Business Innovators Radio - Interview with Jessper Maquindang, Owner of FamiLEAD Management Consulting

Episode Date: February 8, 2024

Jessper Maquindang (pronounced MAWK-WIN-DANG) is the owner of FamiLEAD Management Consulting, which helps leaders and managers build stronger teams. With over 12 years of experience improving the effectiveness and productivity of many teams, including American Ring Travel and Junior Chamber International, he enjoys finding ways to inspire collaboration and camaraderie. Despite growing up with asthma, Jessper has become a 12-time marathon runner.Learn more: http://www.famileadconsulting.com/Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saundershttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/influential-entrepreneurs-with-mike-saunders/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-jessper-maquindang-owner-of-familead-management-consulting

Welcome to influential entrepreneurs, bringing you interviews with elite business leaders and experts, sharing tips and strategies for elevating your business to the next level. Here's your host, Mike Saunders. Hello and welcome to this episode of Influential Entrepreneurs. This is Mike Saunders, the authority positioning coach. Today we have with us, Jesper McWindang, who's the owner of FAMA lead management consulting. Jesper, welcome to the program. Great to be here, Mike. I'm excited to join you today.

Yeah, I always love learning from people. And it just seems like no matter what industry that my guests are in, there's always something interesting that led them to that type of way that they served the client. So I'd love to hear your story and background. And then how did you get into the industry that you're in? Yes, absolutely. I'd like to share a quote from John Maxwell that has shared. shape the way I approached life. In his book, Make Today Count, he wrote, If what your learning can be used in some way to help and improve you or others,

then it is worth the effort. I've been actively absorbed in the world of leadership development for two decades. In college, I was taking on leadership roles and getting involved on campus. And when I started my career, I had the opportunity to apply what I've learned and bring that into the workplace. And throughout my career, I was leading teams, getting more opportunities to apply what I've learned, open up lines of communication, work with team members, and seeing how they can work more effectively. And then I went back to school to complete my executive master's degree. First reason is continuous improvement.

And the second reason is I wanted to further expand my understanding of how to build more effective individuals, how to build more effective teams, and how to build more effective communities. And over the years, I've read over 100 books in the field of personal and professional development. I've attended dozens of workshops and seminars. I've witnessed leadership in many forms, both good and bad. And I've learned from so many perspectives, insights, conversations. And as I've gained more and more experience, I've launched family and management to take the valuable lessons I've learned, along with the best practices, to help businesses build stronger teams. I love it. And I'm a big quote person as well. I love John Maxwell

and his work that he's done over the years. One thing that you mentioned about constantly learning reminded me of another point or quote that I'll throw back at you. And if you've heard it, wonderful, if not, that you can add this to your repertoire? But have you heard Tony Robbins teach about can I? C-A-N-I? That's very familiar. I may have to add it to my repertoire. Can you share more? Yeah, it stands for constant and never-ending improvement. And that's what you just described. And I think if we all can constantly and never-ending improve ourselves personally, professionally, financially, spiritually, physically, all of those ways. And then doing what the John Maxwell quote said is like now showing others.

And I would even venture to say that showing others doesn't necessarily even need to be in a monetization way. You can just serve up, show others just to serve them. And sometimes what you're learning will be helpful in like consulting and things like that. So I just love that mindset of constantly improving herself for the purpose of doing bigger and better and greater things to serve people that we're interacting with. Absolutely.

And I'm adding that to my repertoire. That statement from Tony Robbins. Excellent. Hey, so when you think about, you know, leadership and company culture, what are the first steps that you recommend and you work with your clients on to improve that company culture? Absolutely. I was listening to an earlier podcast episode when you interviewed John T. Terry, the Black Belt leader.

Oh, yeah. What resonated me the most during that interview was your discussion on purpose, calling, and passion. It was very valuable. And I would elevate that to, from my end, I would elevate that to the organizational level, that sense of purpose, calling, and passion. And we've all heard teamwork makes the dream work. Yeah. I would also flip that and say, dream work makes the teamwork.

I'll say that again, dream work makes the teamwork. And what does that mean? It means when you as an entrepreneur or business owner, you have that sense of mission that everyone can see, you'll be more likely to help them reach greater heights in your organization. So dream work makes the teamwork. I love that one. And I might be stealing that one as well. And it reminds me of kind of a classic push and pull.

You know, like in marketing, you know, you don't want to be pushing people and saying, bye, bye, bye, you want to be pulling them toward you by educating them. And what you, when you can teach your team how to create that dream, like you mentioned, their dream work, all of a sudden now, hey, guys, we're not just doing this thing or building this widget or doing this thing in our company. We are. And what's the vision and the mission? and you build that,

that excitement and that passion and enthusiasm, that ties into the dream. And then, of course, now when they're all aligned with that dream or mission, now then the teamwork kicks in to get there. Yes, absolutely. And this reminds me of Simon Seneca when he says start with why, when you give people that purpose and mission, that gets them to reach greater heights.

Yeah, it does. And, you know, I think that then probably part of your, work is what motivates one person does not motivate everybody. So, you know, when you learn someone's why, that might mean that, oh, let me reward their behavior with a raise. Well, that's wonderful, but sometimes people go, hey, I'd rather have more time off or I'd rather have more autonomy in the office or I'd rather have a better work environment and be able to work virtual some of the time. So I think that that ties in with learning your team to be able to learn what motivates them, to guide them to that why. And then doesn't that then lead to then that better culture?

Yes, that's correct. As human beings, we all have different needs. And then learning those different needs, once you understand what drives each individual person's behavior, you'll get a better understanding of how to motivate them to achieve greater things. So what happens if someone brings you in to work with their organization and you notice that maybe it's not a full on toxic culture, but it's heading that way? What do you do first when you notice that? Because you've got to address that. address it and then and then bring it to, you know, senior management's attention. Sure. And many times in a culture, we may notice these invisible things that might be happening. It might not be easily noticeable at first. But over time, you might see signs. For example, you might see employees putting less effort.

you might see employees calling in sick more often. What we want to do is have conversations with the employees to see what's going on. In an employee's life, it's more than just work. We also want to know, is there anything personal that's going on? And we want to involve managers and leaders into these conversations so they can get the full perspective of what an employee is going through. when employees feel listened to and recognize, they're going to be more likely to put in more effort and work because they feel appreciated for what they're going through in life.

And with the leaders and managers listening to their needs, they'll be in a better place to move forward. So those are some of the good things that I hear. What happens if you don't address a toxic culture? How bad can it get? What are some of those risks and dangers? it is like a domino effect. When one employee puts in less effort, maybe another employee will see that.

And then they'll start to realize that maybe efforts not being recognized or appreciated in the workplace. So what's the point of putting in that extra effort? And then that might affect and infect another employee. So we're seeing this downward spiral of employees putting a less effort. And when that happens over time, you'll start to see just a lower level of performance. You'll likely see higher levels of stress.

And of course, that's going to have an effect on the bottom line because when employees are not putting as much effort as they could, that's really leaving the workplace open to not making – the best decisions in having services and products, you know, in the best place for the customers, it doesn't feel like it's in the best interest of employees. Therefore, the customers and clients are going to feel that effect once it reaches them. So it has that toxic domino effect when a toxic company culture starts to fester across the workplace. Yeah. So it reminds me, I know you're, we've talked back and forth about, oh, this book and this quote and this thing. So you'll, you'll appreciate this.

And maybe you've heard it before as well. But I can envision here comes, um, this, this toxic culture that might not be horribly toxic, but it's, it's not perfect. And so you start working and you start working with the team and one or two people start making some changes for the better. And maybe it's, it's reminding me of what's called the crab mentality where here's all these crabs in this bowl and one starts climbing up. gets this claw up at the top, it starts to get out.

And the other crabs don't follow suit. They grab his leg and pull him back down. So what do you do when you're starting to change the company culture, one or two team members start doing good things, but then other people start going, you know, the opposite. Like, well, we should be doing the same thing. But nope, we're going to pull them back down. And I think that then enhance or can negatively enhance culture.

But what do you do when you're noticing that? Sure. In cases like that, sometimes it could be a sense of envy, jealousy, or that fear of being overshadowed. Nobody wants to feel like they're the lowest performers. So I noticed that low performers, in a specific case like this, they might bring down a high performer just to show, just to bring them back to that level. And in case like that, what we want to do is look for leadership activities that promote

better communication. That way, all employees have a chance to voice their concerns and issues, put it out on the table so everyone knows what's going on and how we can bring everyone up back together. And other ways to do that is coaching, especially from the leader and manager, not just the lower performing employees, but the higher performing employees. When managers and leaders take the time to speak to everyone that gives employees that opportunity and chance to really look within and see how they can move the organization forward together. Yeah, 100%. So when you're brought in to work with a company and you start implementing things, I'm sure you have multiple stages, but you can't start in all places at once because

that's overwhelmed. But what is your process when you start working with the firm and start rolling out some of the opportunities to change and improve? Absolutely. So it all starts with the leaders. Employees feel more empowered when the leader and manager has that buy-in for a company culture. What I'll do first is I'll have these discussions with leaders and managers to see if they can identify or pinpoint any noticeable items in the workplace that's of immediate concern.

and then I'll look for instant solutions to bring them up to speed. What I'll do next is provide an assessment, not just to the leaders and managers, but to the entire team. I'm a certified guide for the behavioral elements program. What that does is it gives us an understanding of what drives our behaviors, and it's based on the elements. Water, Earth, air, fire. And in this case, what the water is, these are the people who, are driven to bond. These are the people who are appreciating the relationships in the workplace, and they like to go with the, which they believe in the majority. Next, we have the earth element.

These are the people in the workplace who like to keep things organized. They want structure and process because they know when everything is in order. That makes everything more, just easier to find success. Next, we have fire where life is a competition. It's all about winning. If you give a fire a sales goal, they are absolutely determined to crush it. And lastly, we have air. And these are the people who are driven to creativity.

They like new ideas. They love learning. They love teaching. They love brainstorming. These are the people in the workplace who are just going to introduce new ideas. And depending on need, I am also a certified practitioner for by behaviors. So under that program, we will review the areas of trust, conflict, commitment, accountability, and results. And in addition, I'm also a certified consultant for human synergistics.

we have a suite of 360 degree leadership evaluations. So leaders and managers have a better perspective of what's working for them and what are opportunities where they can make a greater difference. And in addition to that, after all the assessments take place, I will organize team building and leadership development trainings. And what I do is I look for three qualities, activities that promote creativity, collaboration, and conversation where people are given an opportunity to share their thoughts after a leadership

activity and reflect on what they've learned. And then I will provide coaching to leaders to help them see what they can do next as they go along this journey and in the process, helping them become better coaches to their employees. Overall, my goal is to better equip leaders and managers to take their employees to greater Heights. You know, it's a, I love that process because you didn't hesitate. You've got it spelled out, laid out, and that's, that's wonderful. It made me think of something. So many times I think you can bring things to the senior leadership's attention. And they are just shocked and amazed because you see it because you're looking from the outside in. They didn't notice it as much because

it's like they're too close to see the forest because they're in the middle of the trees. So I think that's that third-party perspective really gives great clarity. Absolutely. And then I'd like to, speaking of company culture, I'd like to share the six most dangerous words in any company culture. And that is, we've always done it that way.

Oh, my. Yeah. Nobody ever says that anymore, huh? Remens me of Blockbuster, borders, a bookstore in Circuit City. They've turned, their times at their peak, they just haven't adapted to change. And it's made us realize in the business world that innovation is important.

And speak of innovation, I would encourage leaders and managers to talk to their employees and encourage them to bring new ideas for implementation. During a meeting, what leaders and managers can do is to ask what one thing can we do, can we do better next time? And when you give your employees that opportunity to share their ideas, you'll find more ways to innovate within your business. I love it. And I know that you will also tend to stay up on research.

So what are you seeing research-wise now on company culture? Because I'm certain that it's not something that stays the same decade after decade. That's true. According to a recent article from Gallup, they mentioned that companies with strong company cultures have seen a 85% net profit increase over a five-year period. So company culture does have a real impact on bottom line. And according to online job site Zipia, companies with strong cultures are 89% more likely to report high-coctur. customer satisfaction. When customers and clients see that your people are excited by their work, they'll be excited about your work as well. And according to research from Pricewaterhouse Coopers,

72% of senior management report that culture helps successful change initiatives happen. Change is hard. And if a company culture is toxic where there's low trust, people are less likely to be excited about change. But on the other hand, if everyone is talking to each other, getting a long ball with each other, change is a lot more likely to happen. I love it. And it's, I guess we'll just kind of wrap up with that thought we kind of mentioned

at the beginning, and constant and never-ending improvement. If you take that research to heart and go, change constantly happens, let's stay up with change in a positive way. Let's notice ways that we can motivate employees by noticing what their why is and making them want to be excited and that leads the team to greater heights. I think that is spectacular. So, Jasper, it's been such a treat to learn from you to see your decades of experience. If someone is interested in learning more and reaching out and connecting

with you, what's the best way that they can do that? Yes, you can visit my website at family consulting.com. F-A-A-A-Sulting.com. A-A-M-I-L-E-A-D consulting.com. Again, F-A-M-I-L-E-A-D-C consulting.com. And I'm always posting blog articles every week because I want to share ideas on how leaders and managers can find ways to really kick-start a new culture initiative in their workplace. Excellent. Well, Jester, thank you so much for coming on. It's been a real pleasure talking with you.

Thank you, Mike. It's been a pleasure to be on. You've been listening to Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saunders. To learn more about the resources mentioned on today's show or listen to past episodes, visit www.com.