EntreLeadership - Your Team Needs to Hear From *You*

Episode Date: April 3, 2020

Tune in to hear Daniel Tardy and Suzanne Simms respond to some business owners' fears around Coronavirus.   Get access to the EntreLeadership Weekly Report Tool, FREE, for you and your team for 3 months: Text TEAMHEALTH to 33444 or visit entreleadership.com/weekly-report   Follow us on social media to stay plugged in to everything we’re doing to help the small business owner win: LinkedIn Instagram Facebook Twitter YouTube Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey, this is Alex. I think we all know that times are a little bit wild and crazy right now. And I think one of the things that makes it so crazy is that everything is changing so fast. But here's the deal. The last thing you want to do as a leader is keep your eyes glued to CNN and Fox News. I just don't think that's good for your sanity. So we wanted to make sure that we were providing you with the most up-to-date information with regard to how we are handling this whole situation at Ramsey Solutions, but also how we see small business owners around the country winning and leading in this time. So every day, we're committed to bring you action-oriented, practical, positive content that can help you move your business forward. So here's today's bonus episode with Daniel Tarty and one of our Ramsey board members, Suzanne Sims. Hey, guys, Daniel Tarty with Entree leadership and Ramsey Solutions. And as you know by now, we're coming to you a lot. We broke our format up and the whole format of the country has been broken up. And so we're just adapting and doing our best to come to you in real time with information on how our leadership team is leading right now.

And today I'm joined by Suzanne Sims. Suzanne is our senior executive vice president of our business to consumer division. I've been with Ramsey for almost 20 years. She's a dear friend and an incredible leader. And Suzanne, we've been in a battle. It's been wild. Yes. When this first started to unfold a week or two ago for you, what was kind of your, I think at first we were all like, this isn't going to get this real. When was that moment when you were like, oh, this is not business as usual? It was when a group of us were in New York City for a big event we were doing, which turned out to not be such a big event. We were surprised at how many people did show up, but it was right at the bubble before everything went crazy. It was right when people, but Times Square was a ghost town, and it was weird.

And that's when I was like, okay, I want to get on the next plane out of New York City and let's go now because it did feel very, very strange. So our company, I guess it was kind of weird too because a lot of us were on spring break. And then we came in Monday, gosh, was it Monday this week. Yeah, you were like on a beach in Cancun. You were clueless. I was a little bit out of touch. No, I was watching stuff going on. and I was worried about getting out of Mexico.

They were talking about clothes in the country. And I mean, regardless of where you've been in the last few weeks, like everyone has had this story of what is really going to go on. And what we know for sure is we no longer know anything for sure, right? So Monday morning, we come in and we kind of scrap our regular agenda board meeting. And we just said, what's important right now? And we identified some objectives around getting some revenue up, saving some expenses. And, you know, one of the key things that we realized also is our communication with the team right now is at a premium.

It always matters. Communication is so important. We teach that non-tri leadership. But you had that urge early. Like, guys, we've got to figure out how we're going to communicate. Well, and I didn't even have the urge as early as some folks did because I went through a phase of denial and just being irritated. I don't like disruption. I like my routines.

I like to know what's going on. And so when things started getting disrupted, I spent some time just being annoyed and trying to pretend like it wasn't happening. But then I did start to feel the urgency. And to me, I think one of the most important things to call out is that if you are a business owner or you are the head honcho, your team needs to hear from you. And if they haven't been, that needs to change today. This is crucial because you can't overdelegate communication in times like this. If you are the big geez, like you can't. It's okay if other leaders communicate within your business or organization, but if you're

the guy or the girl who's leading the way, your team needs to hear from you. And so if you're like me and everybody is working from home and you hate technology and it's very overwhelming to you, get over. it. Plug in where your team is from a technology standpoint. Get out of the fetal position, put the thumb away, and start communicating to your team. So what does that look like practically? I mean, it's probably more than a weekly update.

Is it every hour? Are you texting your FaceTime? Like, is it just throw everything at it and hope for the best? I think it depends on what the rhythms are for your team. I mean, every team is different. And you may make it up every day. It may be different every day. We're trying here not to overwhelm our leaders to let them have enough rope to do what they need to do.

Like, I'm not bug it. I have six direct reports, and I'm not bugging them nonstop. But see, today's Friday, yesterday morning, we've been at home for over a week or so. Yesterday morning, I emailed each of them and I said, I want you to send me an email just by the end of the day to day. And I want you to answer these questions. Number one, what are the top two to three things that you are working on right now? Number two, what are the top two to three challenges you face right now and how can I help? And number three, how's your team doing?

Who is really killing it right now and who's really struggling and why are they struggling? I love this. So top two or three things you're working on, challenges and your team. Yeah. So what's your goal with those questions? What are you hoping to get out of that? Well, to me, when I sent the email, I was like, I just want to hear from my guys. I can't get face to face with them right now, but I want to know what's going on with them.

My guys all have a lot of rope. They're very competent leaders. There's not a ton of approval going on. They each have pretty direct access to our operating board and to Dave. And so I sometimes have to struggle to be in the loop on things, which is an ongoing conversation. But I just wanted to know what was going on. Well, when they started emailing me back with those answers, I was like, wow. to hear about some team members that were struggling or to hear about some of the challenges they were facing that they hadn't thought to tell me about, I was able to help with some of it.

And I thought to myself, if I hadn't asked that question, like I wouldn't know. They'd never known. And I need to know this stuff. And I wouldn't, I don't want that every day from them. Maybe once a week. I don't know. But you have to make it up as you go is the key. I think if you try to get too legalistic and too.

routine driven right now, which a lot of us like to do. Would you say go with your gut? Like listen to your heart, listen to your gut? Is that kind of the... That's why you're a leader. You wouldn't be in this position if you didn't have the right gut, at least most of the time. So it sounds like you're saying there's not a template. No. Right? It's what's in your heart, what's in your brain. And that's why you're a leader. Show up. And to that point, if being authentic and being vulnerable with them, especially at a time like this, is huge. huge. So if you are that business leader that I was talking to a while ago who hasn't been communicating well with your team, and maybe you're starting to sense there's a little bit of paralysis because they're stuck, you're stuck. It's kind of like, what do we do? Today's the day you have to fix that. And what you do is get in a communication with them, whether that's video conference, whatever that means, and just tell them, I've been afraid.

I've been afraid. I've been concerned. I've been annoyed. I've been angry. If you own a business and you're not afraid right now, something's wrong with you. You've got to have a little bit of fear. So just tell the team and say, but guys, today I'm going to start communicating better with you. And I'm sorry, I haven't been so far, but here's what I'm going to start doing. Here's the rhythm in which you're going to hear from me over the next few days. And here's how you can ask me questions. Just put it out there. I think that would be tremendously important because they're all feeling fear. What do you think that does for a team? There's kind of this misnomer. out there that to be a great leader means that you're right or that you've been right.

Yeah. Or you feel like you have to be. When you say you're sorry, you're kind of going, I've been wrong on something. I've let you down. What does that do for a team? It builds trust. It fast paces the ability to build trust, especially in a time like this. My leader is, A, a real human being, and B is leading me. Because everybody wants someone they can look up to right now. And I think what I've been telling leaders is you need to have outlets right now. Hopefully your spouse is one

that you can just be real with. You can vent, have some fearful moments, shed some tears. You also need a peer or a friend outside of your spouse that you can do that with. Get it out. Be real. Deal with your fear.

And then put your big boy bridges, your big girl bridges on and show strength for your team. I mean, that's really important. And like you need an outlet, but you also have to be strong for your team. Yeah. If you don't have that, or if you haven't had the pattern of doing that with somebody, there probably is someone that you know.

I've been doing that with several people in this season. And in fact, a mutual friend of ours that doesn't work here, a local business owner, I called him to check in and say, hey, how's your business? And we ended up just kind of having this great hour-long phone call the other night where we both were really processing, like, here's what I've been worried about, and here's how I'm kind of handling it. And we didn't necessarily come up with a bunch of magic answers. But afterwards, I think we both felt a lot more bold and ready for whatever we needed to do because we weren't alone in that thing.

Giving each other permission to just deal with this very real crazy thing that's going on. So we're talking about communication. We're talking about being real with your team. Talk to that leader right now who is really anticipating that the plans looking forward are really looking a lot worse than they were a month ago, including maybe laying people off, losing customers, not making budget, maybe even having to make some really hard decisions. If I'm already anticipating that or I'm in the middle of that, how do I share some of that with the team where I want to keep the team moving forward and maximizing our new current reality? I don't want them to panic so much that they all eject emotionally or in a real sense. But also, they got to know what's going on.

That's a real tension, isn't it? Yes. We tend to overshare here at Ramsey Solutions. Dave has set the tone of that for almost 30 years. And so we lean on that side of the equation. We want to share with the team as much as possible so that they trust us. And they don't feel like we're ever hiding things from us. Now, there's risk to that. I have a tendency to be more optimistic versus pessimistic.

So when I overshare, it's going to have more of a positive tone to it. And the way I'm addressing this, if I'm a business owner right now, is two ways, like what we've been doing. One is, what are some quick wins with revenue that we as an organization can come up with that we haven't done before that take advantage of what's going on right now in a good way? Not taking advantage of people. Right, right, right. But what are some services or goods you can deeply discount or give away for free as you build new? relationships, gain new customers by doing that, and then start to see revenue. Right. Yeah, but I'm trying to be specific because you cannot apologize right now for asking for money from people, for goods and services, because, listen, everyone's inbox is inundated right now with deeply discounted goods from Target, the gap.

Your business deserves people's money as much as those retailers do. So don't apologize. deeply discount things so that you're taking care of people, but go take care of people. And what can you do so that you're gaining new customers during this time that will be quick, quick revenue for you? And then what are some expenses? Like, get your team thinking about these things because they have to deal with the reality, but they can also help to potentially not have to be laid off. I love that you're saying this because there's this really toxic message right now in the media. that businesses who are still making a profit or selling things, that somehow it's an evil. You know, capitalism is greedy and all about making the bottom line bigger for the owner.

And, you know, you really find out that businesses, they provide goods. And listen to that word goods and serve. Good and serve. Goods and services. And so if you really believe that your business is helping people through a good you produce or a service you provide, why would you apologize for trying to keep that thing moving forward, keep the lights on so that you can continue to be good and serve your community? And contribute to the economy. Right.

I mean, this is all a good thing. And people are spending money right now. Not as much as they were a month ago, but they're spending money. They might as well spend it with you. But do it in a way where they feel like consumers are really latching on to some of these deep discounts. And even if you offer something for free for two weeks, which is what we've done, they're not expecting you to give them something free for a year. Just show that you care and give them two weeks free. And then the money comes in after that two weeks.

That's where conversion comes in. And we don't need to dive into that. But like, what can your team be brainstorm? Like create brainstorm sessions through video conferencing. Right. And just toss ideas around. Well, you can really build a lot of brand loyalty right now. and get a lot of free customers.

And then once the storm passes for us and for our economy, later we can talk about upgrading or becoming a paying customer. So there is a real opportunity. We've talked about communicating with your team, being relevant, increasing the frequency so that they're more in touch with where you're at. We've also talked about being vulnerable on difficult things. Suzanne, I know you're doing this all the time, but just as a reminder of all these business leaders out there,

especially in Entree leadership, if they've been working the plan, they have core values, they have mission statements, they know who they are. Talk about the importance of calling the team back to this is our identity. This is who we are. This is what we're about. You have to do that because if you think about how many times over the past two weeks you have felt paralyzed. If you're a human, you have. Your team's going to be experiencing that even more. And so the constant call back to just, here is who we are. Here's what we stand for. Here's what we're about. Because they're, especially if they're working from home, like they're still part of your organization. They want some normalcy. They want some like, oh yes, like this is what real life is. And someday we'll be

back to that inside the building together. But your core values don't go away just because you're all working remotely. They become even more important. And so, So what can you do with those core values to take those out further into the marketplace, even, in this time? And who else can benefit from the fact that you've been so intentional at creating those? What are other business owners you know that you need to share that with as an encouragement and, you know, so forth? I think that's the great thing about these entree clients is they have been so intentional.

Yeah, really good stuff. Suzanne, any final thoughts or words of encouragement for leaders out there who are really taking it on the chin right now, but they're continuing to fight. Maybe they're tired. Maybe they're exhausted. What words of hope and wisdom could you share to that person who's wondering about maybe I don't have what it takes to get through this? I think you have to lead right now. You don't have a choice. You have to lead. And you need to lead beyond even just our organization. You need to lead at home. You need to lead with your friends. You need to step up and lead because why not? Very few people are doing that in a positive way. The strength that you need in order to do that does not come from within yourself.

It comes from your creator. And so you more than ever need routine in which you're getting up every morning and you're getting in the Word of God and you're praying even if it's for five minutes and maybe you haven't talked to him in a long time. time. Well, now's the time to start talking to him. And that's where you'll get your strength because he will renew your mind each morning when you do this and give you wisdom if you pray for it to lead well. And your team needs you to do that right now. Everyone around you need you to do that right now. And so you don't have a choice. So get your strength from where it needs to come from and then lead. Yeah, and I would encourage you, if that's a new idea for you, if you've

never considered that the God thing feels cheesy or you're not sure about prayer. There's nothing like a battle to get us to really think, what is this all about? And is there somebody out there bigger than me that loves me? And maybe there's a source of different kind of power. And we believe that. And I don't know that we'd be able to lead right now if we didn't believe that. And so just an encouragement to consider that. Suzanne, this has been definitely encouraging. Thank you for sharing and thank you for leading alongside me and our other leaders here as we've locked arms to continue to drive this thing forward. And we want to challenge you guys keep driving forward. We know you're doing it. We know you're fighting. And we're going to continue to be here for you. And we're going to encourage you.

And together, we're going to get through to the other side. And hopefully when we get on the other side, you and I can do this again where we can actually make fun of each other and act like we normally do. And I can tell them about metaphor Maurice. That part cannot go to air. No. Suzanne's kind of like my big sister. And she gives me. lots of I can't even say that on our podcast but you guys know what I mean

but at the end of the day she she's the best