The Inner Chief

For more info check out www.chiefmaker.com.au/104

Our High performance teams series now enters part 16 and we enter the 5 key Tools that drive a high performance culture, the first of which is Scoreboard and Metrics.

We've spoken about the Mission - all about the vision, your purpose and your why. And then we went into getting the right people on the bus, followed by building a high performance Culture. Now, for the next 5 episodes, we're going to talk all about Tools; the equipment that let your people do their job well.

But today, we explore how to gamify your team's performance and increase engagement and results through the regular use of metrics and scoreboards.

In this episode, I outline:

• Why measuring performance is important and what happens when results are not measured correctly;
• Scoreboards and metrics in a business context and how they can be used to your advantage both internally and externally;
• How you can make numbers and data more interesting, meaningful and inspiring.

If there is one thing that sport and business have in common is that they both love to measure performance. However, it's safe to acknowledge that sport does it better, in a way that encourages people and indeed makes metrics interesting.

Some individuals and professions absolutely need to focus on numbers; while how we do them is important, it's how we bring them into the culture of the team that is doubly important, especially if done wrong. Patrick Lencioni, who wrote that wonderful book, Five Dysfunctions of a Team, says that one of the critical dysfunctions is not paying attention to results. Ultimately, presenting numbers in a way that makes it clear and understandable for every member of our team as to what we can do to improve, then we can suffer.

Firstly, we measure to prove our theory or belief - this is when we just keep paying attention to key numbers that we think prove what we want to do, or when we have metrics that don't represent all situations.

Secondly, you could have a range of metrics that aren't aligned to your style of play or team values, and what could happen is that you end up sacrificing team or organisational culture. A really good example of this is when you have two teams that actually have metrics that are in conflict with one another, for example, a manufacturing unit whose goal it is to increase the rate of production, and a supply team whose job is to cut costs.

And finally, a huge pitfall of measuring data is perhaps at the crux - inaccurate data. This is when the data is late, inaccurate, or just too difficult to obtain.

Good metrics are absolutely vital because they allow accurate data-driven decisions so that your team can act in alignment with the company's strategy or operational excellence. They can break down old paradigms and dispel myths and clarify a problem.

However, you have to get your numbers right because people can see through them really quickly; I'm sure you've been in that situation before looking at other peoples' dodgy numbers! In fact, I'd go as far as saying how you present your numbers is vital to getting your point across. Tell people how they were collected and how accurate they are.

Metrics can also clarify the relationship between inputs and outputs, statistics and scoreboards, statistics and results. In other words, the more you do of a particular input activity, the more of a chance you will get an output. For example, in rugby, they talk about the speed of turnover and a tackle being an input metric to the number of tries scored. In netball, they talk about the number of seconds an individual holds a ball versus the number of goals scored.

1. Review your vision, strategy and values by breaking those goals down into what to measure and how it will be presented, with a focus on the person that's going to be taking action.
2. Next, develop clear definitions of what is being measured and a precise target score.
3. Identify the sources of data, the quality, the timing required, the ease of collection, the owner of that data.
4. Develop your data collection plan.
5. Implement and refine the measurement process so that data gets clearer and clearer for your people.
6. Create scoreboards and reports that are striking, easy to interpret and valuable. Bring your scoreboards and metrics to life. Don't make them a boring spreadsheet that just sits there. At many sports matches, the players can see the scoreboard plus the countdown timer; they know how much time there is to go to perform their job. Your people, therefore, need to be able to see your scoreboard.
7. And then, celebrate when someone makes a change or improves a number.

In summary, scoreboards and metrics are critical to all high performance teams. They can be a wonderful way of engaging the team, of creating a spirit around the numbers, of giving individuals the real information and data, so they can improve in their work and the team as a whole.

Stay epic,

Greg

In this episode, our guest is Natalie Speers, the Founder & CEO of Social Ally, an agency in the digital marketing and social media space.

It was a great chat, in which we talk about how being an early adopter has pushed her out of her comfort zones, particularly in the social media space in the last decade. Natalie also shares some incredible social media stats that prove that everyone needs to use social media, regardless of your industry.

We then go through her list of common mistakes business owners and leaders make on social media and what they should be doing instead, and then we round up with her explaining what visual disruption - a term she coined - is and how to introduce it into your social posting strategy.

You can connect with Natalie Speers on LinkedIn or by email: [email protected].

Key Quotes from Natalie Speers

Keeping up with the ever-changing social media landscape

• I visit various websites, such as Social Media Examiner and Social Media Today. I'll visit those three times a week to read the articles of anything up and coming that's new, and I'll be sure and relay that to my entire staff. And if it's something of extreme interest that directly impacts us and how we service our clients, then I'll do training on it with all of my staff.
• My best ideas come to me when I'm laying in bed and it's the middle of the night and I wake up and I have some sort of great idea, so I go and write it down in my phone and then I'll go research accordingly the following day.

Misconceptions of social media and some incredible stats

• The most common misconception of social media is that often times people think it's just for young people or a social media marketing strategy won't work for their industry.

• So, you have Facebook. Obviously it's still the reigning champion. It has 2.27 billion monthly active users. That's a quarter of the entire world population, which is really crazy. The fastest-growing demographic on Facebook is ages 50 to 56 years old. So, again, it's not just about young people. All ages are on social media.
• Then, take a look at YouTube. YouTube is the second largest search engine below Google - 5 billion videos are watched per day and 300 hours of video are uploaded per minute!
• Instagram is more of a millennial-driven crowd; the 18 to 34-year olds are primarily using it.
• Twitter has 66 million monthly active users, and, interestingly, 34% of Twitter users are ages 25 to 34, favouring the side of females.
• A ton of millennials use Pinterest - as much as Instagram. The median age is 40, typically female and highly-educated.
• I like to refer to LinkedIn as a professional goldmine. It's a database for professionals by professionals. There is a lot of opportunity to be had on LinkedIn. Any business should define a LinkedIn prospecting strategy because I have seen a lot of success and lead generation come from LinkedIn.

Why you can't afford not to use social media

• A lot of people come to me and for whatever reason, they don't think social media applies to their industry. So, to these people, I ask, "Do you not want your business to show up on a Google search when a user is searching for whatever service or product you're providing?!"
• Every minute there are 40,000 Google search queries happening. This equates to 3.5 billion searches a day!
• People are literally searching for answers to solve problems in their everyday lives by typing it into Google - they're seeking authoritative content via social media channels, blogs, podcasts, YouTube videos. How you show up on a Google ranking is 85% based on your authoritative content, so if you're not doing social media and blogging etc. for your business, you're doing yourself a huge disservice. I can confidently say to you that if you don't implement a digital strategy, your business will eventually get left behind.

Some LinkedIn tips

• A LinkedIn search has a couple different components to it. Most importantly, it's to do with how your profile is optimised.
• As an example, when someone searches on LinkedIn, obviously I want to rank for the keywords "social media" or "social media marketing." And so, as many times - within reason - as I can incorporate that phrase or keyword throughout my profile, the better.
• Secondly, a lot of people don't use the Headline properly, in my opinion. If you go to my profile, you will see that it has all my keywords in my headline: "entrepreneur", "social media marketing", "lead generation", "speaker", "consultant". So, eloquently insert your relative keywords throughout your headline and throughout your profile.
• L.I.O.N. means LinkedIn Open Networker and it signifies to people that you are open to network with whomever and not sifting who I'm going to accept as a connection.

The future of social media

• The reality of today's world is that our mobile phone is literally an extension of us. We've come to expect instant gratification, meaning that we have the ability to pick up our phone, shop online and have something delivered to us the same day. We have the ability to communicate with small brands, large brands on social and be provided with an instant response to a question we may have, or feedback we may provide. With that in mind, that means our customer is getting increasingly smarter, more tech-savvy and less patient.
• 92% of consumers trust peer recommendations, so people are literally turning to social media, online forums, blogs in order to make their purchasing decisions.

Engaging your audience

• Social media is becoming the easiest, most powerful tool you have available to you as a business owner and I love to refer to it as "world-of-mouth"; you have the world ready to listen, at your fingertips, and it's really just a matter of figuring out how to engage those people in something they love.
• There are so many people leaving different comments or writing direct messages or a public wall post. My advice is to respond, engage and provide something of value. Build rapport, as that is when people make an emotional decision to buy from your business.
• One of the most detrimental things you can do to your business is leaving negative feedback or comments un-responded to. Now often, from the business owner's standpoint, the consumer is probably far exaggerating what really happens. But it can literally ruin a small business because the owner didn't step up and provide a valid explanation. People want to be heard, so listen, as that's the essence of social media.
• People are just haphazardly posting things that they find interesting themselves, not what their audience finds interesting and that's key. If you really want your social media to start working for you, you really need to have a clear understanding of who your audience is, how old are they, what interests do they have, what hobbies do they have, who do they engage with online. So, knowing this information is going to allow you to create a real consistent posting strategy that resonates with your potential customer and what they care about. It's not what you care about. It's what they care about.

Leading a group of millennials

• So, I have a team of just under 20 people, mostly comprised of millennials and I myself am a millennial.
• I am a very, non-confrontational person; I like to avoid conflict and it makes me very uncomfortable. So I actually joined a peer-to-peer group called EO (Entrepreneurs Organisation) and it's a worldwide organisation of entrepreneurs. Business ownership comes with so many challenges and you always think you're the only one going through this, but the fact of the matter is that's not true.

• Greg: "I can say almost with certainty, that just about every CEO I've interviewed on this podcast has been in a mastermind or peer-to-peer group of some sort."

Biggest mistake #1: Unrealistic Expectations

• Clients want social media, but sometimes they don't fully understand what that means. They just know it's a hot buzz word and they need it because their peers are doing it. They don't fully understand what it takes to get from point A to point B. They think they can just post a video and all these leads come flooding in. If that was the case, everyone would be doing it themselves and there would be no need for agencies like Social Ally!
• So, use organic social media, meaning using unpaid social media, which is a long-term brand play. It takes time to build a community and it takes time to build rapport with your community, and this is done through really great content, providing value to your audience, engaging your users in something that they love, addressing pain points and solving their problems.
• Then, there's paid social media. So that's Facebook, Instagram, Google Ads. This is a shorter-term play, but it consists of a few components
• • You must know what you are doing, otherwise, you will waste money. It's all about data-driven testing and making very strategic decisions. You have to figure out what your audience demographics are and what is going to entice them to click. It really just comes down to internet behavioural psychology
  • You must have a consistent, organic social strategy.
  • You must have a budget and be willing to lose it.

Biggest mistake #2: Not Visually Disrupting

• So, I want to put this into perspective for you. The average social media user scrolls through 300 feet of content per day. That is the height of the Statue of Liberty!
• Your job as a business owner is to visually disrupt people's newsfeed. Your job is to stand out, to make them stop and read your post or watch your video or whatever it is. Every day we're bombarded with advertisements and brands all around us. Visual disruption!

Biggest mistake #3: No KPIs or Data Analytics Monitoring

• People often put so much time and resource into their social media and then they love to complain about how it's not working for them. And they just write it off: "Oh, social media doesn't work for me. I tried it."
• You should be monitoring cost per click. Cost per acquisition. If you're not, you're wasting your time and you should just stop and invest your time into areas of your business until you are ready to get serious and understand the power of digital marketing and really making data-driven decisions.
• Clients don't care about the pretty graphics that we are going to put out on their social media. They care about selling their product or service.

What is the final message of wisdom and hope for the next generation of executives?

• To all of you talented and amazing future executives, get ready for a wild ride. Owning and operating a business is the most difficult and challenging experience of your life. However, it's also the most rewarding and gratifying experience.
• You have to be willing to stick it out and fight through the day and never give up. I can tell you that there have been about 3 times I have come extremely close to shutting Social Ally because I couldn't handle the pressure and the stress, but I'm super lucky to have a support circle of friends and family and mentors who really kept me going with different encouragements and mentorship.
• One of the most gratifying things about being a business owner is having the ability to employ people and be a leader and mentor that your team looks up to.

Resources mentioned in the episode:

• Facebook Attribution Tool: this allows you to access the full conversion path, explaining to you what ads made people convert.
• LinkedIn Social Selling Index (you need to be logged into LinkedIn)
• Book recommendation: Scaling Up by Verne Harnish
• Book recommendation: Traction by Gino Wickman

Book recommendation: Expectation Therapy by Art Costello

For more info check out www.chiefmaker.com.au/102

Our High Performance Teams series now enters part 15, where we finalise the 5 key elements that drive a High Performance Culture, namely the rituals & traditions of the team.

We cover how to overcome those periods in work or business life when it has become a bit soulless, a bit toxic and is all work, and no play. One of the best ways is to use rituals and traditions to create meaning and a sense of belonging to your team and get the trust back on track.

In this episode, I outline:

• The history of rituals and traditions and why they are so important, no matter the context;
• When rituals and traditions take on a negative form and what good ones should look like;
• 6 topics that will guide you around rituals and traditions and some really great, specific examples;
• How it's important to remember that you are the chief story-teller and your team will look to you to create rituals and traditions that energise them and ultimately will drive high performance.

Stay epic,

Greg

This week's episode takes a totally different format as it's a discussion rather than an interview.

I recorded this episode with our spiritual guru, Damien Price, for another podcast called The Universal Man, a Not-For-Profit organisation dedicated to helping men operating at their best in the modern world.

You can connect with Damien on LinkedIn.

He's also been on the podcast before; check out episode 31.

Key Quotes from discussion with Damien Price

What is balance?

• When we are out of balance, there's a sense that you're just going around, you're spinning, you're on a treadmill. You feel a sense that you've got no particular power, and you're just rushing, rushing, rushing, go, go, go. You're out of balance.

Aligning balance to your life vision and life chapters

• We've got to look at the particular context of where we are in life; it's our vision, it's where we are at this point in time. What chapter of our lives we're in.
• There is a famous story where a university professor gets out a large jar. He puts in three or four relatively large rocks and says to the class, "Is the jar full?" And the class says, "Yes." Then from under the bench, he pulls out a container of fairly large pebbles. He pours that in, shakes it up, pours more in, and again, "Is it full?" They all say, "Yes." Then he goes under the counter, pulls out a container of very fine sand, pours it in, shakes it, pours more in. "Is it full?" And they're all very, very quiet. Then finally, he goes under the bench and pulls out a pitcher of water, pours that in and it fills the gaps.
• Therefore, balance is about the different stages of your life ie. the chapter of your life. What are your particular rocks and the pebbles at that point?

The role of core values

• You don't want to be so busy in life, that it's impossible to have any flexibility.
• So balance comes when you become aware of the particular chapter you're in, and then you work out your rocks, your core values, your core tasks, who you want to be, or what you want to do. You're deliberate, and you name them all and you plan around them.

Building your life scoreboard and defining achievable success

• A life scoreboard has a list of all the most important things to you in life. This might be a partner, your family, your wider family, mates, your career, any volunteering contribution to the greater good, health, fitness, finances, hobbies, travel, whatever's most important to you.
• Give yourself a bit of a score on each and every one of those, to tell you how you're currently going in each of them. And that gives you a sense of whether you're spending your time right, given what's most important to you right now.
• When you are clear in your planning and you know your achievable outcomes, you deliberately plan them, and they get energy. All of a sudden, you're getting up at 5am for that run or for the gym session or for the work, you've got into a pattern of it, you've got a discipline wrapped around it. You are ticking off a rock within your life. You've got a particular sense of balance then.

Beating guilt of not doing certain things

• If you're in one place and feeling like you need to be somewhere else, that's when the guilt comes in.
• If you have a partner, it has to be negotiated and agreed with them. You say, "I'm going to go away for a few days. I know it's a bit of an extra pressure on you. Why don't you do this? Is that okay?" And when they go away, make sure that there's that same discussion. What it means is that when you're away, you're free to be present.
• It's the same with work as well. There's absolutely nothing wrong with saying to your boss you need to be at an event or that you're picking your kids up from swimming twice a week at 4pm. But then you say what you're going to do in exchange.
• Bill Gates said, "People vastly overestimate what they can do in one year, and hugely underestimate what they can do in ten years." Let alone a week. Sometimes you get to the end of the week and you feel like you've done nothing. You need to cut yourselves some slack. And one thing that I do, is on a Friday afternoon, I sit down and I say to myself, "What are all the things that I have done this week?"
• You may have periods when you'll be lacking a tiny bit of balance, like a business trip. But in the bigger picture, you can claim that back.

Creating your rhythm and optimising time

• Either on a Sunday afternoon or a Monday morning, spend a bit of time, either on your own or with your partner, to plan the week ahead.
• Rituals and traditions over a year are vital: my wife and I go to this local café every Saturday morning. We know we get that moment every week to reconnect with the family.
• Make a list of all the activities in your life that you have to do every day. Go to work, your commute to work, pick up/drop off kids, etc. And then list all the things you want to do on top of those, such as going to the gym, doing a hobby, whatever. Then write how many hours per week you have to (or want to) do them. Every single time I've done that with someone, the number of hours in a week that they want to spend on things is far more than the numbers of hours in a week. Which means their unconscious criteria for balance is impossible to achieve.

Simplifying life and buying back time

• Look at the number of rocks and pebbles you have got. A little process of simplification doesn't have to be a lot. But the art of saying no is so important in being able to achieve your life vision and your career goals.
• You cannot do it all. You have to make some hard decisions. Instead of doing that thing every week or month, go back to doing it once a quarter or year. Ritualize it; make it a tradition.
• We also create rocks over stuff which actually isn't. Step back and ask, "Do I really, really have to do that thing?"
• You might be sitting there thinking, "I just wish there were more hours in the day." How about getting rid of social media? It's costing people hours and hours a day. How many hours were you on Facebook or Instagram today? Yet you're so busy. Same with TV.
• Sleep is important, and you've got to have recovery. But if you go to sleep a little bit earlier, you can have very early mornings and therefore you've bought yourself time to work when everyone is asleep.

For more info check out www.chiefmaker.com.au/100

We've made it to Episode 100!!! What a cracking topic we have in store for you today.

Our High Performance Teams series now enters part 14, and we're into the penultimate element of what drives a high performance Culture, where today we look at the power of high standards and how this drives feedback, accountability and unity across a team.

In this episode, we cover the one topic that my clients ask me about more than anything. And that is how to increase accountability in their teams and how to get people to take ownership of their work, and stop them becoming victims.

"Feedback is the breakfast of champions". This is more than just a brilliant quote by Ken Blanchard; this is instrumental and at the core of high-performing, accountable teams. But it's easy to get wrong when giving it out, especially if you have no leadership currency, and it can become a really draining process.

In this episode, I outline:

• Why living and breathing your organisation's values is where you need to start;
• How you can turn the values into specific behavioural high standards across your team and how to get them to be accountable to these standards;
• How your team can enjoy continuous feedback in such a way that they serve the higher standards you seek to attain;
• How all of the above starts with you - you raising the bar, you being accountable, you improving continuously based on feedback.

Stay epic,

Greg

In this episode, we have a great chat with Marty Vids, an entrepreneur, mentor and podcast host, about building rapport, empowering customers and owning your job.

Marty has had quite the eclectic career and life, having started out in his parent's milk bar as a kid, and then moving into the comedy scene as an MC. He has a few great stories from that past life, that's for sure!

A career change beckoned and he landed up at Westpac as a mortgage broker, before leaving that to co-found Mortgage First, which he sold in his mid-30s. But the itch to build another business didn't go away, and he started Mortgage 500, a company he eventually sold in 2016.

These days, Marty is also a mentor, life coach, MC, and hosts his own podcast, The Marty Vids Show.

You can connect with Marty Vids on LinkedIn.

Key Quotes from Marty

On his Formative Years...

• My early days really were a place of work. I would go in with my dad even on a Sunday and help him collect the newspapers and I'd be serving clients probably from the age of around six or seven. From a very young age, I was developing social skills, emotional intelligence skills, but also financial skills.

On what comedy taught him about building rapport...

• One of the projects I did was run a comedy night because I always loved stand-up comedy. I brought that to my country town and I brought in the audience; I'd go to all the shops and say I was running it, I went on local radio. I really went into that promotion phase but I was doing too much, I didn't delegate. I was MC-ing the night, I arranged the comedians, got all the audience in, and I had my mates helping me.
• This guy comes on a bucks night and I was last on stage as the main act and he was just ... Their party was giving each comedian hell and I'm thinking, "What am I gonna do? I can't get on this guy's bad side because they're just gonna come up on stage and actually kill me." I had to think on my feet, but I got him on stage, we skulled a beer together and I said, "Congratulations mate, your life is officially over as of this moment," and I got them onside and they were the best audience after that. It didn't matter what I said.
• I think that's the sort of thing you go, "How do I build rapport in a situation that's very challenging?" You think about that in business negotiation, I mean that's an extreme story there, but it's like how do you build rapport when something's not going well and be able to shift direction?
• There's a big difference between agreement and unconscious rapport. How you can tell - and why this is important - is you can pick the body language. If they're in a similar body stance to you, like let's say you have your arms crossed and they have their arms crossed, people might misinterpret that as just two people that are cold. But what you're looking for is to get physical rapport and that will show up in the body. If someone makes a move like let's say someone moves their right hand and puts it up to their chin, you don't do it simultaneously, but you give it about 15 seconds and then you manoeuvre into that same position while you're having the discussion. What you're looking for on an unconscious and physical level is whether they break that rapport.
• If someone is very auditory rather than visual, you can speak to them with your body posture to the side, not facing them, because that's too impactful for them when you're right in their face. Other people are very kinesthetic where they like to be in each other's face and are more sensitive. It's not a fake thing, it's good communication and really allowing them to converse with you in a way that's comfortable for them.

On effective leadership...

• I found that the managers that were more light-hearted and you could engage with, you could really learn from. So you'd have the dictatorial types that you're more fearful of, but they were never as engaging and never got as good a result as the people that were structured but also had this light-heartedness, and were able to mentor and engage you beyond the transaction they wanted you to get for them and the bank.
• They would think through a problem and then come to me with their thoughts around it, so I could then provide additions to it or steer them in a direction that was more beneficial.

On career drifting to having an ownership mentality...

• Andy Meikle, who's an ironman who competed against Trevor Hendy, came in and gave a speech at Westpac. I'm not sure if I was the only one listening, but he was saying about people finishing seventh in life and floating through the corporate system, and really looking at taking your role, taking responsibility for your role as a business owner and as an owner of that role. That shifted my whole perspective on just having a job, as opposed to going, "Well, how can I be a leader within my job?"
• I started to come in early. I started to realise the top performers would come in early, they'd go and see clients, and in the afternoon they would leave fairly early to go and see more clients. I started to really tap into the people that were doing well and started modelling what they were doing and I was fortunate I had three job promotions within a six month period and pretty much doubled my salary in that time from someone that was floating.

On how to make the leap from employee to business owner...

• We kept getting pulled towards the move. We had good jobs, we were earning good incomes, we were 29 years old, going places within the bank. But this just kept calling out to us.
• One of the things I'd say that we did that helped us a lot, was we gave ourselves six months of income in order to make sure that when we started the business, we weren't in financial distress from day one. This was really important. Some people say, "Look you gotta jump off the cliff." And yes, that's right, you gotta jump off the cliff in your mind, but I think it's more savvy to have a parachute on the way down, because it's not going to end as badly.

On the lessons of his first business, Mortgage First...

• We saw an opportunity in the broking market where we could empower clients to really take control of their financial circumstances and save them money on their mortgages. When we were in the bank, we were always encouraged to really get the most profit in regards to the products we were selling.
• Philosophically, I struggled with that a little bit because I go, "Yes, it might have created great revenue, but here was a better product given how we could serve the client." And what I recognised by giving that better product was I would get more and more clients.

• Did I stuff up? Of course, but I was always honest and said I think I've done something wrong here, wasn't intentional, how can I rectify, because I was hungry to keep learning. It's really important to have that authenticity and be humble when you don't know something and ask the question.

• The rest of the market saw a broker as somewhere you go where you can't get money from the banks. We saw this as a relationship management role. We saw this as encouraging the clients to understand the system, keep it simple, empower them with choice.
• We came from an education-based marketing platform of giving up our time, because we could never compete with the banks on marketing. What we did was a momentum build. When we did the accountant's loan, then guess what? He got so much benefit out of it, he would tell his clients. When we did the real estate agent's loan, they would tell anyone they dealt with.
• We really got ourselves out there, talking to people. We'd hand out three business cards a day. We said we never wanted to do that from a point of view of just handing out free business cards; we wanted to have conversations so people would ask us for our business card. That was always our theory. How can we provide value and connect with people so they asked us what we do. And that's how we started and we built momentum and that turned into something that we were even surprised it turned into!

On wellbeing as a business owner...

• What we didn't do is look after ourselves well enough. We were running so hard for so long and even in the bank, we were running really, really hard to get our careers going. We got really tired and we really should've delegated roles and done that more effectively.

On the pitfalls of selling a business...

• We thought we got offered the cheque of a lifetime. We had a team of about 14 people and we really developed a fantastic culture and we thought when that opportunity arrived to get that cheque, Craig and I looked at each other and went, "Well, we might never see this again in our lives."
• For two country boys, this was a big moment and we decided to take it because we thought it would have a real impact in our lives. But you know what? At the end of the day, money is an interesting thing, because what I love was the people in the business. I loved the clients, I loved the culture, I loved the innovation. We got the money and I went, but it felt so numb afterwards because this was our baby.
• Because I wasn't feeling as well as I had been and I missed the business, I made some financial decisions and invested in things I would never have invested in because of my usual structures.

On taking these lessons into a new business...

• The second business was a lot better because I really knew who I was within that business and the circumstances around that was all different. But it came from a place of real joy, where I think the first business still was me needing to prove my value, which comes back to not being very good at school!
• Our clients were our best sales force. They loved what we did and they just kept driving opportunities to us because we were looking after them.

On how to get a pay rise the right way...

• I would never go to my manager and say, "I want a pay rise." I would go to my manager and say, "Here's the ideas I have for my role. Here's how I'm going to generate more business. This is the value I'm going to add to the client base. This what I think I could bring to the team."
• I always instigated this within our own businesses. When people came in and said, "I want a pay rise." I was very quick to ask, "Why do you want a pay rise, because you're 70% of target at the moment!" "Oh, we want to start a family." "Alright. Fantastic. Let's now work on a plan in order to enable you to achieve the results, so I can give you this pay rise."
• I wanted to work with them to really instil this sense of confidence and leadership and a call to action in order to then really feel great about their pay rise. In doing that, I said, "Alright we'll increase your pay by $10,000 and work on this vision in the next six months and achieve it."

Marty's final message of wisdom and hope...

• I think sometimes it's just important to listen. I think very much we want to jump in with what we know a lot of the times, but sometimes when someone says something to you when they're under challenge, just listen and when they're finished say, "Thank you," and then you can work on a response and a solution to it. I would say as managers, that's something I've learnt over time; just being really appreciative of when people are being vulnerable.

Resources mentioned in the episode:

• Book recommendation: Simplified: Leadership is Simple. You Lead People, by Dave Clare.

For more info check out www.chiefmaker.com.au/98

Our High performance teams series now enters part 13, and we're right into the High Performance Culture pillar, where today we look at how to get your team focussed on winning, and collaborating intensively.

In this episode, we cover how to get your team members to come along on the journey in pursuing excellence, but also how to simultaneously avoid becoming too internally focussed and operational.

One of the ways true chiefs get the best out of their troops is to compete externally, that is, changing the game of the industry, giving the team the energy and the tools to be the best. Sometimes the converse is true, where a bunch of individuals end up competing against one another; the result being low energy, a team that's defensively-minded and you as the leader can't drive your own track record and career momentum.

So how does one set up and lead a high-performing, industry-leading, best-of-the-best team that hunts and isn't the hunted?

In this episode, I outline:

• How continuous learning can shift your mindset from being operational and technical to changing the game;
• How getting out of your own work environment will help you look at your challenges and problems with a different perspective;
• How to create an environment where failure and trying new things is normal, either internally or through external partnerships; and
• Why even the top performers have mentors and coaches as they have a hunting mindset.

Stay epic,

Greg