MBA1133 Guest Teacher: Dan Schawbel- How to Create Strong Relationships with Your Team

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Hey O welcome to the Hunter, the $100 MBA show business advice you can count on every single day with our daily 10 minute business lessons for the real world. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher Omar Zenholm. I'm also the co founder of the Hundred Dollar mba, a complete business training and community online and today's episode is a guest teacher episode. Today we have Dan Shaabell who will be teaching you how to create strong relationships with your team. Dan Shabell is an expert in this area. He's a New York Times bestseller and just released his new book Back to Human How How Great Leaders Can Create Connection in the Age of Isolation. Dan knows business. He's on the top list of 30 under 30 for Inc. And Forbes as well as business insiders 40 under 40. So he's covered all his bases, but most of all he's ready to deliver a great lesson for you today. I love this topic because it tells you right off the bat that you need to create a strong relationship with your team. The benefits are endless but I can tell you off the bat, when I spend more time on building the relationship with my teammates, the better products we make, the better rapport we have with each other. The less turnover we have, the more money we make because hey, we don't have to rehire people over and over. Can't wait for this insightful lesson by Dan Shaw Bell. So let's get into it. Let's get down to business. As I mentioned in the intro, Dan Shaw Bell knows business. That's why I was pumped to hear about his new book Back to Human, as well as the fact that he reached out to us as a fan of the show to offer a great lesson for you. Now, this applies even if you have a small team, even if you just have a va really, or even if you're thinking about starting a team. It's good to know the stuff before you do. When you start building that team, you need to know how to build a strong relationship from the start. So you set the tone. So I'm going to hand it over to Dan Schaubel to teach today's lesson, but I'll be back to give my takeaways and wrap it all up. But for now, take it away, Dan.

Hey everybody, I am Dan Schabell. Thank you so much for joining me. Today. I'll be teaching you how to create strong relationships with your team. So let's get down to business. The first step to creating stronger connections with your team is to focus on your own fulfillment before theirs, because then you can serve as a role model to them to help them accomplish their goals. While that might sound counterintuitive and selfish, when you're fulfilled in your job, you're moving closer to achieving your goals. This is your ongoing journey to develop yourself and make a difference in your professional career, which serves as a guide and enables you to attract the right people to your team who share the same values so you can carry out that mission in support of the team and the overall company. If you want to understand what makes you fulfilled and define your own fulfillment, ask yourself these three questions. What do you enjoy doing the most? What do your past accomplishments tell you about your strengths and what are your core values? For example, some of your core values could include adventure, challenge, contribution, or even respect. Next, after you understand what makes you fulfilled, it's time to focus on your team and ensure that they are fulfilled so they can bring the best of who they are to work, be empowered and find meaning and purpose in what they're doing. When you're on a plane and the crew members go through the pre flight safety demonstration, they always say, if you're traveling with a child or someone who requires assistance, secure your mask first, then assist the other person in the same way. When it comes to fulfillment. Once you're confident of your own personal needs, you can and should be a role model for your team. Research shows that well being is contagious, meaning that if you have a high level of it, your positive state and attitude will begin to rub off on your colleagues. Sit with them individually to find out what their personal needs are, because that's the only way you're going to be able to serve those needs. For instance, when one colleague who just had children needs more flexibility, while someone who has no children doesn't need as much flexibility. And you only ask that if you get to know them on a personal level, which establishes a stronger connection with your team. The second way to create a stronger relationship with your team is to create a shared learning culture. No longer does holding on to information give you true power and influence. In corporate America or in society in general, those who share the most are the ones who have the most influence. We see this with this podcast, with blogging, in all forms of social media, in corporate structures, everywhere is the more you give, the more people will follow you and listen to what you have to say. As a leader, a big part of your job is to help to get other people to learn and establish a culture in which everyone is accountable for the team's success. If each team member can actively train the others in new skills, the team will stay relevant together and will be more productive and successful As a result. The most successful leaders of the present and future are those who embrace and actively practice shared learning over self learning. While you can learn new skills by taking online courses or listening to a podcast, what really matters, what really will help you keep up with the changing demands of the workplace and the economy is relying on each other, learning from each other so that you can stay up to speed and relevant and create more value for your team and organization. As a result, when you're actively helping your teammates, you become a role model for how they can better learn and support each other. As a leader, the more you share, whether it's walking over to the desk and telling them how to complete a project, or just sharing a white paper, a podcast, or some sort of way that people can learn a new skill or find out about the latest research or trends in the industry, the more that they will want to share with other people because you're acting as that role model for them. There are several ways to create this shared learning culture that I preach. The first way is to ask for and give feedback. By giving your employees regular feedback and then soliciting theirs, you'll create an environment in which it's acceptable to both criticize and compliment, and you'll facilitate invaluable conversations that will benefit everyone. Track Accomplishments Take a hard look at what you and your team have done over the past several months and examine the actual business as results of your activities. Think about the team's accomplishments and employees individual ones if some of your team members aren't contributing as much or lack certain important skills, you'll need to get them up to speed. By identifying gaps and weak points, you can create a learning ecosystem that will support everyone. Be flexible. Change is constant and as a leader, it's on you to ensure that your team adapts to that change. As you or your teammates are researching new trends, skills and potential market opportunities, instead of keeping information to yourself, share it immediately, but be flexible with how you share new material. Having a proper mix of face to face meetings, video conferencing, email and social media can support everyone's needs. We all learn differently. Have a positive attitude. Push your ego to the side and get excited about improving the lives of those around you. When you're in Share learning discussions, encourage and embrace criticism because that's how you get the most honest feedback possible. When you hire for your team, look for those who have a positive attitude about helping others and be wary of those who seem to be so focused on becoming the next CEO. Promote the expertise of others Everyone has their own unique skills and can be a teacher, not just a learner. Over time, the interactions you have with your teammates and the actual work they produce will let you know what their strengths and weaknesses are. Pay special attention to what they're good at, and when you see an opportunity for them to help, bring them in. The third step to creating stronger connections with your teammates is to encourage human connection without relying on technology. Too many leaders want the convenience of using technology to connect, yet the best way to build relationships with your team is in person or at least over the phone. We spend so much of our lives working, so it's important that we create a more social environment so our teammates feel comfortable opening up and bringing their full self into the workplace. There are some proven ways to encourage more social interactions at work. In a study I conducted with Virgin Pulse of over 2000 managers and employees from my book Back to Human, we found that the best ways to create stronger relationships between team members are team building activities, social events, and workations. A workation is taking your team to an off site so that you can be away from the typical office and get work done in a new, healthy, exciting atmosphere. I'll give you an example of what three separate companies are doing to create more human connection in the workplace just to inspire you. First is EY Ernst Young's Connect Day, which is a day of community service where employees work together on various projects like building houses or teaching kids how to read. It fosters relationships through the combined efforts of everyone involved and gives them a sense of purpose, belonging and excitement about the company. By being away from work and engaging in something that is benefiting the community and society, you feel like you're part of something special and it gives you time to get to know your teammates on a more personal level. Second example is Workday and what Erin Yang, who's someone I interviewed for the book, told me about how she was on a steering committee to help design a new floor for their San Francisco offices. She used a Pinterest board to collect feedback from her team as an activity. This brought the team closer together for the purpose of improving their office experience. If they were going to feel this experience and have to go to this floor every day, they should be part of the process. So if you think about building a better employee experience, a better connection with your teammates, let them be part of it. Let them participate. The third example is Scripps Health and Their Leadership Academy, which is an annual program where executives discuss their career paths and leadership styles and with people at all levels of the company. So people feel like they belong, they get a break from the typical office, and they're engaging with the people at the highest levels within the organization. So if you want to establish more human connection, use the technology to facilitate these type of events and these type of collaborative and team building programs. But make sure that when you're in that physical location, whether it's an office birthday party, an off site, any other social event, team building activity, or a workation, make sure everyone's present and they're able to get to know each other on a more personal level so that there's stronger connections, which creates work friendships and work friendships lead to more fulfillment, happiness and productivity. So all of these things come together and allow you to feel comfortable at work, have teammates that are loyal and excited to come to the office every day, and that's how work should be. As a recap, we focused on three main things from this lesson that will help you improve your work relationships. First, you have to focus on your own fulfillment before your team so that you can be confident in who you are as a leader and then support their individual needs. Second, create a shared learning culture where teammates are actively and openly Sharing their knowledge so that everyone can get better together. Last but not least, encourage human interaction instead of technology in situations that are important and require real conversation. Save texting for reminders for quick updates to your team, but if you want to resolve an argument, do it in person or at least over the phone. Alright guys. This is Dan Shaw Bell, author of the new book Back to Human. If you want to continue learning about how to build stronger team relationships and learn more information about my new book, go to danshawbell.com that's daN-N-S-C-H-A-W-B-E-L.com or listen to my podcast Five Questions with Dan Schabell on itunes. Thank you so much for joining me today. Now back to you, Omar.

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What a super duper lesson by Dan Shaw Bell. Love it. Two points that really resonated with me that I kind of want to focus on. One is this idea of transparency of information within your team. It's okay to share information and be benevolent when it comes to information. I love this idea of a team handbook that the whole team can contribute to. It's okay to tell people, hey, we're getting started. We're building a handbook. We're building rules, we're building procedures and you're going to help us kind of put it together. I know for a fact that this helps people feel they have ownership over their work, over their job and they look forward to coming to work because they feel like they're a part of the business. When they're building things from scratch, instead of just following rules, it's more engaging. It feels rewarding. So don't be afraid to say, hey, we're just getting started.

Let's.

Let's work together to get where we want to go. Even if it's procedures and rules and HR stuff. I also love the point where he makes getting out of your space. Even if you run a remote team where everybody is working from home or a co working space, it's great to meet as much as possible in the real world. So if you do a team retreat once a year, this is fantastic. If that's outside your realm, organize some meetups that are in local areas where some of your employees can meet up together. Even if it's a short flight for them, like an hour or two, and you can cover the costs and you can organize those meetups. That's fantastic. Even if you can visit them and go travel and see where they are and meet them, have coffee, have a dinner, spend a day with them, they'll really appreciate it because it shows that you care not only about the work they do, but about who they are as a person. And it doesn't have to be super formal. You can go and have a fun activity like Dan Shaw Bell talked about. Go bowling, go mini golfing, go do some karaoke, whatever. I want to thank Dan Shaw Bell for this great lesson. If you want to get a glimpse of his new book Back to Human, he's offered a sample for us for free. All you gotta do is go to today's Show Notes. You'll get a link to go straight there. The link to our show notes is 100nba.net mba1133 thank you for listening to the $100 MBA Show. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. Doesn't matter how big your team is, whether you have a team of 2, 3, 4, you could start building your team culture even when you're small. And you can start practicing this relationship building advice when you're small. Remember, this stuff has to be habitual. It has to be part of who you are. It's just not going to come just because you heard this lesson. You got to try it. You got to do it. So start doing it even when you're small. Thank you so much. I'll check you in tomorrow's episode. I'll see you then. Take care. Of.

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