Positioning People Well

Hey, this is Tim Pratt Jr. and I want to welcome you to the Student of Life podcast. Listen, we're going to get into so many transferable truths throughout the content of these episodes that I believe God is going to use to help you apply, because he's going to reveal what's already been there the entire time. Enjoy. Hey yo, what's up? So this your host Tim Pratt Jr. and once again, man, we're going to take a switch from some of the faith-based stuff. I know we've been dealing with like Guarded Heart, Racial Reconciliation, You Are the Answer, but I want to talk a little bit about positioning people well in this episode. And I had originally did this for like a video, a video YouTube, my YouTube channel, and just putting it out on the social media to kind of target leadership development But now I want to kind of talk about it still from that dynamic. So first and foremost, I can tell you right now, if you know a pastor or have, you know, if you know a pastor, if you're friends with any leaders, uh, then look, whether you work with them, whether they at your ministry, whether you know them just like if they own a business or something, if they are responsible for actual people under their leadership, I highly encourage you to send this to them. Man, I believe this is gonna like, very simple, you know, I'm a simple person, but I think it's gonna really kind of trigger some thoughts and probably, you know, confirm some things that God's already been dealing with them on, whether they're in the faith-based or not. I believe this is for the faith-based community and the secular community. So marketplace and ministry. And also too, if you kind of, a little bit of it, if you have like relationship issues, And I mean by like just positioning people well in your life. You know, sometimes we have parasites deemed as friends. So basically people that are literally sucking the life out of us, we put them in a friend category. And Darren Hardy said a while back, you never want to confuse a 3-hour friend with a 3-minute friend. So basically like that person you would talk to if you was walking to the mailbox, you don't want that person primarily you're going to dinner with that person. You want to keep people where they are. And that's not to be judgmental. But just context of like defining and aligning, positioning people well in your life, but also knowing where you're positioning people's life as well. Uh, so that being said, man, let's jump into the content of this one. Um, so a while back, uh, I believe my— the book is out there. Yeah, the book is out there. Matter of fact, I read this— read it a while ago. Um, but I had did some training, like I told you on pre— previous podcast. I've been investing kind of in myself a lot over the last year through a combination of podcasts, books, coaching, uh, training, cohorts, and just really— I feel like training and coaching, it just accelerates, you know, what you want to do. And unfortunately, a lot of people don't believe in it and they don't see the value in a coach. But if you really want to get better in life, man, get a coach. So the coach in the area— a coach in the area that you're trying to get better in, I should say. So like fitness, get a fitness coach. Financial, get a financial coach and possibly an advisor. Leadership, get a leadership coach. Uh, management, somebody's focused on management process, get a coach. Uh, so all that being said, for real, for real, let's get into the context of this episode, uh, positioning people well. Uh, so like I said a while back, I did this training on how to become a great boss or effective boss, something like that. And the person was using this matrix, uh, in the context of Right person, right seat. Right person, wrong seat. Wrong person, right seat. Wrong person, wrong seat. Now, before we get into this and unpack, what is a seat? Well, the seat— if you're a leader, it's a seat that you have defined exactly what you expect of the person who's going to fill it. It is, I would say, probably your top 3 to 5 expectations. This is what I'm continuously— although you're gonna probably expect more, but this is primarily what I'm expecting from this person to deliver on. And then some questions you want to ask yourself, and although someone can have all of these and still be wrong, but just some guiding questions. It's not a rule, it's a guide. Do they get it? Do they get the job? Do they want it? Do they want the job, the role, or whatever they're in, the leadership position? And do they have the capacity to do it? Now, this is not talking about necessarily just so much the mental capacity. Uh, that's kind of like in the context of do they get it, like do they have the mental capacity. This is like, do they actually have the time? You know, one example I share with me is that, uh, I don't say yes to everything anymore. I used to have a hard time saying no. Now I have no problem. Thank God for therapy, and thank God for the book Balance. By Torrey Roberts. But I have no problem saying no anymore like I used to, and I'm going to own it, and I'm going to make sure in therapy that we unpack it. But however, there are times that unfortunately, you know, I still end up having to take on things that I don't want to take on, and I do not legit have the capacity for it. So it's going to suffer. And some people truthfully are you going to see here in positioning people well as a leader. You might have people overly committed. No matter how great they are, they are overly committed. That's just the truth. And vice versa, you know, no matter how great you think you are— and it's all inclusive— how great we think we are, we might be overly committed as we reporting into our leader or management, you know, whatever it— the terminology we want to call. So we want to position people well. And those, like I said, are just some guides that we can look at. So let's get into unpacking what this looks like. Well, if you're a leader of a ministry, if you're a leader of a business or team, pod, organization, scrum team, or whatever, especially if you have like direct influence on the hiring and letting go or firing of people, uh, you have a responsibility, man, to position people well in your leadership Uh, John C. Maxwell said it best: I want to lead myself out of a job. In other words, it's not that I'm not going to be working, but the more I feel like you, you move up in like ministry or organization, or you know, whatever you're in, the more you should be like casting vision and strategic thinking. And unfortunately, you know, people don't really see the value in thinking. The more you should be building relationships and connecting with people and helping, you know, uh, put out the runway for your team, you know, making sure that like you're setting the stage for them as a leader so they can be effective, you know. Are you spending time looking at things and organizing things in a way to help them reach their full potential? And, and so once you do that, you know, you don't have time to keep jumping in and out of doing the job that you have actually placed somebody in to do. So this is why you want to position people well. And like I said, you can see this in the context of your life as well, but But with people, you know, I've had the opportunity to participate in some recruiting and some hiring and things like that before. Um, and one thing that I've learned is that I am a— I like connecting with people. Like, I am very intentional. Like, my leadership style, even when I interviewed today, like, I literally just straight up, listen, I'm gonna have a conversation with you. Yes, I know I'm putting on— trying to put on my best for associates, but you're also going to see, like, I'm not afraid to say I don't know in the interview anymore. I used to be, but you know, I want to just be straight up with me. And if— and that's very— I mean, yes, I'm professional, but if they see this, like, oh, well, I'm not going to be robotic anymore. And what I'm saying is, like, I try to look— I try to look for those people when I'm interviewing because this is all a part of positioning people well. You want to go for the right person, right seat, and you want to spend more time with these people because they are the ones that get it. And they— and sometimes a return can help you work on the other 3, which is right person, wrong seat, wrong person, right seat, wrong person, wrong seat. So in other words, we all want the sweet spot. We want the right person in the right seat. That means the seat that I have defined as well as the person has intangibles to do it. That's the cream of the crop. That's where we want. But unfortunately, as leaders, we spend a lot of time in right person, wrong seat. And we spend— no, we spend a bulk of time in wrong person, right seat, wrong person, wrong seat. So let's unpack these. All right, right person, wrong seat. What does this mean? So you have the right person, meaning that, you know, they get it, they're very competent of it, uh, they could even want to do it, and they even have the capacity to do it. But this is the thing, based on what you have defined as that seat, let's say for instance that they are just not in the right seat. So in other words, that didn't hit like I thought it would. So in other words, I got that from my wife. Uh, so in other words, what I'm saying is this, all right, I can be a leader And let's say Vince, like, I'm leading this initiative and, you know, it's like Vince, like, I'm looking— like, you define the seat as I need this person to be here all the time. And truthfully, this person can do their job just as effectively as remote working. Very faint example. But you say like, I want you to be here all the time. And so this person was like, well, I would be more effective if I can kind of come in 1 or 2 days in the office and I can work remote the rest of the days. I'm going to get my job done. Like I— but like you have made it a part of the seat for them to be there. Well, right person that they clearly can do everything that you ask them to do. But because of how you have that seat defined, then they— it's the wrong seat. And so now you want to position them in a way, okay, say, can I make some tweaks to the seat or my expectation to quickly move them up to right person, right seat. So can I basically say, okay, you know what, I still need you here in the office sometime. So hey, can you do a day and a half, 2 days in the office at minimum? Or hey, can you do at least 5 days a month? I don't even want to gauge it by week. Can you just do 5 days a month and at least a minimum where you don't go no more than 2 weeks without being in the office? Define the seat and let that person walk in, uh, go in those parameters and have trust. So that's, that's kind of the first one. Uh, the next one, wrong person, right seat. And these are very lighthearted examples, you know, you can, you can build these up however you want to. But wrong person, right seat. Well, let's say for instance that this person, like you say, once again, hey, I need to position somebody, so I place them in this seat, and they're getting you everything you need. They, they had— they get it, they have the capacity, and they want to do the job. But they're a horrible person. Horrible person, meaning that they don't care how they get results. I mean, they, they just plow over everything. They, uh, obliterate people. They're very abrasive, very aggressive. Wrong person. Wrong person. Because a lot of times what ends up happening in this context is that the seat that they sit in, they will annihilate so many relationships under your leadership to the point when you finally let that person go, it's too late. And now you're in a rebuilding stage because you don't know how much they have destroyed in that seat. So although it seemed because they were in the right seat, they were the wrong person for the job. Or once again, an example, you can have someone that's getting the information and they're not necessarily a bad person, but let's just say if it's like they're getting your information but it's coming at the at the expense of a lot of people pulling the weight for them to get it. In other words, like, they like, I just want to get this information and, you know, I want to just meet the expectations of this seat and nothing else. And so here it is again, wrong person. They have an excuse for everything. They, they're just like, it's cut and dry, it's black and white with them, there's no gray area. This could also be considered a wrong person, uh, in the right seat. So what do you want to do? Either you have to let that person go, you have to put that person through some developmental stuff, because I do believe people can change. So they're already in the right seat, but can you develop them in a way where they instantly become the right person now? And now you have the right person in the right seat. And last one, the wrong person, wrong seat. Wrong person, wrong seat. This one is kind of self-explanatory, and like I say, this is where we spend a lot of time in especially in ministry, because we believe that we can disciple anyone. But you can't disciple anyone that does not want to be discipled, uh, just like you can't lead anyone that does not want to be led. You can't lead anyone that doesn't have the capacity to have some level of self-leadership within them. And I'm not talking about for people to get too spiritual on me. Why can't lead self? I'm led by the Holy Spirit. Okay, listen, check this out, uh, that is true. You are— we should be governed and led by the Holy Spirit, but you have a responsibility. Holy Spirit is not making you brush your teeth. The Holy Spirit is not making you say good morning to your families. Now, through the power of the Holy Spirit, you wake up in the morning, but he's not making you put your socks on, he's not making you put your clothes on. So you have to lead yourself to go do that. That's— we don't want to get too spiritual that we can't be truthful and practical. So, uh, positioning people well. Um, now when we really look at this, I'm just gonna like shoot from the hip now. I'm literally setting my iPad to the side because I get confused the whole right people, the Matrix But, but, um, I want to talk a little bit about just as a leader, when we said when people come in, whether you don't have no responsibility, you might say, well, I didn't, I didn't get this person, I didn't hire this person, or I inherited this person, or I inherited this team, I inherited this ministry. You have a responsibility as a leader to define and align defined and aligned. So you're defining, you're, you're making judgment calls— not judgmental, but you're making judgment calls. You're building relationships, you're having effective one-on-ones, you're talking to this person, you're learning what can I do, what can I bring in as a leader. I'm, I'm defining. And now when I come to my definition, I want to align. And sometimes that looks like realigning. Just because you place somebody here doesn't mean they have to stay there. You are positioning people well. And I don't know, maybe it's just too simple. Like, I know it's a lot of red tape in certain things, but like in the context, that's what I love about Scrum teams. It's just like, truthfully, you can be like, okay, we can— in the context of the team, let's try this. Just try this. Oh no, let's let this person take the lead this time. No, this person is more competent this time. Let's let them take it. And this person kind of rides shotgun with them. And then you have to support it. It, you're just tweaking based on what's coming in. And, and a lot of times we have to look at that as a leader and say, what am I doing? Am I having the necessary conversations that need to be had? Am I taking the time to, uh, build leadership development tracks? Do I prioritize consistently leadership information coming in? Do we have a designated leadership coach within our ministry, within our organization? Or do I just throw a conference every 6 months. Listen, no matter how many times you hear it, Jim Rohn said it best: what's easy to do is also easy not to do. So just because you may think you know everything, you will forget in the day-to-day hustle and bustle of life or ministry or just the workplace in general. So as a leader, I'm— it— I'm gonna talk— so when it's up to me now, I don't have a lot of direct influence when it comes to just hiring and firing people. And even in the ministry, as an associate pastor, like, I work under the direction of our senior pastor. When I'm working with my father-in-law, it's— I'm helping, like, I'm trying to define and help realign and make suggestions and things like that. But for the most part, I'm always looking at, like, okay, this person might be better positioned here, this person might be better positioned here. And then we have to think about the context of seasonal and capacity. Prime example, let's say that you have a leader that wants it, they get it and everything. This is right person, right seat. But they have twins and their wife stops working and they hold a very credible seat. This might be still right person, wrong seat now because they no longer have the capacity unless you redefine that seat where they can maintain and still be right person, right seat. But if you leave it at expecting that you're going to get the same out of them now with this, and like, you know, with them having twins, and then let's say it's like 9 months later, uh, it was so good that daddy makes another— mom and daddy makes another one through the grace and power of God. Like, this is a whole family now. Like, and then as these kids grow— so positioning, positioning is continuous. Uh, now I'm not saying— I know people, it happens in the secular all the time, you know, in the 40-hour work week, but sometimes even people make calls. You're starting to see more women now not go back to work, uh, because they get attached and they was like, man, I want to do something different. I want to just do— you're starting to see it from men now. Like, I've literally seen some men on LinkedIn where it's like, there's like, I'm the cheap diaper, uh, dad. Like, basically the cheap diaper changer where they— wife is just killing it in their career, if I may use the term killing. And, um, they're like, hey, I'm gonna be a stay-at-home dad, it's cool. Like, I'm gonna do some things, I'm gonna blog, I'm gonna blog, uh, write blogs and do vlogs and I might be doing ministry part-time, I may be doing a business part-time or whatever, but it's all about them taking responsibility. Say, we're even trying to position ourselves well. So as a leader, you have to have that conversation and with your teams, with your team members that you're responsible for, because God has graced you to have, um, steward over these people. He has graced you to put these people in the right position to be successful. And so as our leadership, sometimes, man, when people are doing horrible, instead of always coming down on a person, we need to look within ourselves and say, hey, did I position them right? Did I position them to succeed? Did I position them a way to have success in the ministry? Did I position them in a way to have success in the workplace? As a leader, like, is it anything— do I have them on a performance thing where like I keep telling them, hey, you're not really give me what I expect. Was it anything concrete to point to? Do you have a foul? If I came right now in the context of your ministry and say, well, this person, you know, they've been leading here for 3 or 4 years and you're saying you're not getting the results, can you point me to anything? Have you tried to course correct and put them on a plan to show that this is why you're on that plan to course correct? Why are they still in leadership, or why they are in that particular seat or that position or role or title? So we, we have to kind of take that— we had not counter— we have to take this step back and say, okay, whatever is going on, I, I know the people that God has allowed me to steward over and lead in this capacity. I— yes, I have the Holy Spirit and I can pray. Am I reading the necessary books to, to help me lead better? Previous podcast I just talked about on You Are the Answer. You have a lot of people out here that has really, really good leadership. John C. Maxwell is one. I like Chad Beach. I like Torrey Roberts on The Call. Of course, yours truly right here, Tim Pratt Jr. Plug in www.timothypratt.org. Like, I mean, you have a lot of people out there, man. Clay Scroggins, Tyler Rain. I mean, the list goes on. It just goes on and on and on. With basically effective leadership. There's no shortage of leadership books and podcasts out there, you know. And so with me, man, I do, you know, have a background in it in the context of, you know, my educational background. I have a— I've studied in the context of certifications, like from facilitation and coaching and Certified Agile Leadership things, looking at things from organizational and team level to the individual. Uh, there is an art and science to this, like Yes, once again, the Holy Spirit is awesome and he works through. But it's like I told, uh, my brother the other day, uh, the Holy Spirit is not going to make him be a great state trooper if he haven't went through the things that state troopers go through. No matter how bad he wants to be one, he's not going to be an effective one in this— on this side until he goes through some things and say, okay, I gotta go, I gotta learn some things, I gotta go through the 6-month thing that they want me to, then I have to sit up under a trainer, I have to be developed. So yes, yeah, now can he go out there and learn on it? But think about all the mistakes and accidents and possibly even getting killed. I mean, yes, you know, since state troopers get, you know, hurt and killed, uh, even well-trained officers and things like that. But I'm just saying, think about being out there with no training of the eyes. Now we pray, I pray that, you know, God keeps them and keeps everybody. I don't want to get like— I'm not even trying to like speak, I'm just using an example. But just imagine a military soldier not going through any training. When I went to Fort Jackson with my wife, totally different world. I was like, wow, these folks really get at it up here. But imagine they say, no, we're going to bypass that because we believe that everyone has the Holy Spirit, so we're just going to send them to war. No, they're going to position people well by taking them through the prerequisites and showing it and making the attempt to say, well, this person needs to be here, this person needs to be here, this is what they're competent in. This is what we have to do, man. We have to stop being so spiritual to the point that we cannot be truthful in this context of this world. And this is what I mean by us over-spiritualizing things. God placed us on an equal playing field with our humanity. All of us was equal through the blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. If we have accepted him, we all are equal in the eyes of God. But that is not the case in the marketplace. If you don't have the necessary skill set, that does not mean that you are less than me or I am less than you from a, a humane standpoint. But however, from a marketplace standpoint, you could very well be better at me in this role, and vice versa. You can take somebody right now that doesn't even know God, rejects God, but they are dedicated to being great in agile leadership, and let's say, Vince, with me, I'm just half-hearted giving, you know, basically like it's just, it's half-hearted. I'm not dedicated to it, but I pray a lot and I rely on the Holy Spirit and I pray, but I'm not dedicated. They are going to be better than me. They are going to be better than me. It's just, it's hands down because I'm not putting nothing in it. And so we have to look at these things. And I know I'm kind of— I'm really this way more over to the church because I think the secular gets it to a degree. I think the church is the one that typically— the local church is the one to kind of abuse, abuse it. Uh, but we just want to make sure that as leaders, man, we, we are positioning people well and getting people in the right seats and just helping them be successful in what they do. So like I say, man, if you are a leader Uh, if you know someone, uh, just send them this, like I say, and just, uh, hey, so I think you should just check this out. And because the fundamental question that I'm really opposing is like, are you, as a leader, are you, for what you're responsible for, have you positioned your people well that your God has placed you over and granted you to have stewardship over and just simply lead, lead them well? Are you a great leader? Are you positioning people for that? Hey, what's up? I want to thank you for taking the time to listen to the Student of Light podcast today. If this content has impacted you in any kind of way, please take some time to share it on your social media feeds. And also, if you want to connect with me or just learn more about me, go over to www.timothyprattjr.org. Once again, thanks.