecting with your team.

So, what happens if we don't fix this? I mean, obviously, the signs are all around us, right? We have low engagement. We have high attrition rates. We're not attracting necessarily the best people because maybe we don't have a great reputation. People go on Glassdoor or on Indeed and they see all these ratings and stuff. So, we're not attracting the very best people. So, what happens when we don't fix this? What is it costing businesses right now?

Oh my goodness! It's costing them thousands of dollars because they're gonna have to keep hiring. People are just gonna leave. They're not gonna stay. So, as they're losing people and they're good people, they need to rehire and rehire. And A lot of the times when they hire, they hire based on skills and they don't hire based on personalities. And you need to be hiring the right people. So, that's a whole other subject I believe that we could talk for hours about.

It probably is, right? So, this whole idea about this connection piece that we'll get into in a second, we are talking about this is a cultural dynamic. I mean, it does really trickle down from the top to every facet of the organization, right? If it goes to our employees, would you say it even hits up our customers?

Absolutely, absolutely. And you're right by saying it starts at the top. You need to have that engagement and that belief that connection is key from the top of the organization and trickle it down. And of course, your clients are going to feel it because if your team is not engaged and they don't want to be there, the clients are going to hear about it and they're going to feel it when they walk in. So, it's super important to Make sure that it does start at the top. And a lot of leaders, they think, oh well, I don't need training and I don't need to look into this because I already have that title. But a lot of the times, it's just a reminder. It's not necessarily needing training. It's just reminders of where it all starts and why we're doing what we're doing.

It's interesting because I joke with other coach leadership coaches that we can't watch somebody like I was. I tell the story about being in Bass Pro and watching a supervisor talking to an employee. And it punctuated the conversation with, well, if you don't like it, clerks like you are a dime a dozen. And he walked off.

Whoa!

And I thought, oh my goodness, that is so painful. And part of me wanted to go up to him and say, hey, do you know that you really suck as a leader? And if you need help, I'm here. But I know that I can't do that because it would just shut people down. But I have a sneaking suspicion that if somebody went to him and said, what kind of leader are you? He would be highly delusional about the reality.

Yeah.

And he wouldn't actually recognize that he is probably the core to the problem of people not taking initiative, people not being engaged, people calling in sick all the time, and then finally, the attrition rate. So, How can we test for this disillusionment or this self-grandiozation? I don't even know if that's a word. But you know where you're delusional about what the effect you're having is? How can we test against that? If we think we're a good leader, how can we tell that that's reality and not delusion?

I think a good test would be to have a meeting with each of your team members and ask them the question. What kind of leader am I to you? Where do you rate me between 1 and 10? Where do I stand and how can I help you? I think it's just that open communication once again to speak up and have those conversations.

And would it be fair to say that if trust is very low in your organization, if people aren't very forthcoming, that maybe that is a conversation you need to bring outside help in on?

Absolutely, absolutely. Because if the staff is not comfortable with their leader to begin with, they're not going to be honest with them. So, outside help is definitely a good avenue to take to actually get the answers that you're looking for and honest answers that you're looking for.

Now, that is very funny because that's a perfect segue into, hey Tania, if people are resonating with this, how can they get in touch with you?

Well, there are a couple of ways they can get in touch with me. They can take a look at my website, which is tdleadership.ca. And/or they can send me an email at tanya@tdleadership.ca. And it's T-A-N-Y-A.

Perfect, perfect. Hey, I'd love to dig into kind of your 3 keys that leaders can use to turn the tides on this whole idea of becoming really good connectors. And we'll get to that right after this.

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Welcome back. I am speaking with the leadership queen. Coach T is in the house. Hey, before I go any further, I just have to acknowledge Ashbin is back with us. Ashbin, welcome back to the show. Thank you for tuning in live. This is awesome to have you. He wrote, he goes, hey, I'm back. And yes, he is. So Ashbin, if you have any questions about today's topic, feel free to pluck it into the comment box. We'll make sure to address it. But Tanya, according to Gallup, over 50% of employees now are open to new opportunities. So, there are 50% of people, they might not be actively looking but they're checking it out. They're looking for the exit. And 79% of people are quitting because they don't feel appreciated. How much is this idea of appreciation tied to connection?

Oh, it's completely tied to connection. If you don't feel appreciated by your leaders, then you don't want to be there. You don't want to be engaged. You don't want to produce as much as you probably could. So, it's directly aligned with that connection factor.

And so, but by appreciation, why don't we define what appreciation is? Because a lot of people will say, yeah, every time my staff leave, it's like, bye guys.

Thanks.

You did a great job. Bye. And they think that's being appreciative. Can we talk a little bit about what it takes to be appreciative?

I think as far as I'm concerned, being appreciative would be to take the time to actually See and speak to your staff and listen. A lot of the times, the manager or leader will go by to say, hey, how are you? And just keep walking. But they're not really listening to the response. They're not really connecting with their staff by asking, how are you today? And did you have a good weekend? How is your son? He was in the hospital last week. It's those little things that people don't think about that make a difference. And it just takes 2 minutes. It makes a big difference.

It's almost like curiosity is tied to this concept, isn't it?

Yes. Ask questions and listen.

Really good questions. Find things out. One of the challenges we had in one of the casinos, I was the Director of Food and Beverage for a casino. And the staff actually became unionized. And one of the big pushes that they— the big reason for that is because the COO used to walk in every day He used to walk in the front desk, wouldn't talk to anybody. He'd go up the escalator, go straight to his office. He wouldn't say boo about anything. And one of the things that I had told him is, you know, you could really build in some level of humanity into your interaction if you just get your department heads just to report to you about somebody. You know, hey, Debbie on my team is just— she just found out she's pregnant. Or Steve is— he just asked his girlfriend to marry him. And just anything that he could go through and walk the floor and just say, Hey, I heard. Congratulations! I heard you're having a baby. Oh, we're so excited for you. And just keep walking through would be like miles better than this whole idea of, I'm the boss. That's my office. If you need me, you can knock. Or have my people call your people and we'll do lunch.

Yeah, exactly. And you know what? That's right because my favorite, my leader that made the most impact on me, positive impact, would always take the time before we start our meeting to ask how I was doing and how my kids were and if there was anything new or new projects I was working on. And when I became— when I was in my first leadership role, I specifically made sure that that's the kind of leader I was to my staff. I wanted to know all about them and I wanted to build that connection because it made a big difference in my own life. So, it's super important.

How much is too close?

Good question. Where do you draw the line? It's a very good question.

Because part of it is, and I'm like you, I tend to be very transparent. I'm very human when I'm dealing with people. And interestingly enough, my staff would say, oh, they'd introduce me and go, oh, here's my boss Marc. But I've never ever introduced myself that way. I've always introduced and they'd say, how do you know Stephanie? Oh, I work with Stephanie at Such and such a place, right? And so, it was interesting to see how they introduced me. But whenever I looked at my role with them, it was like we work together in this, right?

Yes.

And so yeah, it's a little bit of a challenge, right, to get that mindset of I'm the boss, you're the employee. In fact, whenever I hear somebody say, oh, here are my employees, it's like, you don't own them. They're not yours.

And I would be like you. I would definitely introduce my staff as these are, this is my team. This is who I work with. I would not necessarily introduce them as my employees or staff, right? I would introduce them as my team. And I would get the same respect on the other end. They would still call me their boss. But we had that certain— I think when you build that connection with your team, There's a fine line of respect that is there automatically without anybody trying or setting guidelines. It just builds a certain level of respect that's not necessarily written anywhere. So, I think that's why connection is so important with your teams because with that, yes, you have that vulnerability. But you also create a certain respect level with everybody.

And so, in order to get that, for people tuning in who might not know how to make those connections, What are the keys to be successful at this?

So, there are many factors that come in play to create that connection. But there's 3 that I have experienced myself the most. One is to make it about others. When you walk into a meeting with your team, ask them how they're doing. Ask them their experiences and what they think about certain situations. Make it about them. The number 2 is Finding common ground. So, when you speak with your employee or when you speak with your team or a peer or a family member, find common ground and have a conversation around that. And that definitely will build a connection between the two of you. And the other factor that I always mention is be the first one. A lot of the times, we go to events or we walk into a meeting. And I sure was like that when I first landed my first leadership role is I would stand back. But what I've learned to do was to be the first to ask questions. Start those difficult conversations and open the safe space for everybody else to voice their opinion and to ask those difficult questions as well. So, those are the 3 factors that I have experienced on my end that definitely builds connection within the team.

Now, we talked about this idea of being influenced. Obviously, we know that we have formal authority. We also have moral authority. Formal authority is it's your job description. You're the VP, or the head of the department, or the head of the project, or whatever. But then, we also have this idea of moral authority. We have within our roles, we could have multiple different people who have really kind of high standards, high authority in that people trust them. When they say something, they believe what they're being told. And this is really this idea of being influential. When it comes down to leaders, one of the things I joke about is you can always tell when a leader's lost control is because they're the ones who are looking at you, yelling at you, you have to listen to me because I'm the boss! And that is their way of trying to re-establish their role as the leader. But it doesn't mean that they have influence. So, what does influence look like practically?

I think it goes down to the 5 Levels of Leadership of Maxwell, John Maxwell, if you've ever read that book. If not, it's a really good book. But I think the first level of leadership is like you said, it's very directional. It's very, I am the boss. I do this and you gotta listen to me. And when you jump into the second level of leadership, it's really about people following you because they want to, because they trust you, because you've taken the time to make that connection, to create that connection with you and with the team. So, that's the second level. of leadership. And I think that's where influence comes in play. Yeah.

And so, when people feel like they're lacking this influence, what steps do they need to take?

I think take a step back and evaluate the type of leader that you are. Ask questions to your team to see where you're at and what they need from you. And get a coach. I have a coach myself. I've been doing coaching for a few years. And I think everybody should have a coach to guide them through this and to develop those leadership skills that maybe you forgot about. And think about where you came from and why you've wanted to be a leader to begin with.

What would you tell somebody tuning in who says, Tania, I have been a manager 15 years. Now, you're telling me I need it. I'm experienced. 15 years doing this. Why the heck would I need a coach? What would you tell them?

Oh my goodness! What would I tell them? Well, maybe you don't need specific leadership skills. But how about I help you to build a stronger team? Right.

And we have to take a look at what is it that they're complaining about, right? I do get a sense that A lot of what we're seeing from a leadership perspective is we're seeing a lot of finger-pointing. We tend to point towards all the symptoms, right? I don't know why nobody takes initiative. I don't know why people are just not engaged. I don't know why if I'm not around, nobody does anything. I just feel like if I take 2 days off, I come back and nobody's done what they're supposed to be doing.

Exactly, yeah.

Those are the challenges I think from a real leadership perspective because the real test of leadership is how the place operates when you're not around.

Exactly. And that's a great test. Absolutely. And I think that's if you approach it in a way that let's see how we can improve your team. Then, you start working with the leader. And that's when as a coach, when you ask good questions, the leader will discover themselves that, oh, maybe I need to work on that. And oh, tell me more about this and how can I improve that? So, I think when you ask the right questions to those leaders, that's when the truth comes out. And that's where they begin to have that urgency to improve as a leader so that they can better serve their team.

I get a sense again that trust becomes— well, I would even say trust and humility being the 2 key aspects of any organization that a leader must have The trust and the humility in order to create the culture that they want. And all too often, especially my generation, I'm the last part of the baby boomers. My generation still has this whole carrot and sticking mentality where trust tends to be low. Humility, the level of humility is low. And so, when somebody says that they— how do we start when somebody sees this and says, oh, I got it now. I get it now. I have to build trust in my organization. How do they turn the tide on the trust issue?

Build connection. Take the time to listen to your team. Take the time to find common ground. Make it about them and not so much about— make it about the team, not so much about themselves. And I think that's the important thing to do is to build on those connections and just listen.

And take action. Yes, yes, absolutely.

When you build on those connections and you have those conversations, that's the actions that you need to take, right? Is just to go forward, take the first step, ask those questions, and start those difficult conversations.

When it comes down to your 3 keys, what do you think challenges leaders the most?

I think it's the vulnerability. I think it's the fear of exposing themselves. And every leader knows deep down where they stand on that ladder of 1 to 10 as a leader. Every leader knows. And sometimes, it's just the ego maybe taking over and saying, they don't want to admit where they're at. Or they're afraid of what their team will actually say. So, definitely fear.

And again, part of what this team is going to say, part of that ego part comes in. If they say anything negative, well, it's just because they're disgruntled, right? It gets downplayed as opposed to, wait a second, maybe I should be listening to this rather than just kowtowing to it and just saying, it's just somebody who's unhappy. It means nothing.

Exactly. And they don't see it as Because there's no such thing as failure, right? There's always opportunities. There's no such thing as failure. So, if your team is saying negative comments, they're not necessarily negative comments. They're opportunities for the leader to grow. And this is where this takes place.

Yeah, so Ashbin just posted a question. Let me see if I can— oh, let me change screens here so we can see it. Let's put it like this. How do you handle underperformance and skill gaps within the teams?

Skill gap is training. Absolutely. Underperformance, coaching. Coaching. Sit with your staff. Ask them what they're struggling with. And it depends on the role, right? My background is in the insurance industry. So definitely, coaching came into play and product learning and taking the time to Teach them how to communicate, how to handle stress. Those soft skills are taken for granted so many times. And companies focus on the applicable skills. But they don't always take the time to work on those soft skills.

It's interesting because I do think, I do believe that the role of the manager has changed. And I think some organizations haven't figured it out yet. A manager, the industrial age manager was there to make sure that I need just to get all the hands on deck and Get the work done. And then, in the '80s, we had the knowledge worker age where the manager was there to insight, not only grab the production from the hands. But I wanted stuff. I wanted people's thoughts and their ideas. And so, we started hiring specialists within our organization. Now, we're in this relational kind of environment where we want the hands, we want the mind, but we also want the heart. And I think this is where people are really struggling because I think leaders now are still bogged down with too many to-dos on their list that they're not focused on becoming a coach for their team?

Because they don't have time. And that's where it needs to change. And they need some coaches available for the team to grow on their emotional intelligence, on those soft skills. But definitely, they need to adapt with the times to make sure that the managers have time to build those connections with their team so that the performance is still up there and the collaboration is there and that the staff actually want to be engaged in work.

Now, I do know that you probably have a bunch of leaders watching this saying, but you're right. I have too much stuff to do. There's no way I could ever take time to be a coach. But yet, I use, I think of high-performing teams. We just watched the hockey game last night, the Oilers against the LA Kings. And I'm looking at the coaches and I'm thinking to myself, the coaches aren't sitting down every day to sit down and write reports and to do profit analysis and all that sort of stuff. They're there to coach the players. And then, when the team is on the ice, they're there to observe and to look for points of improvement and be able to celebrate wins and so on.

Exactly!

And yet, in our businesses, we're too bogged down with the reports, the KPIs, the meetings, The endless, endless meetings.

Endless meetings.

What do we need to do to shift this mindset?

I think it's to add more white space to our calendar. And what I mean by white space is schedule in some time to just think and look at what you have to accomplish next. And when I was in a leadership role, that's what I started doing towards the end because I was bombarded with meetings, questions from the staff, and you want to help everybody. And you want to offer that support to your teams, especially when there's a lot of changes. But when I started taking that time, white space on my calendar, that's when I felt I was becoming more productive because I had some time scheduled for me and I knew it was coming up. So, if I had to do something or think about something, that's when I would do it. I think it's just a matter of scheduling in your calendar, block scheduling your calendar to get things done. And to know that it's there without feeling guilty of taking that white space.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And taking that white space to be present for your team, not necessarily just to go for coffee and a walk maybe. But that's important too.

No, exactly, exactly. Coffee and a walk can be after. The white space is to think and spend time with your teams. Exactly. Yeah, yeah.

I'd like to get into some pitfalls and cautionaries because I'm always afraid of kind of the band-aid The band-aid managers, the ones who come across some new information. They come back from conferences and they go to their team and say, hey, I got a new procedure. So, from now on, this is— And then, 3, 4 days later, it's all gone. So, let's get into some pitfalls and cautionaries. And we'll get to that right after this.

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Welcome back! I hope you're getting tons of value from today's episode. As you can tell, Tania and I are on a mission to support businesses just like yours. So, if you belong to an organization that could use our help, or you or somebody you know might be planning a leadership retreat or a conference, drop us a line. I know, Tania, you're going off to— you have a conference tomorrow that you're going to be speaking at. Can you tell us a little bit about what this conference is about?

Yes, absolutely. So, our conference is Empower Atlantic 2025. It's being held in Dieppe, New Brunswick tomorrow from 10 AM to 5 PM. We have 5 amazing speakers joining our conference, me included. So, we have Jason Cyrus. We have Krista Walsh, Carol Myers, and Glenn Keeping, and myself. So, we have tons of value to add to you as a leader, as an executive leader, or entrepreneur. I can't wait to share this space with all these speakers. It's going to be an amazing day.

Yeah, it's so amazing when you can bring people together, right? You bring people together and have— you're not only when you bring your people, when you bring people together, you're not only are imparting maybe new knowledge and theories and strategies. But you're also creating a shared human experience. And so, when we as leaders bring our team together and you mentioned it about this idea of training your staff, training your leaders, bringing people together so that they learn concepts and they understand. They start understanding how to apply certain things. I mean, that's probably the most value we can do, especially when we promote our leaders into new leadership roles. And Tanya and I are both professional speakers. We love to keynote. And so, we'd love to explore how we could be of service to you and your people. So, feel free to reach out to us. Our links are in the show notes.

Reach out.

Have a conversation. Let's explore what you're looking for, how we could benefit your particular conference, and how we could bring tons and tons of value. So, we want to talk about cautionaries and pitfalls. As people are trying to make the change, what are some things that we should be really concerned about as we want to kind of change the paradigm shift? They used to call it paradigm shift. We call it culture shifts. We want change to happen in our organizations so people see, feel. They feel seen, heard, trusted, and respected.

I think one of the things that come to mind is when you ask questions to your team, Take the time to listen. Don't listen to answer. Take the time to actually listen and take it in. I think that's something that happens a lot. And we mentioned earlier in this podcast, people will ask, how are you? And keep walking, right? But if you ask your team for opinions and if you want their suggestions and what they feel the process should be or whatever the case may be, take time to actually sit and listen to what they have to say. Because you hire people for their skills and their knowledge, right? They have something to share and bring to the table just as much as the leader does.

As they try to make a shift into kind of this new kind of connection culture, what is the— what's a real negative thing that they have to avoid like in order to avoid this pitfall?

A negative thing they have to avoid. It's a very good question.

It's only a small question, Tania. It's just a tiny, tiny question.

Just a small question. I think people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.

Oh, I love that.

People don't care how much you know.

Yeah.

Yes, yes.

Yeah. And you know, when you have people who are just so time constrained and they don't have that white space in their calendar, How can we start tipping our hat to becoming more intentional behind actually showing people that we care?

Take the time to visit your staff and get to know them. Ask questions. In the morning, when I was a leader, in the morning, the first thing I would do is look at my calendar and make sure I had that white space scheduled for the entire week. Use those white space guilt-free. Knowing that you're using it for the right reasons. Be intentional about who you spend your time with, what you can take care of, and what you can delegate. And that's another thing. As a leader, we tend to want to keep it all on our plate and not bother anybody and just make sure it all gets done the way you want it done. Trust that your team also has that knowledge and it's okay to delegate.

I love that. There's that word trust again.

There you go.

This has been an awesome conversation, Tanya. Could you remind everybody one more time how they can get a hold of you?

They can send me an email at tanya@tdleadership.ca.

And as we wrap up, do you have any last thoughts about what we've been talking about today?

Just how important it is to build that connection and take care of your teams. And when you take care of your team, they'll take care of you.

I love that. And they'll take care of our customers.

Absolutely. They'll take care of them.

So important. Tanya, thank you again. I really appreciate you being here to share your knowledge, your passion, and your expertise. It's been absolutely brilliant. I've loved every minute of the conversation. Thank you for joining me today.

Thank you so much, Marc, for the invitation. It was a pleasure.

Love being here. So, if you have any questions about today's episode or you would like a complimentary 30-minute brainstorming session with you and your team, feel free to book yourself on my online calendar. The link is below. It's the one that's marked meetwith.marchaine.com. And I just want to say a special thank you to Brittany. Thank you so much for coming out, Brittany. This has been awesome. Brittany, thank you for tuning in. And I'm so glad you get value from the episode. And hey, if you haven't done so yet, why don't you go ahead, subscribe to this feed, and follow me on social media. You'll be able to see all the content. You'll see all the invitations for all the new experts and the great content that I bring you each and every week. Be sure to follow. And every once in a while, maybe you on social media just say, hey, hi, saw your podcast. I'd love to get in a conversation with you as well. Thank you so much for joining me today. My name is Marc Haine. I hope you stay safe, stay healthy, and I hope you dare to be the exception. Thanks for joining me.