Start With A Win - Master the Hierarchy of Team Needs: Transform Your Leadership with Scott Albrecht

Starting point is 00:00:00 is where you've got a team running on full, full, full circle. It's a hands off the wheel kind of moment where you can go on vacation and you don't have to call them to say, hey, do you guys need anything? Not only is the team members thriving, but it's actually raising the bar on the team. Welcome to Start With A Win, where we unpack franchising, leadership, and business growth. Let's go. And coming to you from Area 15 Ventures and Start With A Win headquarters, it's Adam Contos with Start With A Win. This is part two of two with Scott Albeck talking about the hierarchy of team needs, an amazing little business read that Scott has come up with. If you haven't already, check out part one of this last week. Also,

Starting point is 00:00:47 go to adamcantos.com and check out the Leadership Factory. We have a lot of great leadership information in there, some amazing things to help you grow your career, grow your leadership. You know what happens when you grow your career and you grow your leadership? You generally get promoted. You work your way up in your company. You find greater financial and personal success and build a better life for yourself and your family and your team. That's what we're here to talk about today. Let's bring Scott back on and get back to talking about the hierarchy of team needs. It's fascinating. I've taken over several founder-led companies, worked with a lot of founders in different organizations. And it seems like a lot of the team effort and the culture and company stop right here because of this concept that I call founder's syndrome. And that being that people don't come

Starting point is 00:01:37 to the room in order to discuss those ideas. They come to the room in order to be told what to do by a founder a lot of times. So I mean, it's like they hit their head on this whole vision because the vision is one person, and they don't want anybody's feedback. They just want to make decisions. So ultimately, it's fascinating when you think about that. But the people in the room, and by the way, we always say, don't be the smartest person in the room. Well, a lot of times founders think they're the smartest person in the room because it's their baby that they just found. But ultimately, they need to surround themselves with smarter people who can come in with feedback and get that feedback like what you're talking about in order to continue to grow the company. And I was talking to a private equity founder not long ago, or a

Starting point is 00:02:24 private equity CEO. And I said, what's the biggest problem you have with founders? He goes, they to this honest feedback and not just open to it, but actually care what it is. So that, I mean, I love where we're going here. And, you know, you've got your next layer is vision statement, which seems like it isn't just somebody force feeding a vision. It's like we're developing this collective vision now. Is that right? Yeah. I like to ask four questions when it comes to vision statement. And I remember asking these questions of my own teams. What do we want to become as a team, right? What do we want to become? What's the future state, right? Maybe it's a big, hairy, audacious goal. It's something so big, so crazy. Nobody in their wildest dreams would think this is possible, but like, it's a little

Starting point is 00:03:26 bit possible. Like, what's that look like for us? What's our future state? A lot of times teams would just kind of stare at me and I'd be, and then I'd roll in a whiteboard. I was like, here's some markers. Here's a whiteboard. Like, I really want you to like, what dream state, best, best scenario. What does our team look like 10, 20 years from now?

Starting point is 00:03:45 What could we work towards? And then you can back into that. So, okay, that's the future state. For our team, we wanted to be the team where everybody knows your name. For those of you who are of the age group that would know the show, cheers. We even had a song that went with that. Where everybody knows your name. Didn't think I was going to sing on the podcast, did you?

Starting point is 00:04:04 And so, okay, so where are we at today? Well, where we're at today is we don't know everybody's name. And where we're at today is we're not giving personalized service to every person every time. And so where we're at today is different than the vision. And so how do we get there? And how do we know we've arrived? And so these are kind of the four questions where we can start to kind of come up with maybe a two-sentence vision statement that kind of talks about we are going to be the team where everybody knows your name. And we'll know that we're the team where everybody knows your name when people are referring us to other people because they had exceptional service, low effort service because they didn't have to show a driver's license when they walked in.

Starting point is 00:04:47 Because we knew who they were. And that's something that's worth sharing. That's a great feeling, too, for those people. And so for me, if I come in without a vision statement and I say, you know what? When somebody walks into our team's center here, I want you guys to stand. Well, that without a vision statement is just my bias. It's just a recommendation. It's just my personal preference. It's something I'll call HR and be like, hey, Scott's making a stand all day long. My feet hurt, man. My dogs are barking. This is the worst ever. I hate this. I hate standing.

Starting point is 00:05:20 But if I say, hey, do you remember our vision statement where everybody knows your name? Well, we want to be able to represent that with how we greet people. And I don't know about you, but if somebody comes to my house, I stand to greet them. And so if this is the vision statement, I think we should put the chairs in the back room. At least we should be standing to greet our people as they walk in. And so when you have a vision statement, now we can rally around changed behavior, which by the way, leadership's all about change, right? If you want to boil down leadership to one word, it's about changing others who don't want to be changed. That's what you get paid for. That's what you got the title for. So many people take the paycheck

Starting point is 00:06:02 bump and the new title and they ditch the responsibility of what leadership's actually about, which is taking the change from above, figuring out how you're going to do that and actually implementing the change that the board of directors, the CEO, the department heads are saying, this is what's coming. This is what we need you to do. Wow. All right. I mean, masterclass going on here. What's next for us? So if we're going to have this rallying vision statement, the next thing is we have to move the chairs. We have to move those behaviors that allow us to get to where we need to go. Where are we at today? Well, it's not the future state. So if I just created a vision statement

Starting point is 00:06:45 based on honest feedback, because we had trust enough to actually say, we're not perfect. There's nobody that's perfect, right? So how can we do this thing better? Well, okay, now we've got a goal. We've got a place, we got a North Star. And so I need to start changing behavior.

Starting point is 00:07:00 So the second to last layer, Maslow, he's talking about esteem here. Right. In the team setting, it's less about esteem. That's more of the outcome. It's more about coaching. So I got to train you. I got to develop you. I got to give you the opportunity to know that my expectation is that we do stand when people walk into our department. I got to then model that with my own behavior. I've got to then tell you,

Starting point is 00:07:27 you're doing a great job with positive reinforcement and then redirect you when I say, you're not meeting my minimum expectations on this. And so there's work. There's so much work to be done in that second to last layer, if you want to call it the fourth layer, the Maslow layer of esteem is where we're coaching. We're doing the dirty work

Starting point is 00:07:48 of what we get paid to do as a leader, which is changing behaviors in others to be able to get to that point where they have esteem, where they have self-actualization, where you get people at their best because they are meeting your minimum expectations. Some of them are exceeding them. Some of them are actually finding their own ways to do delegation and stretch assignments to do it better. Wow. And so now you've got subject matter experts on your team that know it better than you do.

Starting point is 00:08:16 And that's what gets you to that peak, the peak of the precipice. It's what we're all trying to shoot for with all these managed pressure behavior points is where you've got a team running on full circle. It's a hands off the wheel kind of moment. It's a great moment. It's where you're kind of flowing.

Starting point is 00:08:35 You're in the flow zone. And you just know that Mike's going to pass the stapler at this point in time. And so you put your hand out to the left. Adam, you've worked for a lot of teams, a lot of organizations. Reaching that flow state as a team where you can go on vacation and you don't have to call them to say, hey, do you guys need anything? Adam, you're in Puerto Rico, bro. What are you going to do? Fly back? I was just checking in. You don't have to call them. They're in their flowstone you you they they're most of what they're doing is subconscious at that point they they they know that janice is closing and she's going to be able to do this and this and

Starting point is 00:09:15 this and she they even know when she's going to do it so they're going to they're going to hand her the checks at the right time and and you know put the shred bin right where she's going to need it because everyone's in that flow state. All right. I have a question. I have a question about getting to that flow state because we have to, we have to be able to go through coaching in order to get to that flow state. Right. Yeah. So, um, let's, how do we know if somebody is not coachable on the team to this point? Because, you know, we're, we're going through vision statement, things like that. It seems like to that point, somebody could hide in the team and be, let's say, a B player. And I want all A players on my team. What if I find, or how do you deal with somebody,

Starting point is 00:09:58 or how do you recognize if somebody's not coachable on that? Well, one thing that we can do, cause we're talking about Maslow. We can realize that some people can't be coached, right? It's true. Yeah. So if we, if we keep coaching somebody who can't be coached, somebody who's just going to flat out reject our motivation, flat out, flat out reject the pressure that we're applying, then you have to apply new pressure.

Starting point is 00:10:23 Like if you just repeat the same thing over and over again and, and think it's going to work with a different outcome, then you have to apply new pressure. If you just repeat the same thing over and over again and think it's going to work with a different outcome, then that's the definition of insanity there. So the different pressure could be, we don't promote you into an area of greater responsibility unless you're meeting the minimum expectations on your current role. And the minimum expectation of your current role is that you stand when members walk in. And I've asked you for a solution on this a couple of times, and it seems like I care more about this than you do. So I'm simply going to hold you accountable for this.

Starting point is 00:10:53 And so what that looks like as a leader depends on the role, right? If I'm a supervisor, I might not have as many keys to accountability, but I might not recommend you for a promotion. And if I'm over the entire organization, yeah, it could be written verbal final, right? We could get them off the bus

Starting point is 00:11:09 to go to good to great from Jim Collins. But that's the key. Just having that conversation of, hey, I'm going to stop coaching on this. I'm going to hold you accountable. And they say, well, how are you going to hold me accountable? That's the point of the conversation.

Starting point is 00:11:23 I hope I don't have to hold you accountable. I hope this conversation is the thing you needed, the additional applied pressure for us to actually get you to self-actualization. And so the book talks about what you should do when, and it's only 28 pages. I'm not a big reader. I'm not a big novel kind of writer. I like the quick hits. I like to get it, read it and go. And so we're working on version two. We brought in some more researchers that are going to put some more meat on the playbook, but this is really a playbook. This is something you can grab and read in an airport before you get on your flight and then just give it to the next person next to you on the plane because you're good.

Starting point is 00:12:05 You're ready to go. You're ready to go. Do you remember when we used to do that? When you would bring a really good magazine on an airplane and then you would leave it in the pocket for the people that came on the airplane next? I mean, it was so much fun. You could get some incredible reading material on an airplane or, you know, there was like a wall street journal or, you know, uh, some sort of just something that was valuable, but now it's, there used to be a headjack. You could listen to the, to the pilots talking on the, on the, on the headjack. Remember that with the, there's radio stations and stuff like that to this day,

Starting point is 00:12:40 I don't know how they got radio stations, um, on the airplane. So if you, if you need leadership techniques and tactics and neuroscience that backs it up, I've got that. How radios work. I'm not your guest. You'll have to listen to the next episode. There you go. All right. So, you know, we always hear the term raise the bar and this is, this is the top of your hierarchy of needs for teams is the high bar. Talk to me about where do we put the bar and how do we continuously nudge that bar higher? Because our team, if we're doing this right, will continue to outperform the last time they performed. So tell me about the bar and how do we build this Navy SEAL team, this best of the best elite Super Bowl caliber team? And by the way, folks, we all know that a Super Bowl team can beat a Pro Bowl team all day long, even though you have the best players on the Pro Bowl team. You have the best team on the Super Bowl team. So we have to coordinate these things in order to raise that bar. Talk to me about the high bar. Yeah. So, uh, so going back to your ABC, some of your C players to get improvement,

Starting point is 00:13:52 you're actually asking them for like a 10% improvement, right? We need you to improve significantly, right? We need you to improve, to get a meets at the end of the year, at the end of the quarter on your performance review. Like we just need you to get to meets. You do not meet our minimum requirements. You might not work here. You might be in a different role. We might have to figure out a different plan for you. So if you've got that on your team, well, certainly the bar is meets. But meets just takes care of the team. Meets actually just takes care of the team at meats actually just takes care of the individual meats if you think about it just takes care of maslow you you hit meats you could get a salary you can you can pay for food on the table we'll put a roof over your head that's that's that's

Starting point is 00:14:38 that's the lowest bar i would say is just is the hierarchy of needs yeah i just i just did you're keeping your job yeah you get to keep your job so, so that's, that's kind of working on yourself. Right. And then beyond that is the exceeds or, you know, yeah, exceeds expectations, which would be not only is, is the team members thriving, but it's actually raising the bar on the team, right? The team started to notice, okay, that he's standing every time somebody walks in. I know we talked about everybody knows your name, but now the coach is coming out and saying, that's a fabulous job living out our vision statement. Way to go. Atta boy. Now everyone that's on the fence,

Starting point is 00:15:19 looking at this jabroni thinking like, that's the weirdo. They're the weirdo. We're not going to do this. Now the coach is kind of reinforcing that, no, you're the weirdo. They're making the fence sitter feel like the weirdo. And now the weirdo is actually raising the tide for the rest of the team, right? You always have those early adopters. Well, the great way to kill progress on a vision statement is to let the early adopters be the weirdos. You know, like the ones that are first in line when the new iPhone comes out. Well, there's like 95% of the population looking at the first people buying the iPhone being like,

Starting point is 00:15:51 okay, so are they like the weird ones? Or are we left out? And then you get the fast followers that are like, no, like we need the iPhone. And they're like, and then you have, right? And so you need coaches applying pressure to let the ones doing the behaviors first, but the rest of the team that's on the fence being like, hey, that's the right side of

Starting point is 00:16:09 the fence, by the way. And so the naysayers is what's left after coaching. And that's where that accountability comes in. And so when you can get the right people doing the right behaviors consistently, then you're closer to actually saying we're at potential. And potential is the vision statement. You may work your entire career and you may never actually get to the vision statement. Every member, every time, we know their name. But the highest bar is we're dang close. I could reach out and I could touch the B-H-A-G. I could reach out and I could touch the BHAG. I could reach out and touch potential.

Starting point is 00:16:46 And when you get to that point as a team, it's electric. It's worth pursuing. Awesome. Yeah. I had a meeting yesterday with the top of my team and we were out meeting with future new customers. And this is a deal we really want to get. It'll do great things for the company. And the team was up there at the high bar. It was fascinating. It's interesting when you talk about everybody stood when somebody else entered the room. Somebody entered a room, my entire team was on their feet right then and there. And it was the, the, the synergy between my team and the folks that were trying to do this deal with was so outstanding because my team was on point and looking at each other to, to collaborate, but not to interrupt. They were supporting each other, but they weren't

Starting point is 00:17:40 overriding each other. I mean, it was just fabulous. I mean, when you, when you're in that flow state with your team and you've seen it, we see it every now and then, and especially like right now we're in playoff season for basketball and hockey, and we're seeing it on the ice and on the court with these professionals that are used to being coached. You don't become a professional athlete if you're not extremely coachable. And it's really a cool feeling when you feel that in business with that team going as well. So fascinating concepts here, Scott. Scott, where can we find you and where can we find out more about this concept in your book?

Starting point is 00:18:21 Yeah, Columbus, Ohio. But don't be that guy, okay. I'm going to come knocking on your door, man. It's like, dude, I listened to you. You're on the podcast. I was like, yeah. Um, so LinkedIn, LinkedIn is actually probably better than visiting me at my house. Uh, the LinkedIn is a, is a great place to go. LinkedIn forward slash service star. You can see the sign behind me. If you're looking at the video version of the podcast. And then I'm usually not in Columbus, Ohio. I'm usually out and about doing this for a living. So if you're interested in hearing more about the book, you'd like to have me and Adam speak at your next conference. That's where I go. I'd love to share this story

Starting point is 00:19:02 with you guys, talking about the peak of the precipice. I was in Alaska talking about the book. And actually, it was the Alaska trip that helped me write the book. They were like, we want honest feedback. We want constructive feedback on our team. Can you write a training on that? And so I did. I wrote a training on that. And a part of the training was hierarchy of team needs. And after I wrote that, I thought there's so much more that I could, I could build on here, you know? And so I wrote the book and then I was, I was in Alaska. I was climbing a mountain, Mount Baldy, and I got to the top of Mount Baldy. And it's crazy what happens when you get to the top of a mountain after climbing a mountain, after all the applied pressure on your legs and you're cramping up.

Starting point is 00:19:47 I mean, it's horrible. It's horrible. But you get to the top and you know what you do? You have a different perspective. And so when you're climbing the whole time, all you see is the top of the mountain. You still got to climb. You still got to get there. But when you get to the top of the mountain, you get a different renewed perspective.

Starting point is 00:20:02 And I think that's the biggest gift is once you've gotten to that top of the mountain, you get a different renewed perspective. And I think that's the biggest gift is once you've gotten to that top of the mountain peak performance area, you'll have a renewed perspective and you'll never want to be on another team without it. And you'll do whatever you can to get back to that top of the mountain moment. Awesome. Awesome. Make sure you check out Service Star Consulting. And of course, Scott, get a copy of The Hierarchy of Team Needs. It's an incredible business team building book. I mean, I've learned a lot from Scott's philosophies. And also make sure you check out The Leadership Factory. Go to adamcontos.com, check out The Leadership Factory. Scott's been in the Leadership Factory. He's checked it out himself. And a new release on the Leadership Transformation Blueprint, nine and a half weeks of really intense work. We do dive into Maslow's hierarchy of needs extensively, but I want you to also take

Starting point is 00:20:56 a look at how Scott has incorporated this into team building. Scott, thanks for all you do to build better teams, to help us really realize a better self, because I'll tell you, when you do that, you're so much happier, you're so much fulfilled. You find that self-actualization and it translates to those people around you, your family, your life, your friends, your associations, and frankly, your success and what you can do in the future.

Starting point is 00:21:22 So Scott, thank you for being on my friend and everybody will catch you next time on Start With A Win.

Start With A Win - Master the Hierarchy of Team Needs: Transform Your Leadership with Scott Albrecht

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