The Bill Perry Show

In this leadership podcast series, we talk about the value of working as a community collaborating as a team. In this episode, we look at how trust is built when we encourage healthy collaboration.

Much of our current work culture requires that we do more with less. This culture is placing increasingly burdensome workloads on individuals while demanding higher performance levels. A negative effect of this highly individualistic culture is the absence of deep trust.

The trust equation is simple: When trust goes up, so does speed, and costs come down. The opposite is also true: When trust is low, speed is low as well, and costs go up. Consider going through an airport prior to 9/11 versus today. When trust was lost, our travel times and expenses increased.

An absence of trust is typically marked by an increase in drama and confusion. Deep, vulnerability-based trust is the antidote for toxicity in the workplace culture. When I know you have my back, and you know I have yours, we move forward together without the constraints of suspicion and unhealthy competition.

Most teams exist at a trust level best categorized as predictive trust, meaning that the trust demonstrated is only related to predictable behavior. That kind of trust can either work for your team or against it, and when it works for you, it creates productive bonds. The kind of trust you need comes from knowing your team and peers beyond functional work performance.

Initiate conversations that reveal heart matters. Find out what motivates and drives each individual. Is it family? Recreation? Creativity? Social justice? Getting to know your team on this level instills the confidence that you have each other's best interests at heart. In a culture marked by deep trust, collaboration and creativity will become a competitive advantage for your vision.

I can help your team accelerate the trust-building process and move you quickly to greater levels of employee engagement. Set up a time to talk with me, and let's get your team healthy together. Here's a link to set up a call: Complimentary Consultation

Tiffany Taylor and the team at Sparkit Marketing in Los Angeles help me look better than I probably am. They maintain and develop all my collateral material for these podcasts, including my social media presence. If you need help getting your message heard, contact Tiffany at [email protected].

Until next time, lead well!

Bill

Better Together podcast series

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EPISODE CREDITS:

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.

He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.

Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com

In this series, we are going to discuss about the value of working as a community and collaborating as a team. This episode highlights the dangers of isolation and what it can cost us in terms of perspective and creativity.

Silos and Isolation

Our current work culture requires that we do more with less. This is placing increasingly burdensome workloads on individuals and demanding more in terms of individual performance. This tendency is moving the corporate needle toward silos and individual isolation as people cover their own bases and have very little energy left for easy collaboration. This work culture progression can move frighteningly quickly to territorialism, suspicion, drama, and toxicity.

The Chemical Equation

The current work culture is dopamine rich and oxytocin deprived. As individuals experience the temporary rush produced by personal achievement, they require more the next time to satisfy the brain's desire for this rush. When the dopamine rush is not balanced by the connection and collaboration chemical of oxytocin, people become increasingly addicted to their own personal success.

Losing Our Connection

The same thing is happening in our interpersonal relationships. In a world increasingly inundated with "technoference," we are beginning to lean into the dopamine-rich arena of social media likes and comments at the expense of oxytocin that is produced through personal connection and collaboration.

It's Costing Us Creativity

By design, creativity often begins in isolation as an inspired thought or meditation. But the best solutions for a community or even a couple are the result of dialogue, objective feedback, and the refining nature of being in close proximity to other humans. In a culture of suppressed collaboration, creativity loses some of its sustainability.

Radical Baby Steps

Initiate some radical acts of resistance to the pull of isolation. Instead of answering the email from the co-worker around the corner, step around the corner and offer your answer in person. Instead of texting your lover or your kids in the next room, put the phone down and go tell them in person. You might end up having a legitimate conversation.

Tiffany Taylor and the team at Sparkit Marketing in Los Angeles help me look better than I probably am. They maintain and develop all my collateral material for these podcasts, including my social media presence. If you need help getting your message heard, contact Tiffany at [email protected].

Until next time, lead well!

Bill

Better Together podcast series

***

EPISODE CREDITS:

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.

He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.

Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com

In this series, let's discuss the value of working as a community and collaborating as a team. This first episode is an invitation to think differently about how we approach work and enhance our organization's development, creativity, and innovation.

The Biggest Challenge

Speaking to a large group recently, I asked the question, "What's the biggest challenge facing your organization right now?" Their answer: "They expect us to do more with fewer people." This leadership approach is pivoting employees toward isolation and loneliness.

Individual workloads are so heavy in most organizations that there is very little time to consider how to do teamwork; how to effectively collaborate.

Employees are Wired for Collaboration

Our history and physiology both attest to the benefits of working and doing life together. While herds and prides promote survival, today's work culture encourages a divide and conquer mentality. We're seeing an alarming separation, and unknowingly, we may even be feeding staggering rates of suicide. The generation coming behind us sees very little hope for a fulfilling future.

Some companies get it—they recognize team performance above individual contributions. But there is a need for both. People need the affirmation of individual recognition, but we must simultaneously encourage collaboration and connection by rewarding teams as a group.

There Is a Cost to Team Collaboration—and Benefits

To facilitate greater connection and team collaboration, you may need to reduce workloads to make room for people to come out from under their individual obligations. Profitability and margins may suffer; costs may creep. But there is a much larger cost if we continue to sacrifice the collaborative part of our nature on the altar of efficiency.

On the flip-side, more collaboration encourages creativity and innovation; it's the fruit of a well-rested, healthy team.

Take Courage

Have a courageous conversation with your team, your spouse, or even your friends. Ask the question, "What would it take for us to experience the value of being better together?"

________

Tiffany Taylor and the team at Sparkit in Los Angeles help me look better than I probably am. They maintain and develop all of my collateral material for these podcasts, including my social media presence. If you need help getting your message heard, contact Tiffany at [email protected].

Until next time, lead well!

Bill

***

EPISODE CREDITS:

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.

He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.

Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com

In this leadership podcast episode, let's get real about our productivity-driven hustle culture. To be an effective leader and work smarter not harder, we look to nature for a few best practices.

Overworked and Under-Rested

Many of the leaders I work with are burning their candles at both ends. They overwork to overproduce, and eventually, they become shortsighted in their problem-solving. This is not intentional; it's more often a self-preservative effort to maximize production.

Creating Marginal Space

If we're going to be present and bring our best selves to problem-solving, we must create some marginal white space in our routines. This will afford us greater creativity and collaboration with our co-workers and family.

Nature's Call

If you find yourself with less and less to offer in the face of increasing demand, nature is calling. Maybe you need to give the land a rest. I'm not talking about vacation. Vacation often becomes just another expression of hustle culture as we attempt to compensate for lost time with family and friends. I'm talking about sabbatical.

Warning: Disruption Ahead

Let me warn you kindly. What I am recommending will be so disruptive that you may find yourself disoriented. We're so slanted toward our high-productivity hustle culture that any resistance to that mindset will not be well tolerated.

What Hustle Culture Has Taught Us

A recent op-ed piece in the New York Times by Bonnie Tsui, You Are Doing Something Important When You Aren't Doing Anything, referenced a viral LinkedIn article by Ian Sohn, president of digital marketing agency Wunderman Chicago. Sohn wrote in defense of his vision for a healthier, more humanistic workplace: "I never need to know that you are working from home today because you simply need the silence. I deeply resent how we've infantilized the workplace. How we feel we have to apologize for having lives. How constant connectivity/availability (or even the perception of it) has become a valued skill."

Letting the Land Rest

The ground of your mind, your will, and your emotions need a rest. Nature screams the truth that overworking a piece of land results in steady declines in productivity.

Keys to Success

1. Be kind to yourself. Start gently with a one-day disconnect. A lengthy sabbatical may be too disruptive if you've never intentionally rejected your productivity mindset.
2. Don't make this about compensating for lost time in other areas of relationship. Don't exchange productivity in one area for productivity in another.
3. Make some room for silence. This is not easy amid excessive technoference. Working through short periods of intentional silence is incredibly restorative. Again, be kind to yourself. Don't attempt a three-day silent retreat if you've never gone more than an hour without noise. Start with thirty minutes.

Radical Resistance

One of my favorite observers of life, Walter Brueggemann, says that sabbath is an act of radical resistance. Observe how quickly your proclivity toward productivity surfaces when you begin to create some space between you and your productive bent. It will attack like a jilted lover!

Keep It Simple

You don't have to create an extravagant plan for a sabbatical, but intentionality is critical to your process. Take a day and go hike. Sit by a stream. Treat yourself to a long meal.

Tell Me Your Story

If you engage in this radical act of resistance, I'd love to hear your story. Contact me through any of the available channels listed below.

Tiffany Taylor and the team at Sparkit Marketing in Los Angeles help me look better than I probably am. They maintain and develop all my collateral material for these podcasts, including my social media presence. If you need help getting your message heard, contact Tiffany at [email protected] or 323-371-1292.

Until next time, lead well!

Bill

Episode Credits:

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.

He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.

Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com.

In this As One podcast series, we talk about why organizational alignment matters.

If the organization or team that you lead is out of alignment around certain critical issues, your experience is going to be a rough ride.

In this episode, we highlight the need for your leadership team to find agreement around the most important issue that your organization is facing in any given season. What is the one shared goal?

Most organizations suffer from initiative overload. When your team has so many competing focal points, nothing is accomplished well. You'll have a flurry of activity but mediocre results.

Your team will function with much more integrity when they agree and are aligned around one shared goal. Every department has an idea of what they need, but the critical question is: What is currently most important for us as an organization?

Revenue, expenses, business development, employee engagement, and client satisfaction will always demand the attention of your team. There are seasons when one of those, or even something completely different, needs an elevated level of attention from the team.

Without clarity and alignment around a singular focal point, you'll see silos emerge within your team—it's the inevitable result. The fruit of silos: Leaders and departments will focus on activities that are in their best interests and projects that will propel their performance and advancement, not necessarily what is best for the organization.

When the leadership team instead agrees on the current, most important initiative for the organization, leaders are more willing to sacrifice time and resources to achieve the common goal.

Gaining commitment to a short-term goal will free your leaders to demonstrate humility--the mark of great team—and will also expose any team members who are more interested in serving their ego and personal agenda than the greater good.

Give this process time. It requires an intentional conversation with the full team. Don't make the mistake of gathering opinions or extrapolating your challenge from moments around the coffee pot. You will need someone to draw out opinions from those who tend to withhold their thoughts in crucial conversations.

A couple of helpful thoughts to stimulate the conversation are:

1. If we don't address _____ in the next six months, we are going to be in trouble.
2. If we only accomplish one thing in the next six months, what does it need to be?

If you are the senior leader, you may already know the answer to the question. Giving your team the opportunity to speak into the process affords you the buy-in and commitment that you likely wouldn't gain if you presented your thoughts as a directive.

You don't have to publish this goal throughout the organization. It is sufficient for a backdrop for leadership team decisions, and as a context for determinations regarding sacrifices of resources and time.

I would deeply appreciate a review and a rating if you have enjoyed this episode. Take a minute to offer your feedback, and please recommend the show to a friend.

Connect with me on social media! Direct message me on Instagram or Twitter. I'd love to know how these podcasts are encouraging your team's results.

Until next time, lead well!

Bill

EPISODE CREDITS:

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.

He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.

Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com

In this As One podcast series, we talk about why alignment matters in organizational health.

If the organization or team that you lead is out of alignment around critical issues, your experience is going to be a rough ride.

In this episode, we talk about how your team's behaviors are accurate representations of your core values, whether you like what you see or not. What you and your team value will always be reproduced in your actions.

Make Your Organization's Core Values Clear

Have you ever made a long road trip with your kids in the back seat? Do they know what's expected from them as you drive for hours or days on end, or do you rely on hope that they'll always do the right thing? What about your team: Do they know what behaviors are expected, or are the values of your organization unclear?

Your Values Should Guide Your Team's Internal and External Behaviors

Your team will function with much less drama when they agree and align around behaviors that matter to your organization's vision and personality. Most teams have a list of core values, but they're often vague. Your team's values should guide your daily interactions both internally and externally with clients and vendors. They should inform every relational aspect of your business.

CEO to Client: "We'll Miss You."

Southwest Airlines is known for nearly militant adherence to its core values, one of which is humor. After a Southwest attendant gave the standard pre-flight safety presentation with the skill of a stand-up comedian, a frequent flier complained to the CEO, threatening to stop flying with Southwest if the behavior continued. The CEO replied with a short note of only three words, "we'll miss you." This is an excellent example of how commitment to core values can affect an entire organization's processes and relationships.

Values that Miss the Mark

If your values are unclear, or they aren't reflected in your team's day-to-day behaviors, they'll breed cynicism and a demoralized workforce. One of Enron's core values was integrity. It's hard to believe their team didn't become cynical and siloed from the lack of integrity.

Alignment Minimizes Drama

Getting clear and aligned around actual behavioral values is one of the most intense exercises in my process with clients—and if the team continues to do the intentional, hard work to rehearse and drive those values throughout the team and processes, this alignment proves to be an extremely valuable tool for the entire organization.

Quit Reaching Over the Seat

If you want to minimize the amount of time you spend dealing with unproductive team behaviors, connect with me for a free, complimentary conversation about our organizational-health process. In less than 30 minutes, you'll find out if some feedback would be valuable for you and your team.

Connect with me on social media! Direct message me on Instagram or Twitter. I'd love to know how these podcasts are encouraging your team's results.

Until next time, lead well!

Bill

EPISODE CREDITS:

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.

He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.

Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com

In this As One podcast series, we talk about why organizational alignment matters.

If the organization or team that you lead is not aligned around specific, critical issues, your experience is going to be a rough ride.

In this episode, we talk about the value of your team being specific, clear, and aligned around why you do what you do.

In their classic work, Built to Last, Jim Collins and Jerry Porras recognize that healthy, enduring organizations are incredibly clear on the fundamental reason they exist.

Know Your Why If your team lacks alignment around the reason that your organization exists, you'll see a lack of unity and direction. Ultimately, a lack of alignment yields a demoralized and unmotivated workforce. Your team may be functional but will never be highly productive.

Compelling Vision Your team wants, actually needs, a compelling vision. What are you doing to make the world a better place, even if only for a small group of people? A compelling 'why' is the thing that encourages team buy-in. People want to feel that they are a part of something larger than themselves, something that offers significance for their investment. Passion is easily lost in an organization without a significant reason for your team to participate in the vision.

Money is Not a Good 'Why' Some organizations exist solely to make money for the principals and shareholders. Unless you have a remarkable profit-sharing plan for your team, this is probably not going to be the kind of vision that gets them out of bed in the morning. Making money is simply an indicator of success, not a compelling reason for existence.

Vision Statements Are Not Marketing Tools Your marketing department can't craft compelling vision statements; they can contribute, but your "why" has to be more than a marketing tool. It must represent the heart of your vision in order for people to give themselves to it with any measure of integrity.

Questions to Ask Yourself and Your Team A couple of questions should help jumpstart your "why do we exist?" conversation:

1. What can we do to make the world a better place? And, for whom are we making it better?
2. What is possible while staying within the boundaries of our greatest strengths and passions?

Possible Categories

1. Exemplary Client Service: We exist to make the world better for our clients.
2. Industry Specific: for example, hospitality. Disney exists to offer individuals the ultimate in guest hospitality.
3. Greater Cause: I have a client whose professional endeavors helps them create excess wealth that feeds causes. Near and dear to their heart is a desire to make the world safer for children without parents and victims and targets of trafficking.
4. Community: I helped a client define the following 'why' for their organization: "We exist to improve the communities in which we work by implementing proven environmental solutions that protect human health and the environment, and encourage sustainable social and economic development."
5. Employee Benefit: Some companies exist to create extraordinary cultures and opportunities for their employees. Barry-Wehmiller is an exceptional example of this, and Bob Chapman tells their story is his book, Everybody Matters.
6. Wealth Creation: This is not typically compelling for your team members, but if this is your vision, state it clearly. People need to know what they are buying into.

Coming to alignment is not a fast-food type of encounter—it takes time to define and clarify. The process is messy as ideas are introduced and debated. Give yourself the gift of time and effort to create critical alignment. It will save you time, drama, and confusion in the long run.

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If your organization is suffering from a lack of alignment, connect with me for a free, complimentary conversation about our organizational health process. It won't cost you more than 30 minutes of your time to find out if some feedback would be valuable for you and your team.

Connect with me on social media! Direct message me on Instagram or Twitter. I'd love to know how these podcasts are encouraging your team's results.

Until next time, lead well!

Bill

EPISODE CREDITS:

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.

He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.

Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com

In this As One podcast series, we talk about why organizational alignment matters.

If the organization or team that you lead is out of alignment around certain critical issues, your experience is going to be a rough ride.

In this episode, we look at the value of creating agreement and alignment around four key concepts.

Know Your Why

In order to engage your team at an optimal level, the team needs to agree around why you are doing what you are doing. Your 'why' creates a compelling vision that attracts the engagement of your employees.

What are your values?

For a team to function with minimum drama it is necessary to align around expected behaviors. When everyone agrees to abide by clear stated values there opportunity for dysfunction and drama is significantly reduced.

What are we doing?

This should be the easiest question to answer, but you might be surprised. In the absence of clarity team members often take on tasks and responsibilities that do not contribute to the vision or mission of the team in a profitable way.

Reducing Siloes

An organization needs to be clear on, and aligned around, the greatest challenge facing the team at this moment. Without agreement on this you run the risk of every team member focusing effort on the issue most critical to their area of responsibility. You need the cohesion that occurs when you face challenges as one.

Creativity and Innovation Suffer

Creativity and innovation are two of the first liabilities when a team is not functioning in union with one another. Alignment provides boundaries and clarity that free team members to know what they need to pursue and how much permission and flexibility they have in their process.

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If your organization is suffering from a lack of alignment, connect with me for a free, complimentary conversation about our organizational-health process. It won't cost you more than 30 minutes of your time to find out if some feedback would be valuable for you and your team.

Connect with me on social media! Direct message me on Instagram or Twitter. I'd love to know how these podcasts are encouraging your team's results.

Until next time, lead well!

Bill

In this "Leading with a Limp" podcast series, we talk about how leaders can effectively manage themselves and their teams during times of conflict and move toward organizational health.

If you've been a leader for any time, you know that strife, betrayal, and even personal wounds will come. The secret to leading well isn't to avoid these painful times but to embrace them and heal. Creating an exceptionally healthy environment requires intentional, hard work. But do it, and your team will flourish.

In this episode, we consider the value of friendships and connections at work as a safety net to ease the irritation when relationships are strained.

Friendships and Team Engagement

Friendships on the job are vital to an employee's sense of engagement. Gallup, the leading voice in measuring and reporting on the state of employee engagement included the question, "Do you have a close friend at work?" in their Q12 engagement survey.

Wise Leaders Create Opportunities for Connection

I place little value in trust falls. I think they are a good way to get hurt. The value of experiences like those and others is the opportunity to connect and bond in a non-work-related way. Great leaders create space for their people to connect with and appreciate each other beyond a level of mere functionality in the organization.

The Chemicals

Friendships and close connections stimulate the production of serotonin and oxytocin, the biochemicals responsible for feelings of appreciation and connectedness. That sense of connectedness is critical when stress is elevated and relationships are strained.

Make a List

I have a client who brainstormed ideas for encouraging their team members to connect. They came up with over forty ideas, many of which were free or inexpensive. It's not the magnitude of the moment that matters. It is simply the creation of a moment to bond over shared experiences like family matters, hobbies, sports, or entertainment. These bonds create a safety net and reduce the damaging presence of cortisol in seasons of high stress.

Be Intentional

Create moments to connect on a social level for the sake of your team. The mechanics do not matter; the intentionality to provide a moment does. Connections fulfill a deep longing in every individual. Allowing for those connections on the job will help to ensure your team survives and thrives in seasons where relationships are strained.

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If you recognize conflict in your team or a limp in your leadership but don't know where to begin, let's talk. We offer a great diagnostic tool to determine the strengths and liabilities of your organization. It's a relatively pain-free process by which we obtain feedback from your team members to identify the roadblocks and blind spots in your pursuit of a healthy team.

Connect with me for a free, complimentary conversation about our organizational-health process. It won't cost you more than 30 minutes of your time to find out if some feedback would be valuable for you and your team.

Connect with me on social media! Hit me up on Instagram or Twitter. I'd love to know how these podcasts are provoking your thought processes.

Until next time, lead well!

Bill

In this "Leading with a Limp" podcast series, we talk about how leaders can effectively manage themselves and their teams during times of conflict and move toward organizational health.

If you've been a leader for any time, you know that strife, betrayal, and even personal wounds will come. The secret to leading well isn't to avoid these painful times but to embrace them and heal. Creating an exceptionally healthy work environment requires intentional hard work. But do it, and your team will flourish.

In this episode, we focus on the qualities of leadership that enable leaders to create cultures that facilitate restoration.

The Winning Combination: Humility and Professional Resolve

Jim Collins and his research team identified these two qualities as marking leaders who succeeded in creating enduring success for the companies they led. Humility without professional resolve fails to deliver exceptional results. Professional resolve without humility produces inflated egos at the expense of the contributions of those who serve your vision.

Humility

C.S. Lewis offered a brilliant definition of humility: "Humility is not thinking less of yourself. It is thinking of yourself less." Healthy leaders are not driven to inflate their own egos. They don't suffer the common neuroses of being gracious publicly and assholes in private.

The Resolve

Leaders who possess a resolve to create an enduring business and whose successes are shared by all who make that possible will intentionally create a level of trust that enables teams to navigate seasons of conflict and emotional injury.

Responsibility and Generosity

The creation of exceptional trust is the reward for leaders who are quick to take responsibility for failures and generous with credit for their team's successes.

We're Creating a Challenging Future

Unfortunately, with the growing popularity of an every-player-gets-a-trophy mentality we are not setting future generations up for success where these two characteristics are concerned. I believe that every child should be valued, but we have to allow them to fail and then teach them to take responsibility for their failures if we are going to foster their future success. In a world where ego is rewarded with little consequence for failure, extreme personal humility and intense professional resolve cannot flourish. We owe our kids a better future.

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If you recognize conflict in your team or a limp in your leadership but don't know where to begin, let's talk. We offer a great diagnostic tool to determine the strengths and liabilities of your organization. It's a relatively pain-free process by which we obtain feedback from your team members to identify the roadblocks and blind spots in your pursuit of a healthy team.

Connect with me for a free, complimentary conversation about our organizational-health process. It won't cost you more than 30 minutes of your time to find out if some feedback would be valuable for you and your team.

Connect with me on social media! Hit me up on Instagram or Twitter. I'd love to know how these podcasts are provoking your thought processes.

Until next time, lead well!

Bill