EntreLeadership - How Constructive Criticism Leads to a Strong Team Culture with Kacy Maxwell and Will Guidara

Starting point is 00:00:05 On today's episode, we roll play how to have an uncomfortable conversation with a team member. And then we're going to talk about how to create a great team culture by taking care of your people so they take care of your customers. Welcome to the Entree Leadership Podcast from the Ramsey Network, where we help you learn the proven principles for winning as a business leader. I'm your host, George Camel, and each week here on the podcast, I sit down with some of the best leadership minds out there to help you grow yourself, your team, and your profits. I want to say a quick thanks to all of you who have been leaving us voicemails with feedback on the new segments we've been trying. Some of you really like it. I just want to let you guys know. I think it's great. And some of you, not so much.

Starting point is 00:00:47 I have to say, I thought I was going to like it and I actually did not. But hey, keep that feedback coming. We really appreciate it. So today we're trying out another new segment where we roll play. And I'll be joined by my friend Casey Maxwell, Executive Director of Marketing for Entree Leadership. We're going to roll play how to have a hard conversation with a team member who happens to be gossiping. So let me roll out the scenario for you. I'm talking about a problem with a guy named Tyler at lunch with a few other team members.

Starting point is 00:01:16 And my leader, who's played by Casey, has sent me a text that says stop by for 15 minutes this afternoon. Now Casey's been my leader for about six months now, but this is our first real hard conversation. So he's going to be using the uncomfortable conversation method that we've talked about on this podcast before. and we'll link to that episode in the show notes. And if you need to have a similar conversation, you can get the free download planning an uncomfortable conversation in the show notes as well. Let's get to it.

Starting point is 00:01:43 Hey, Casey, is now a good time? You text me, said you wanted to meet. Yeah, come on in, George. Have a seat. Yeah, what's going on, man? Yeah, hey, sorry for the last minute text. I just wanted to talk to you about something that I just kind of found out about. You can go ahead and shut the door.

Starting point is 00:01:58 Oh, sorry. Yeah. So how long have we been working together? Uh, six months now? Yeah, yeah. So we, we've never really had a conversation that, I guess I would call an uncomfortable conversation. So one that I'm giving you some feedback.

Starting point is 00:02:13 So because we've never done this before, I just kind of want to let you know how I, how I handle these, okay? Oh, okay. Yeah. So, uh, the first thing is I'm going to give you some feedback and you're, you're probably going to get a little defensive. Um, but I want to let you know, like, you're, you're not going to get fired. This is a really important thing that I want to talk to you about, but it's not to that level.

Starting point is 00:02:37 So you can, yeah, so we can calm down about that. The main thing I want to hit is I just want to make sure that my expectations of you are clear so that when we get into this situation in the future, we're both on the same page. It's not going to be a long conversation. It should be relatively quick. Does that make sense? Okay. Okay.

Starting point is 00:02:57 What's going on? I don't understand. Do I do something? or well so so yeah i would love to know i kind of heard from a couple team members they shared that you and tyler were having a disagreement is that right i mean not really we were just talking at lunch i don't think it was a disagreement necessarily well i'd let could you share with me some of the some of the things that are going on with you and him um i mean we were working on a project together i think we were kind of stepping on each other's toes a little bit it really

Starting point is 00:03:26 was not that big of a deal but i was just telling you know some friends at lunch what's going on at work, projects I'm working on, kind of some challenges I've been having, and that was part of it. Yeah. I didn't think it was that big of a deal, though. They, like, brought it to you? Sure. Well, was Tyler there at the lunch?

Starting point is 00:03:41 No. Okay. So some of the feedback that I got is not that the actual disagreement that you had with Tyler is really the issue. That's actually something that I would love to talk about in our one-on-one, maybe this week. But the fact that you were bringing it. up in a setting where, first of all, Tyler wasn't, he wasn't even there. And secondly, all of the people that were at that lunch table were not involved in this disagreement, right? So you brought them into a disagreement. And that's actually what we consider gossip. Oh, I mean, I don't think

Starting point is 00:04:19 I was gossiping. That feels like a stretch to say that. Well, you know, we have a core value of gossip, right? No, yeah, no gossip policy. Yes, yes. Well, how we define, Gossip is actually talking about a problem with anybody that can't actually help you fix it. Okay. So of all of those people that were at lunch, could any of those people help you fix this problem that you were working on? I mean, not really. It's just kind of what, you know, it's what happens with friends. You kind of just vent a little bit and have some lunch and move on with your day. Yeah. Yeah. But do you know what actually happens when you're doing that? the fact that Tyler wasn't there, right? You're starting to set a precedent in the team that whenever

Starting point is 00:05:03 anybody has a disagreement, they can go talk about it with anybody else on the team. And what that does is that starts eroding the unity and the trust that we have. And so we really want to make sure that you understand that I know it seems kind of like, oh, not a big deal. Oh, I was just sharing this with friends. But it actually really is a big deal. That's actually something that I, I I want you to bring to me as your leader so that we can discuss it because if you and I talk about this, I can help you figure out ways to solve this, whether it's you and I talking about it and you go and solving it or bringing Tyler in and have those type of conversations. Like, is there a reason you've never brought that up in any of our one-on-ones?

Starting point is 00:05:44 I mean, honestly, I just know you're so busy and half our one-on-ones have to get rescheduled because a fire comes up. And so when we meet, it's all business. It's just tactical. here's what's going on, is the project, you know, are we on track? What's the numbers? What's the results? And so I haven't really felt like it was that kind of dynamic to where I'm bringing you menial little problems. I didn't want to bring you into the drama. I know you got a lot going on. Yeah. I mean, I appreciate that. I really do. I honestly, that's on me. I mean, I'm a, I love winning. You know, you've been on this team for six months. I love hard charging. I love, you know, hitting goals and doing all of that. And sometimes I, I can put blinders on and just be so focused on the stuff that you're doing that I don't ask what's going on. What are those frustrations? I don't give you a place that you're able to vent. So, first of all, I apologize for that. That's not the type of environment that I want to create.

Starting point is 00:06:41 I want to make sure that you know that you can come to me anytime and talk about this stuff. If you want to vent, if you want to just talk about frustrations or things that are going on, please bring that into me. And I'll commit to you to make sure to, hey, I'm going to bring this up. I'll make sure to ask questions. I'll slow down and I'll make sure that I'm not rescheduling our one-on-ones because they are really important to me. I appreciate that.

Starting point is 00:07:04 Thanks, man. So does that make sense when I was talking about gossip? Like, I know that you kind of, the way that you see it, and a lot of the ways that people think about gossip, they think, oh, I'm just venting, I'm just telling them with the team. But do you understand why that's so important to me in this team? Yeah, no, I understand that. Okay.

Starting point is 00:07:24 I didn't see in that light, but I understand how that could create some dissension among the team and break that unity that we're trying to build. So I get it. Awesome. So like we said it's a very important thing. And again, because I wasn't clear on expectations, this is not something that is, hey, we're going to hold this against you forever, right? This is something that now, hey, oh, George is a gossip. That's not what it is. But I also want to be very, very clear that now that we've set these expectations, If we have this conversation again, it's going to go very, very differently and there's going to be a very different outcome. That's why we have no gossip as a core value, right? It's a very big deal to us. Does that make sense?

Starting point is 00:08:07 So the next steps, let's talk about this in our one-on-one. We'll make sure to dig in and we can figure out, should we bring in Tyler, and we can handle that together. I know this was uncomfortable. I know it was kind of weird. I really appreciate the way this. that you took this feedback. I think that you're a really important member of this team. And honestly, one of the reasons that I'm willing to have this conversation with you is because I know you're going to do great things at this company. And I want to set you up and set up your personal brand here so that you can actually win.

Starting point is 00:08:42 So let's talk about this again in our one-on-one. After you've kind of had time to process this, I know this was kind of dropped on you. But take some time, think about it. If anything felt off or weird or, you know, like you still had more. more questions, we can talk about it then. Sound good? Cool, man. Thanks. Awesome. I appreciate you, George. You too, man. Do you want to leave the door open? Yeah, you can leave it open. Awesome. Big thanks to Casey for having a little fun with us and role-playing to help you all have those uncomfortable conversations. So, what did you think about this new segment? Did you like it? Did you not like it?

Starting point is 00:09:15 Call and leave us a voicemail at 844-944-1070. 844-944-10-10. Looking forward to your feedback. All right, coming up next, how to create a great team culture by taking care of your people so they take care of your customers. That's coming up right after this. Welcome back. Coming up, I'm joined by Will Godera. He was a speaker at our Entree Leadership Summit event this year with an incredible talk on unreasonable hospitality. And he's got a book with the same title coming out that we are so, so excited about. Will is the former co-owner of Make It Nice, which is a hospitality group that included 11 Madison Park, the Nomad Restaurants, Davies and Brooke at the Clerges Hotel and Made Nice.

Starting point is 00:10:04 He's also the co-founder of the Welcome Conference and a founding member of the Independent Restaurant Coalition. Now, at Entree Leadership, we coach and teach business leaders the importance of a company culture. You've got to build and protect it by taking care of your team. So we're excited to have Will on to give us tactical ways we can create that culture and impact our customers. So let's get to it. Here's our conversation. Will, it is so great to have you on the Entree Leadership podcast. How are you? I'm doing really well, man. Thanks for having me. Well, I loved your Entree Leadership Summit talk. You were a fan favorite at our event earlier this year in Orlando, and we're pumped that you're back here on the podcast to talk about a similar topic. You had a talk on unreasonable hospitality, and a lot of that is focused around team culture. And through that, you became the number one restaurant in the world, a mind-blowing achievement. And you share an incredible story in that talk. But I want to focus first.

Starting point is 00:11:01 on your guilty pleasure fast food. Before we get into the meat here, is there like a trashy fast food place here? Like, this is just what my go-to is. I mean, I'm not sure how trashy it is. My go-to is in-out burger when any time I'm in California. That's classy.

Starting point is 00:11:16 That's classy. That's probably not trashy enough. If I'm getting real trashy, so my wife and my one of our favorite date nights is going to Taco Bell, buying a bunch of Taco Bell, and smuggling it into the movie theater to watch any movie that's just come out featuring The Rock.

Starting point is 00:11:34 And that's like one of our guilty pleasures. We eat Taco Bell in the movie theater. And it's funny because one year on our, actually on our first anniversary, I had the guys in my kitchen make kind of a fancy fine dining riff on Taco Bill. And I posted a picture of my wife eating whatever it was, like a cheese. CORDIDA Supreme or something, but it was made by a bunch of four-star chefs. And the executive chef of Taco Bell DM'd me on Instagram after I posted that. Oh my gosh.

Starting point is 00:12:12 And invited my wife and I to take over the corporate kitchen at Taco Bell, where we just spent an hour making whatever we wanted in the kitchen and ate quite a bit of Taco Bell. So that made it maybe less trashy, but, well, I think that's my answer. Wow. That's an incredible experience. I love that. No surprise there that you would somehow wander into the corporate kitchen there and they'd just give you free reign when you're when you're at the spot you are. So, well, let's let's talk about team culture. A lot of what you talk about with hospitality and kindness and generosity. Obviously it affects the customers, which is what we're here for, but it also affects the team. So why do you, what do you think makes up a great team culture if you had to sum it up? Well, yeah, I would go so far as to say you start with the team because if you're not investing that same amount of energy into your team, your chances of succeeding in delivering any sort of reasonable level of service or hospitality to the guest is, well, you're not going to succeed.

Starting point is 00:13:13 Right. Like, I can only touch so many tables in the restaurants, right? I need to make sure I'm investing in my team such that they're doing what I would be doing with the tables if I were there. I think there's two things in no particular order. I think the first thing that's so important in any culture is normalizing feedback, both praise and criticism. Identifying the power of praise, right? I think when people do a good job, getting your entire team to understand how important it is to consistently catch people doing things right and celebrate them, and with emotion, because praise is addictive the moment you get it. That's the same moment.

Starting point is 00:14:01 You want to get more of it. But criticism is as important, if not more important. One of the things I say is praise is affirmation, but criticism is investment. And when I say normalize a culture of feedback, it's getting your entire team to not get defensive when they are criticized, but rather to understand that when someone on the team takes the time to criticize, them, that's actually the most profound way that that person could possibly invest in that person's growth. So creating a culture where feedback, positive and constructive, is delivered consistently and creating a culture where people are welcoming of criticism and not just a praise. I think the second thing is building a culture of collaboration, though.

Starting point is 00:14:50 And I think that's perhaps the most important thing. Creating an environment and building the systems such that every single person on the team has an opportunity to speak into the direction you're going, giving people that sense of ownership, giving them the ability not just to be in a position where they're executing someone else's vision, but where they're able to influence where you're going based on their own ideas and their own creativity. The moment that people on your team feel a sense of ownership in where you're going, they're going to work that much harder to help you get there. And, man, I don't know of any organization where the collective brainpower and creativity of the entire group isn't dramatically greater than that of the one, two,

Starting point is 00:15:39 three, four, ten, twenty people at the top. Wow, that's powerful. And I heard you say, you know, criticize in private without emotion and praise publicly with emotion. And that is powerful for growth along with collaboration and creating the right systems and empowering your teams and giving them the resources to run. And that's where people thrive. And you can see them enjoy their work. And that affects the end product and the customer. And so there's a direct correlation there that you can't have one without the other. No, especially if you're if you're inviting everyone on the team to the table, so to speak, in whatever capacity you choose to, you also need to make sure that you're investing enough in their professional growth.

Starting point is 00:16:20 such that they're well equipped to be at that table. The two definitively go hand in hand. So how do you specifically do this in the restaurant industry? Because that's a high turnover, volatile industry. It went through a lot during the pandemic, and you were one of the folks on the front lines fighting for these small businesses, for these restaurants. How do you do that in the restaurant industry

Starting point is 00:16:43 with so much turnover and everyone, they're going to go to the next restaurant over there if there's any more room for growth and one more dollar? You know, I think people, I think being good leader is obviously having the confidence and the conviction to say to your team, this is where we're going. And for a long time, that's all that was expected of a good leader, right? Like, people were just looking to follow the person that was able to say, we're going there because I do believe people crave leadership. But at some point over the last 30 years, people aren't satisfied with that alone. They also need to understand, like, why they're going there.

Starting point is 00:17:18 They need to have a really good sense of understanding of not just where they're going, but why should they be inspired and compelled to want to follow you? I think there's nuanced ways to inspire collaboration and collective creativity, which is just making sure that you encourage people, that you share, your doors are always open, and then that the first time someone comes to you with an idea, you handle it in the right way, because that first time you can either extinguish that flame and they are very hard to light once you have. Or you can still get to the point that it becomes a bonfire.

Starting point is 00:17:55 But I think there's systems you can set up. Every year, for the first day of the year, some years it was the first couple days of the year, we would close our restaurant and we would do a strategic planning meeting. Now, to the point of telling people why they should follow you, we had our mission statement. And the mission statement changed a couple times over the 15 or so years I was there. But every year we had our vision statement.

Starting point is 00:18:18 So this is what we want to accomplish this year. And then we'd have three strategies, the things that we wanted to focus on to help us accomplish that. And then the entire day, or two days or three days, depending on the year, would be the team coming with specific and actionable ideas to help us with those strategies, accomplish that vision. And the ideas that came out of those meetings were some of the ideas that I really, believe took us to the top. And so, okay, that's a system, right? You are investing time and money. It costs money to close your business to the public. You are giving people a sense of ownership and where you're going. And in response to that, you're getting great ideas and you're getting people who feel much more connected to your mission because they had a hand in writing it.

Starting point is 00:19:13 The last part, which I've seen some people adopt the strategy, but miss this last thing. thing, which is so, so important, is to make sure when someone on your team has an idea and it's good enough to put into effect, you need to make sure you shine a light on those people and celebrate them like crazy for being the person that helped move you forward. It's important to bring people at the table. It's important to mind their creativity. It's perhaps the most important to give them all the credit when they do. Recognition is huge there. And I remember you in talking about how the busboys and the food runners had some of the best ideas to get to the number one restaurant in the world, which is where you guys ended up. And it just reminded me to not rely just on your executive leadership team,

Starting point is 00:20:00 but to invite the team in, to empower them, and then to give them that recognition when there is a great idea and when it's implemented. So that's such great reminders, and you've lived this out for many, many years. Well, yeah, listen, you come up with ideas that are focused on one of two things, either the experience you're given to the guest or the experience you're giving to the team, right? No matter how good I am at what I do, there's going to be some surprising ideas that come around how we can craft a better experience for the guest. But the experience we give to the team, there's no one better suited than a busboy to come up with a new idea on how we can be a higher functioning team, either in how we're taking care of them or in the systems that are established that they can thrive more effectively in their role. than them. They're certainly more well equipped to do that than I am. I think a lot of the time people get to a certain level in the hierarchy, and they're so excited to finally have responsibility that they

Starting point is 00:20:58 don't want to share it. Having the confidence to recognize that even when you're the boss, the people that work for you might have better ideas than you do, I think that's a dramatic secret to success. Yeah, you've got to swallow your pride there. It admits that, that the team may have some great ideas, and I'm not the savior here. That's huge. Or rather than swallowing your pride, I actually feel proud of the fact that you hired such amazing people that they have that much to contribute. You know? That's huge. Yeah. That's the part of the, one of the hardest parts as a business owner is hiring people who are really talented, who care deeply. And sometimes they're going to be more talented

Starting point is 00:21:42 than you are in a lot of areas. And so that's a good thing that you should be proud of, for sure. So in your book, releasing tomorrow as of the date of this episode, you've got this great story about the time your dad told you about corporate smart versus restaurant smart. What was that about? Yeah, and this, by the way, does not apply just to restaurants. I think it applies to all businesses. So I worked for a guy named Danny Meyer,

Starting point is 00:22:12 who's one of the great restaurateurs in America, and he's grown his company to the point where it's a very big company, but when I worked for him, there were only four restaurants. And I loved my job there, but my dad effectively made me quit to go work for a company called Restaurant Associates, a big, big company. And the reason he did was because of this exact thing that you're bringing up. He said that Danny's company was restaurant smart, and he wanted me to learn from a company that was corporate smart in hopes that one day I could build a company that was both restaurant and corporate smart. the distinction between those two things he would describe is where the highest paid people worked were they in the restaurants themselves or were they at the corporate level because where the

Starting point is 00:22:58 highest people work dictates a lot about what the company is and really it's a conversation around control versus creativity in a restaurant smart company the restaurants are dynamic collaborative creative environments where when you go there to dinner, there's exciting things happening on the menu. There's exciting things happening with service because the people making the decisions that impact your experience are there. They're the ones delivering it to you. I talk about feeling that sense of ownership. They don't have like bumpers in a bowling alley. They can color outside of the lines and they can do what feels right. And they know better than anyone what feels right because they're there serving their guests. That said, because there's no corporate oversight, there are no controls, and those businesses end up being a lot less profitable. On the corporate smart side, there's high-functioning accounting, HR purchasing departments who can really streamline the operations and build in the kind of operational efficiencies that make those businesses great businesses.

Starting point is 00:24:06 And the thing I learned doing both is, A, my gosh, there is unbelievable tension between control. and creativity. But both of those things are required if you want to do something of significance. Because at the end of the day, the more profitable a business is, the better it can be because it has more resources to invest in making the experience great. And at the same time, empowering the people on the front line to actually come up with their own ideas and feel the sense of empowerment and autonomy, that they've really owned the experience. It results in them giving much more of themselves to it. Understanding that those are both important, understanding that there will always be tension between them, it's about leaning in and embracing that tension and really working hard to thread

Starting point is 00:25:03 the needle. Yeah, and you've done that well, creating those systems, but still empowering your team to have that creativity, to go rogue within that, and that's what creates some magic there. That's awesome. So when it comes to team culture, one of the keys here, and you've mentioned this, is people want to feel seen. They want to feel known. And one of the ways you do that is the leader finds their strengths. And I put them on the right seats on the bus. And that's one of our principals here at Entree leadership. Tell me a story of one time you found the strengths of a team member, and maybe you thought they were the wrong person for the role or you moved into the right seat on the bus. Yeah, this is another lesson from my dad.

Starting point is 00:25:44 He had his own platoon in Vietnam, and then he went on to run restaurants. And he would always talk about how building a team and a business is easy because you get to choose who you're hiring. You get to choose who you're firing. And most of the time, people are choosing to be there. Whereas in Vietnam, no one wanted to be there. You weren't picking your team, and you couldn't fire anyone. And so you had no choice.

Starting point is 00:26:12 You had to make the most of every single person. on your team. And it's a good place to start when you're running any organization before you just decide to turn your back on someone and ask them to leave. I mean, man, that happened all the time. You know, the one that comes to mind, I think I wrote about him in the book, was this one guy who was a food runner. And at a restaurant like a live in Madison Park, a food runner needs to know every single thing about every ingredient on the plate that's being brought to the guest, right? They need to know where that vinegar is from and how long it was aged and what was the name of the woman that raised to the goats that made the goat cheese and what is this wine? Where is it from?

Starting point is 00:26:57 What's the terroir? Is it cold? You know, all this stuff, right? They need to know all that stuff not because we're telling everyone everything, but because you need to be ready with that information of the event. Someone asks or if you're present enough with them to recognize that that's something they'd want to know. this guy was not a good student or he just didn't care enough to do the work because every time we do one of these tests he did poorly but i just always saw something in him i think any leader can relate to this someone who's not thriving in their role but there's something about them that you just believe in and you don't want to say goodbye it turned out he was just a good leader of people and he was organized beyond anyone else in the team. There's a very, very important position in a restaurant.

Starting point is 00:27:46 It's called The Expeditor. They are the person. They're like air traffic control between the kitchen and the dining room. They're the ones when the kitchen puts out a bunch of plates. They're the ones that tell the people where to bring the plates, who's getting what, da-da-da-da-da, in what order it needs to happen.

Starting point is 00:28:00 In a busy restaurant, when your food takes way too long, many times it's the expeditor's fault. And so we moved this guy from a mediocre food runner and gave him a shot at being the expeditor, one of the hardest positions in the restaurant, and he became one of the best expeditors I'd ever seen. I was only able to figure that out because I believed in him enough to spend time with him when he wasn't succeeding. Like real time. Sit down, have a coffee, try to understand who he was, why he wasn't succeeding,

Starting point is 00:28:34 what kind of filled his gas tank. and then with that, we're able to refocus him into a position that dramatically helped us find success. And that just points back to being a healthy leader and having the bandwidth and not being so scattered that you can actually zoom in on that one person and give them the time they need that they deserve to find the right seat for them, to figure out what's actually going on instead of just blaming them. and instead looking in the mirror and pointing it back at you and saying, I haven't taken the right time to figure this out. So I love how that trickles down from the leader to the team culture, down to a great experience for the customer, which then leads to amazing business results,

Starting point is 00:29:18 and it just keeps going and going. Well, yeah, by the way, oftentimes leaders are scattered because they haven't slowed down for long enough to actually do the work necessary such that they don't have to be scattered anymore. Like, sometimes we just need, to say, okay, stop everything. Let me take a breath and figure out how to re-stratage a little bit here.

Starting point is 00:29:41 Because when a leader never has time to do anything, it's an unsustainable approach. And if you, listening to this, if you're that person, I guarantee you, if you can press pause for long enough to see the forest through the trees, you will find opportunities to make your life easier by investing in the people you already have on your team. I can't believe this podcast is free. You're dropping so much gold here for us. I appreciate that. As we wrap here,

Starting point is 00:30:11 this is amazing. We should charge for this. So as we wrap, give us some of the best advice you've received about creating a great team culture. And I know a lot of this stems from your dad. What is the one that you've implemented that you went, oh my gosh, that was a game changer immediately?

Starting point is 00:30:27 I mean, there's a lot, right? So picking one is hard. You know, one of the things I find myself telling telling leaders is just about the power of being vulnerable with their teams. I think so many leaders believe that to create a good team culture, they need to almost look like superheroes in front of their teams. They need to present themselves as perfect in order for their teams to look up to them. And by the way, like, okay, the best way to have a great team culture is to have a great leader.

Starting point is 00:30:57 Right? So it all starts with that. But there's something so inherently flawed about a leader. or feeling they need to be perfect in order to earn respect. Because respect doesn't come without trust. And here's the reality. And I work in a very human organization, right? We are a ton of human beings serving other human beings.

Starting point is 00:31:19 And if I've learned anything, is that human beings are inherently imperfect. Everyone I know, if they're being honest, they're like, I have so many imperfections. And when someone else tries to present themselves as perfect, you don't trust them because we know no one's perfect. And unless you trust the person you're working for, you can't respect them. And if you don't respect your leader, there is zero chance of the team culture being good. But I think the other thing that I've found, and it kind of goes back to normalizing feedback, is when a leader thinks that they need to present themselves as perfect, they try to hide when

Starting point is 00:32:01 they've made a mistake. And so they make a mistake because we all make mistakes and leaders make plenty of mistakes. And they think they're going to lose the respect of their team if they acknowledge the mistake. But that couldn't be less true and the opposite could not be more true. Because the moment a leader stands up in front of their entire team and says, I am sorry, I did this wrong. This is what I've learned from my mistake. and I will do better by you the next time around. It can transform a culture.

Starting point is 00:32:37 Because if feedback is everything, the team will always be much more likely to receive criticism from you when you're just as willing to stand up and criticize yourself. And so I think just leaders allowing themselves to be fully human, to not try to hide our flaws,

Starting point is 00:32:59 to be vulnerable, and have the confidence and the strength to say, I'm sorry, when we fall short, I think can transform an organization. So powerful. Will, we are so proud of everything you've accomplished. You deserve every ounce of it. And we're so excited for your new book, Unreasonable Hospitality. We scratched the surface today. And I think a lot of leaders listening need to go pick up that book to get more gold that you've dropped today. So thank you so much for your time. It was an honor to have you on the podcast. Thank you, man. I'm just such a big fan of that entire community, and it was an honor to be here. Big thanks to Will Goddara for joining us. What an incredible story and so much wisdom. Well, folks, we are ramping up for Entree Leadership Summit, 2023, and if you haven't heard, we've got some big news. Malcolm Gladwell has officially joined the lineup. Malcolm is a five-time New York Times best-selling author and one of foreign policy's top global thinkers.

Starting point is 00:33:59 So if you want to hear Malcolm and the rest of our incredible lineup, speakers like Dr. Dr. Jordan Peterson, Dr. Amy Cuddy, Dave Ramsey, and so many more than you've got to get your tickets now. It's all happening right here on our hometown, Nashville, Tennessee, May 30th through June 2nd. So go to ontraeleadership.com slash summit to secure your spot. If you enjoyed today's episode of the show, follow or subscribe and leave us a review wherever you're listening. And if you want to do us one better, share this episode with your team, with your friends, or on social media. You can always follow us on social at Entree Leadership. This episode was produced by Tim Hull, edited by Jacob Harrison, and mixed and mastered by Will Rudder.

Starting point is 00:34:37 I'm your host, George Camel, and on behalf of the entire Entire Leadership team, thanks for listening. Until next time, keep learning and keep leading.

EntreLeadership - How Constructive Criticism Leads to a Strong Team Culture with Kacy Maxwell and Will Guidara

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