Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: Hey everyone, welcome to the episode. So ask a Ram flips the script one step beyond podcast. Guests and listeners submit their questions and ask a Ram anything. Questions can be music, life stories, business, leadership, advice, how to make the best vegan omelette, you name it. Aram will unpack your questions and leave you with info you can apply before we get to it, please rate, review and subscribe. I've noticed a recent decline in morale and productivity from my team. I haven't changed anything on my end, and there haven't been any major changes with the business. It's critical that I uncover what's going on. What's the best approach to initiate these conversations and get honest feedback from my team?
[00:00:47] Speaker B: Send out a group email to everyone to identify what the concern is. Then have 30 minutes, one to one meetings with each member of the team.
Put together all of the data that you gathered, put it in a document, send it out to the team as a whole, and then have a meeting afterwards to go through that document, debrief it, discuss it, and find if there's anything else that's been missed. Take all that information, all that conversation, and then have a final planning meeting with everybody to identify the main themes and then create an execution plan to address them. Listen, every team everywhere goes through difficult times, without a doubt.
And sometimes those difficult times are just like a little bump, and other times they're just like a big challenging thing. Leaving things going unaddressed is only going to make it an issue in the long term. But also doing these like little like pep talks here and there, or these little like, hey, let's have, let's have a real heart to heart with the team. These are just like, you know, band aids, basically, and actually might even make the problem worse. Get data, give people a voice. The reason you sent out the email in the beginning, just to address it with everyone, is to let everyone know, hey, I see that there's a problem, but I don't know what the answer is. The reason that you give people the chance, one to one, to talk it through with you is you're giving them a chance to flex what they're thinking, to figure out how they want to express it, to go into that space. If you do that, just immediately go into a group conversation, the messiness of getting everyone to talk about it all at once is going to create a bad meeting. Doing it one to one with each person, and essentially data gathering through all of that, you get all that information, but people can figure out how they want to talk about it. Then you put it all together in a report in whatever format you want. I'd say nothing, or it shouldn't be anything that's more than a couple pages. And you're just looking for the themes. What are the themes that were pretty standard across every single conversation? When I say themes, you should be looking for things that are said at least three times. They don't need to be said the exact same way, but, like, thematically, they kind of mean the same thing. Anything under three times is like, an outlier opinion. It's not that it doesn't really matter, but it might be the way that one person feels about something. Look for the themes that are thematically relevant, either for some, most, or all of your audience, and put that out into a report.
And then you meet with the team. Now you've gone out, you've gathered the data. Each team member's had an individual meeting, so they figured out kind of how they wanna talk about it. You send them the report in advance of the meeting, and I'd say it's good to send people the report 24 hours ahead of not less than that, but not much more than that either, because then people are just going to, like, it's old news, or people will overtly focus on it. People are expected to come to the meeting able to talk about what's in their report. You explore it together. You go through it top to bottom. You discuss it, like, look at each of the themes, see if there's anything missing. Again, you take that away, spend some time, you know, put. Put together the thoughts from that meeting. Then you put together your final document. This is what we believe is going on with the team. And then you have an execution meeting. Talk about what we're going to do and figure it out. That's data gathering. That's giving people a chance to figure out how they want to communicate their ideas. Everyone gets a voice, but everyone understands the importance of using their voice effectively. That means you get to go through the data together, you get to create meaning together. And then finally, there's a destination. When you have negativity or bad feelings and there's no destination for it, that just means it's going to keep hovering around. But when you're moving towards something, that's about saying, let's understand this, let's diagnose it together, then let's create a plan. You are creating a conduit for that. You're creating a space where it's going to go, and then you execute, and the execution is about getting that energy out focusing on results and getting ahead. Don't hide from these difficult conversations, but don't do them in a, in a vague or ad hoc way. Do it specifically, look for data and then move towards a solution.
[00:04:58] Speaker A: Sometimes I need to ask my clients sensitive questions about their business and it feels awkward. Any suggestions for how to cut the tension and get the information that I need?
[00:05:08] Speaker B: Yes. Simply ask, do you mind if I ask you a sensitive question? So as a coach, I have to ask people sensitive questions, like all day, every day. It's like, might be the main part of my job. And nine times out of ten I simply say, do you mind if I ask you about this? Or can I touch base with you on a sensitive topic? I want to ask you something that is a bit delicate. Is that okay? Sometimes I'll name the thing. Other times I'll just say, there's a sensitive topic I'd like to talk to you about, or I'm going to. I'd like to go a little bit deeper on this. Do you mind? When someone gives you their permission to do it, they are mentally ready for that conversation. You've given them a different frame. I do have clients who are like, well, I expect you to ask me tough questions. You're my coach. It's like, yeah, but I'm still preparing you for that conversation. So some people might think it's a little corny or asking why you're doing it, but my suggestion is it's a best practice because it gets people in the game of that difficult conversation or that sensitive topic.
[00:06:10] Speaker A: How do you think leadership will change because of artificial intelligence?
[00:06:14] Speaker B: I think the access to more information has the potential to make leadership more difficult, meaning that leaders need to be more connected to people, more plugged in, and more able to share what they mean and what they think effectively. And I'll tell you why.
So one could argue that the Internet and having all of the resources of the Internet at our fingers has made us more effective in a lot of ways. Many, many ways it has. I'll just give you a simple example. Email. I tell you, email is the source of so much challenges in relationships between people, between business units, between businesses. If you look at any department, in any business anywhere, almost certainly you're going to find people who really struggle with email and how they position themselves, how they position their ideas. And because of email and the Internet, their ability to frequently send their challenging thinking or the ways they position themselves is like through the roof. They could be sending it to like two people, 20 people or 2000 people. So the Internet theoretically has made things quicker and easier and has in many ways, but also it's given us a lot of potential to get like bad ideas or impact our relationships in negative ways through the roof. When you have things like AI, people are going to have access to so much information, the ability to not just get that information, but get that information summarized or put to a specific fine point. So our ability to get tons of data is going to be there. And I think the impact, just like with email writing, is that I, it's not going to always bring the ability for people to adjust in a meaningful way. They're not going to always been tucked in. They're not going to be as precise as they should be. They might be moving too fast, not reading the room. It's great when things move fast. AI looks like, on one hand totally amazing, on the other hand, totally terrifying. Leaders need to, in my opinion, the faster technology moves and the more advantages it gives us, need to be more plugged in to the people need to more to even better be able to read situations than people and really need to be able to communicate. So I think it's going to complicate things. And that's why I encourage leaders to really focus on their skills right now, because the faster we move and the more information and data we get, the more we need to be very, very plugged into leading people.
[00:08:37] Speaker A: I've been in my role for two years without a promotion. I'm always one to say yes and often volunteer to take on projects for the team. Is my expectation for a raise or promotion realistic? Should I stop taking on additional work?
[00:08:51] Speaker B: You should expect a role change within two to five years of taking on a new role. Two years is like very, very, very short. Five years is quite long. So usually you're looking around three years. So an expectation of a role change, if you have an organization that actually has roles, should be three years salary change outside of cost of living increases. That again, depends on where you live and the organization you're in. Nothing's promised. Should you expect it? No. Should you shoot for it? Yes. To get deeper into it, taking on all the extra stuff because you want to learn more, you want to stretch yourself. That's always awesome. And it's interesting and intriguing because you're in that two year ish window that totally, totally makes sense. You also have to be very, very cautious of basically getting stuck in a role because you've taken on too many things, because they're like, hey, we don't need to do too much for this person, because they're just a beast. They want to take on all this stuff. We can just keep them there and put all the stuff there. And don't think that calculation is not happening. It doesn't mean it's always happening. Most people want to promote great employees, but what they can look at is say, okay, we've got this person who is a great team player. They're always hungry for more stuff. They're always taking stuff on. And we're pretty sure that if we pass them over for something, we're pretty sure they're going to stay there. Whereas this person who we view as a high potential, who's got real sharp elbows, who's highly demanding and we want to keep in the business, we would rather give this person a promotion, but we don't want to lose this person. So we're going to like kind of pass this person over and give it, give it to them. You got to strike that fine balance of taking on extra stuff because you're excited about it and you want to learn and also not making yourself too much of a convenience. The easiest thing to do is ask for what you want. If you want a promotion directly, ask for a promotion. Usually the worst thing that's going to happen is they're going to be like, either yes, like, yes, we've got you and this is the timeline. Or no, not right now because we don't have a role to put you in or we want you to develop more. So if you want a promotion, ask for it. If you want more money, ask for it. The more money thing, I think, is going to be challenging in the economy we're in. But I think it's always good to ask. My biggest thing for anyone listening to this, don't be in the corner kicking dirt about stuff. Ask for what you want and get clarity. And if you get a vague answer, do not take a vague answer. Ask for timelines. What needs to happen?
Like what do you need to work on? Like what does the company offer to help you do that? Ask for what you want and dont take a vague answer. Get the details.
[00:11:37] Speaker A: Who inspires you to think bigger and realize that more is possible than you had expected?
[00:11:43] Speaker B: Id say my friend Finn McKinty, who does the punk rock mbA.
Ive known Finn for a long time and he has a very interesting career path that you can look him up and find out about it. The thing about Finn is he's always a step ahead and he's really got like a sense of what's coming and is good at working towards that thing, but Finn is also, like, very, very good at taking on things that are tough and staying the course. And something that I really like. Building up a podcast is ultra, ultra hard, especially a podcast that doesn't cover, like, super spicy stuff. Like, we're not out here talking about totally, like, outrageous things and doing a bunch of clickbait and all that. I've watched how Finn does things and how he has just built this thing that it's, like, very unique and really stayed the course and did stuff that, like, people, I don't know, maybe criticize, but I think people are like, what's Finn doing? Like, why is he doing that? I know there's a lot of those conversations, like, why does. Why is he even wasting his time with that? And he's built something that I think is, like, not, I think I know is, like, super cool, super interesting, gives a lot of people joy, and that he's built, like, a really good living for himself and his family. I take a lot of inspiration from that. He really, like, created his own path in something, and it doesn't mean other people weren't doing it. There are obviously tons of content creators, but out of anyone I know, he is the guy that least allowed himself to be pushed and manipulated by trying to fit in with what everyone else thinks is cool and really just said, oh, I'm going to do this thing. And if you don't see it, that's okay, because either you'll see it eventually and you'll be like, hell, yeah, good for you, or you won't see it at all, and then it was never for you anyways. So, yeah, I'd say, fin McKinty, what.
[00:13:35] Speaker A: Will be the biggest change in your life when you retire, and how does it motivate you?
[00:13:39] Speaker B: The biggest change is I will very likely stop paying a ton of attention to what the whole political and social landscape is and will focus more on the things that I'm passionate about that matter to me, or that have more of a direct impact on my family. In the work that I do, I have to work with people who are literally from every walk of life because so much of what I do, although it is mostly at the C suite levels, the people in, uh, in those jobs are from all sorts of political backgrounds. They're from all sorts of economic backgrounds. They're from all sorts of different cultures, have all sorts of different experiences, and I have to pay a ton of attention to what's going on all over the place and being able to be in all sorts of conversations. Be super informed to be able to do that. I am constantly reading the news. I'm listening to a lot of podcasts. I do a lot of. I spend a lot of time focusing on just what's happening in all sorts of different corners of the world and in all sorts of different industries so that I can really just be in the conversation. And I don't mean like flex, like flex my knowledge, even to understand why someone is super upset about this very specific thing, I really need to understand what's all the architecture that's holding up that thing. What are the political things, what are the social things, what are the economic things, what's going on in that business. So I am constantly listening to or reading articles, listening to podcasts, listening to news and reading news. So when I'm retired and I don't have to have the complexity of knowledge or so when I'm retired and I don't have to have that amount of information in my mind for every single call that I have, I will certainly focus on, like, politics, what's going on in the world, what's going on in the environment, all those things. But I'll focus it more on a, like, what part can I play in, in helping things be good in this world in a more simple way? Uh, part of it's fun, like knowing, or part of it's fun having to spend as much time as I do on this stuff. Like, I love knowing things, and I love being able to be in the mix with people and have conversations at the same times. There are points in my life where I'm like, I look forward to knowing a little bit less and just focusing on the things that are a little bit more simple and to talk about. My man, Kyle Whitlow, seeking the simple. I look forward to seeking the simple when I'm a little bit older.
[00:16:16] Speaker A: We want to hear from you, our audience. To submit your questions, send us a message, drop us a dm or comment on our social channels.
