Sean Glaze With Great Results Teambuilding

Intro: [00:00:07] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Woodstock, Georgia. It’s time for Cherokee Business Radio. Now here’s your host.

Stone Payton: [00:00:23] Welcome to Cherokee Business RadioX Stone Payton here with you this morning, and today’s episode is brought to you, in part by Alma Coffey, sustainably grown, veteran owned and direct trade, which of course means from seed to cup, there are no middlemen. Please go check them out at my alma coffee and go visit their Roastery Cafe at thirty four point forty eight Holly Springs Parkway in Canton. As for Harry or the brains of the outfit Leticia? And please tell them that Stone sent you this could to be a fantastic show, and I think we’re going to wrap the season with this show. We’ll go dark for a couple of weeks and enjoy family, but please join me in welcoming to the broadcast with great results Team building speaker, author, coach all around. Fantastic guy, Mr. Sean Glaze. How you been, man?

Sean Glaze: [00:01:18] I am fantastic, Stone. Glad to join you today and hope we can share some stuff that your audience can take away and implement with their teams.

Stone Payton: [00:01:24] Well, it’s so great to have you back on the Business RadioX microphone. We should have been doing this a lot more. It’s been too long. I’ve so been looking forward to to catching up. I want to ask you a little bit more about mission purpose of great results team building, and I want to talk about staying coachable. Sean’s got a new book out called Staying Coachable. But before we dove into that, yeah, give us a little bit of a primer man mission purpose. What are you out there trying to do for folks?

Sean Glaze: [00:01:53] Well, Woodstock is where I probably got the start. That should have been a better start. And my background for those that haven’t known great results, team building or have not had the opportunity to work with yet. My background is as a high school basketball coach, and that’s how I started working with teams and as a young basketball coach, you go in, you get that very first head coaching job and you’re full of excitement, enthusiasm and expectations. And man, I was pretty convinced I knew what I was doing until you take over a team that that hadn’t been super successful and then you end up having a far less successful season than you expect. And and that was despite all of this great stuff that I had. That was the X’s and O’s and the skill sessions, the individual improvement and all the strategy. And I realized with the help of an assistant coach that the problem that we were having in our basketball program is honestly what I’ve been working with leaders to help improve in their programs and organizations across the country in terms of corporate work. And that is so often team performance issues are something we try and address with strategy, and I extend owed myself into thinking that I was a really good coach. And it turns out being a great leader and leading a great program and a more positive, profitable organizational culture has very little to do with strategy and everything to do with those connections and the commitments that you can gain from getting people to be enrolled in and really engage with a mission and each other.

Stone Payton: [00:03:24] What an epiphany. And that’s a very different frame than I’m accustomed to. As you may remember, I grew up in my early years as the son of a high school basketball coach. So, I mean, if I’ve heard it once I’ve heard it a thousand times fundamentals, son fundamentals and a thousand other phrases like that. But what a marvelous frame that how how long did it take for you to to evolve into this pattern of thinking,

Sean Glaze: [00:03:51] Oh man, I probably was very full of what I thought was confidence for the first eight or 10 years. And you know, confidence is thinking you can help. Arrogance is thinking you don’t need help, and I think that for way too much of my early coaching career, I was through male ego or whatever else convinced that I had figured it out because I had focused so much upon that strategic part. Yeah. And it turns out as I figured out much later, and I’d like to admit that that culture will always determine how well your strategy is executed

Stone Payton: [00:04:27] So you’re not on the gym floor anymore. Or maybe you are at times I. But so but your career is invested in coaching consulting. So tell us about the work now. What’s the expression of the work now? Yeah.

Sean Glaze: [00:04:40] Well, I realized after I had some success focusing upon culture and seeing teams turn around, not because we change strategy, but because we changed the dynamics of our team culture and interactions and focused upon those values and what behaviors define those values and building expectations and standards and having one on one conversations and all the things that I think that sometimes as leaders, we find ways to neglect because we want to focus on the strategy. Yeah. And people will invest resources and time and strategic planning. And then that ends up being sabotaged because they’ve not focused on and invested in culture in those interactions and the communication and the collaboration that’s going to allow that strategy to succeed. And so when I figured out that what we were doing as an organization, as a basketball program. After we focused upon culture with so much more successful than when we had neglected it with my head in the sand thinking I had it all figured out. Then I started to to think about, Well, how can I help other people? Because ultimately, I think you and I and most of the business leaders that are listening. You know, when you find some success, the next step is significance. How can actually help to share these lessons with people who are on the path that I was on previously? And keep them from face planning? Excuse me, thinking about to sneeze?

Stone Payton: [00:06:07] No worries. This is a real interview. This is not but.

Sean Glaze: [00:06:12] But but then I started. I think that I sent quite possibly the most hideous flier that was ever created out to about 100 different basketball programs, you know, colleges and universities around the southeast and had some people reach back out and went and started working with athletic programs and basketball teams and soccer teams and volleyball teams. And then I realized, well, the same stuff that helped us in locker rooms and helped other coaches and their locker rooms would probably help people in conference rooms and boardrooms and classrooms. And so put together a pretty ugly website about 12 or 13 years ago and and did the same thing with fliers for, you know, some companies and and those half and full day team building events ended up being something that had a huge positive impact, not just on those teams for a few days, but obviously you kind of those lessons and and personal awareness kind of insights that help to improve their productivity and interactions and team culture, you know, for for an extended time. And so that’s how great results team building was, was actually hatched, was taken some of those lessons and then transferring them from our locker room into, you know, conference rooms and into organizations now get a chance to work across the country with leaders to help them to build more positive and profitable team cultures.

Stone Payton: [00:07:34] So I got to ask you because some execs, I believe this has been my impression and I’ve been one of them all, but roll our eyes sometimes when we hear the word team building. So the whole sales and marketing positioning like I have no doubt if you get to have the conversation with an exec that’s all handled, but that’s a challenge. Surely?

Sean Glaze: [00:07:55] Yes. Oh my goodness. You know, and a lot of the time, you know, and I’ve since transitioned and I’ll still do in the team. Building half or full day events are a catalyst opportunity to to build some awareness that you can then move forward because team building is an ongoing commitment, not just a one day activity. Yeah, but I was absolutely that guy because as a young teacher and coach, I remember the second year I was a teacher. The principal that I was working for brought in a couple of people who were under that umbrella of team building. And those of you that can’t obviously see, I’m used.

Stone Payton: [00:08:28] Yeah, we’ve got the air quotes going on here because

Sean Glaze: [00:08:30] Team building is this unbelievably nebulous umbrella of stuff that a lot of times has very little impact. And there is absolutely reason for people to cross their arms and roll their eyes. And when I work with organizations and do one of those events, I’ll oftentimes start, OK, when did you see on the agenda that you had team building? How many of you rolled your eyes and thought, Oh my goodness, what are we in for? Because I was that same guy, I was the one that was sitting back with his arms crossed. What have I gotten myself into? What are we going to do over the next few hours in terms of waste and time? I got other things to do, et cetera. And so my focus is always been and finding ways to make it far more relevant and impactful because I think that there’s two types of team building and what you and many other team leaders and organizational leaders have unfortunately experienced is recreational team building, which is let’s go spend a little bit of time together. Let’s have a little bit of fun. Let’s do something. But it very rarely has a lasting impact upon team performance and behaviors because culture is just repeated behaviors. So how do you change behaviors? We need to change people’s beliefs which lead to those behaviors, and our belief is always based upon our awareness. What we’ve experienced. And so if you want to change people’s behaviors, you start with giving them an experience that affects their awareness, that changes their belief because our behaviors are always going to be a result of our beliefs.

Sean Glaze: [00:09:55] So if you can give people a shared experience and change some of that awareness about how what they do impacts others and influences others in terms of the quality of interactions, then you do begin to see an impact. Because if I care about a goal and if I care about the people and get to know a little bit more about the people that I’m working with to achieve that goal, then the accountability that comes with keeping up my end of the expectations that a team sets, that accountability is almost always the result of the empathy I feel because I care about the goal and I care about those people. So there’s a huge difference between recreational team building, which is, let’s go bowling, let’s play laser tag. Let’s go do something in terms of building a bear, putting together bicycles, which are again. You positive and can add some value, but I think that intentional team building gives people a chance to experience activities that really focus upon specific issues that a team or organization are dealing with in terms of, you know, establishing and building and strengthening trust with coworkers and with clients. What does it mean to be more accountable? How do you actually build into your organization some feedback loops that actually really improve and help people to stay coachable? Those are the things that I think have had an impact that have resulted in a lot of referrals because it’s not what people expect.

Stone Payton: [00:11:13] I’ll bet. And so part of the solution, and I recognize that it’s far more complex than this, but it sounds like maybe a fundamental part of it is some sort of shared experience. But but want to hear you speak more directed at what’s actually going on in their world, not just a recreational shared experience?

Sean Glaze: [00:11:35] In any time you can get a group of people together and they can share an experience. You know, when I’ll have those initial conversations with a prospect who will call as a client, hey, we’re dealing with the situation and we know we need something. In most of those calls, 90 percent of the calls that I’ll get are emails that I’ll get. As far as an inquiry are people that know that they need something that their culture is missing something, but they don’t know what they need, right? And so they reach out. And again, I’m sure I’m one of those people and there’s a whole host of other people that operate under that umbrella of team building. And so when people reach out and not knowing necessarily what they need, but knowing that there’s a gap somewhere they really need to fill to change the productivity and results that their team are getting when they do happen upon great results, team building and have an opportunity to have those conversations. It really is about creating an experience and the team building activities are in the challenges and the whether it’s a paired situation or a group of or a whole group or even individual activity. You have and work through in the midst of those half or full day events are an opportunity for them to experience something that changes their awareness and understanding of how their behaviors impact others because there’s always a ripple effect. And that idea of once my awareness change, then my beliefs begin to change. And maybe that’s about understanding and appreciating the background and, you know, strengths and desires and circumstances of a teammate that I haven’t had the chance to connect with. And collaborations always going to improve when I’ve built a stronger relationship that’s going to allow us to to have a connection that’s strong enough to support the weight of truth when it matters.

Stone Payton: [00:13:15] Oh, I like that. You’re going to hear that again. I might repeat that, and I may or may not give you credit, John. I don’t know. I love that strong enough to support the weight of truth when it matters. Yeah, look for that in future stone publications. No, I’ll I’ll credit John. So you must surely and I realize every situation most is probably unique, but surely you must see some things over and over. Maybe some patterns over the years, some some common mistakes or blind spots. You don’t like me. I’m the number two guy in a pretty successful media company, and I run the studio here in Woodstock, Georgia. I’m sure there’s even though I might be well-intentioned, even though I’m fairly well-read on some of these topics and I get to interview experts like you, there’s got to be some blind spots and some things that you just see over and over to some of those come to mind just kind of make us more aware

Sean Glaze: [00:14:06] That, no, I’m thrilled the chance, because that’s something that I wouldn’t have understood early on when I first started working with teams a bit over time, over the last eight or 10 years, you realize that there really are those recurring issues and challenges that are the result of people being against teams or teams because they’re always made up of people. So whether it’s a basketball team or whether it’s a business, yeah, those teams are always going to experience one of probably five major issues and know again my website you’ll see you. There’s five things that you need to build a great team. They use that kind of cheesy acronym great because it helps people as leaders to walk through the process of what it means to build a really effective team culture. And if you’re looking, you kind of thinking about the word great there on your whiteboard g is going to be four goals. Have you defined the goal and the mission and the purpose and what it is we’re here to accomplish together? What is our compelling common? Why? And then the R is going to be for relationships. Have you actually taken the time to invest in relationships among your people in between your departments that allow the collaboration to occur when it needs to? And those are the two most important parts, because if you’ve established meaningful, compelling common goals and if you’ve built stronger connections and relationships that opens the door to the last three, which r e is going to be first setting expectations, what are our standards that we’re going to operate by? What is that new for the last 18 months? What is our digital communication? Plan, how are we actually going to commit to communicating with each other to make sure that we maintain connections and productivity? Yeah.

Sean Glaze: [00:15:41] And then after those expectations, you have accountability and accountability is a place where a lot of times people will call it. You know, we’re having an issue with feedback or people aren’t accountable. And again, I think accountability is almost always a result of a lack of empathy or a presence of empathy. And you build empathy by getting people to buy in to a compelling common goal and to building relationships. Because if I care about the goal and I care about my people, I’m going to live up to those commitments that I’ve made when expectations were established. So it really becomes a system and a process where you need to know why you’re there. You need to know who you’re with. You need to know what the expectations are. And that leads to far more positive accountability. And then finally, and I think sometimes what people end up forgetting about is to make sure you’re thinking people to make sure that people feel seen and valued. So you’ve got that acronym great in most every conversation I’ve had with a leader, whether it’s coaching or working with them to establish a program or a speaking engagement or a teamwork event has been an issue with one of those five parts of the puzzle.

Stone Payton: [00:16:45xGjpCYwjcFg8yytjgvE4iUzM7EZxqAUQT4c1bGz4uXUJKRrK3ZCac7zsfWbA6fdnHYDZDXpbo86LkfSrWmkWptV9fvM6z a while, and I think he may be a mutual friend who wrote a book on personal accountability the cube q, the guy by the name of John Miller. You’re nodding your head. So we both we both know

Sean Glaze: [00:17:01] John John is fantastic. He actually wrote one of the reviews for my most recent book. He’s just been wonderful. And again, I’m a huge fan of Cube. Q. The whole idea of personal accountability is so important to every organization.

Stone Payton: [00:17:14] So shout out to John Miller, author of Cube Q John. I’ll send you an invoice for the four for the end, but I’m having fun here visiting with Sean. We’ve got to get you on the air for too long, John. All right, so let’s talk about your book Staying Coachable A story with four questions to help you thrive and change. Keep climbing and enjoy relentless improvement. Not your first rodeo. This is your third fourth book.

Sean Glaze: [00:17:45xGjpCYwjcFg8yytjgvE4iUzM7EZxqAUQT4c1bGz4uXUJKRrK3ZCac7zsfWbA6fdnHYDZDXpbo86LkfSrWmkWptV9fvM6z leaders to really be more effective. The first one was rapid teamwork, which is really and they’re all parables. Rapid teamwork is really that framework of the great team culture and kind of walk in a group of people through that in the midst of kind of an adventure and experience that they’re having the most recent before staying coachable was the Ten Commandments of winning teammates. What does it mean to be a winning teammate? How do I become somebody that others want to work with that has more of a positive impact on my team? And we’ve all had those winning teammates we’ve worked with in the past. Who’s the best teammate you’ve ever had? When you think about that, there’s probably a person who’s not yet pops up and you think about the traits that they, you know, they showed. Those are the things that you really appreciate that other people want to see out of you. And obviously, you know, most recently, is staying coachable. My background as a basketball coach, stone is is something you can imagine that as a coach, not every player or athlete that I had the pleasure of trying to develop was always coachable. You know, they had they wanted to get better their way, not necessarily the right way. They wanted to do things. You know what? It was comfortable instead of making a commitment to actually do something differently. And so when I was having conversations with leaders across organizations throughout the country, that was one of those issues that came up not just in terms of accountability, but buy in.

Sean Glaze: [00:19:07] And you know, you might have noticed over the last 18 to 20 months, there’s been a pretty huge shift with Kobe, whether it’s remote workers or, you know, circumstances where people are having to change the way they do what they do. And that’s not comfortable for a lot of people. And there’s oftentimes been much like when I was trying to help somebody, you change how they’re shooting a free throw. Leaders have issues with people who are maybe you’re pushing back a little bit and resisting the changes that are necessary for their businesses and teams to succeed. And maybe that’s, you know, a merger and acquisition. Maybe that’s, you know, adopting a new type of platform or software that’s going to make us, you know, be able to move forward as a team or organization together. But when people resist, it’s largely because, like I did when I was a young coach, you have leaders who are commanding and controlling instead of connecting and staying curious. And I think that staying coachable is a book is really about that shift, which gives you so much more impact and influence of rather than commanding. Can you begin to stay curious? Can you begin to use questions to let that person you’re wanting to improve, not just recognize where they want to be and where they are? But once you create that gap to have that desire to improve themselves because they see the benefits of it.

Stone Payton: [00:20:30] I love that you quote C.S. Lewis right there in the beginning of the book. I’ll say that. Because I want you guys to get your hands on your own copy of this book, you chose to do this one in a story form. Yes. Each of my

Sean Glaze: [00:20:44] Books, each of my books has been a parable, and I think that there’s so much more digestible. They’re pretty easy reads, you know, one hundred and fifty two hundred and sixty pages, it’s easy something to pick up at a bookstore off Amazon and carry with you on a flight somewhere. Perhaps if you’re able to do that now, I know we’re just kind of getting started back.

Stone Payton: [00:21:00] Here’s a tip guys buy two copies if you really if you if you want, here’s what I do. I like to do. I like to buy two copies and I leave one on the plane. Now, for all I know, it’s, you know, it gets in some big pile at Delta, I don’t know, but I always felt like it was a way to pay it forward, right? I can guarantee you I’ve left some John Miller books like that.

Sean Glaze: [00:21:21] And giving away his gifts is always one. Yeah, but but the idea of learning in the midst of the story, some of the insights and takeaways and questions that you can use first with yourself and then with your team to help to move yourself forward and to not just, you know, survive and change, but how do you thrive? How do you really you create that clarity of where you want to be and where you are and where is the gap in between and create the humility and the really are kind of four different steps to that process of staying coachable. But it all comes under. And you’ll appreciate this. You know, staying coachable will be what does it mean to be coachable? Yeah. Well, being coachable, I think, includes two things wanting to be better and being willing to change. Now, when I talk with groups and I say, OK, who here wants to be better? Every hand goes up, everybody wants to be better, whether that’s athletes or businesspeople or salespeople or, you know, whatever the team is, wherever the organization is, where the industry is, we all want to be better. But it’s the second part of that definition that people get tripped up on. You know, when you ask them the second question, all right, raise your hand if you’re willing to change. We see fewer hands. And so that idea of seeing change as something that is positive and something to be enthusiastic about, and some of that’s going to help you to progress and to benefit from, I think, is where the four questions come in and these four questions that a father and son learn in the midst of kind of their correspondence with this wise mentor. The four questions that they learn help them to improve themselves by answering the questions and kind of leading themselves through that process.

Stone Payton: [00:23:01] Wow. So are we giving away too much if we bring up one of the questions just to give us some context for this?

Sean Glaze: [00:23:09] It will if the first part of any journey is hunger and I’ll use kind of for ages and its hunger and its honesty and its humility and then its habits, and each of the sets of questions are really based upon engendering a curiosity and answer for hunger, for honesty or humility, for habits. I think the first question that they are asked is the most important that very simply again, simple questions not always easy to answer, right? What specifically do you want? What do I want out of what this change is maybe making available? And I think that idea of clarifying what you want leads to the next set of questions, which largely are based upon where are you now? And I think that sometimes that’s the most difficult part, as we can sometimes identify what we want and what success is going to look like. The difficult part is looking in a clear mirror and instead of excusing away our numbers, you know, you’re kind of making you the mistake of blaming circumstances or other people. When we take that personal accountability and we really look at our numbers without excuse or explanation, and we realize here’s where I am now, it’s the gap between where we are now and where we want to be. That creates the opportunity for humility. And I think that, you know, the issue that I had as a young coach, the issue that a lot of people who may have hired a coach but aren’t always appreciating and applying those insights and ideas is largely because we’re not humble because ego gets in our way. Yeah.

Stone Payton: [00:24:45xGjpCYwjcFg8yytjgvE4iUzM7EZxqAUQT4c1bGz4uXUJKRrK3ZCac7zsfWbA6fdnHYDZDXpbo86LkfSrWmkWptV9fvM6z do people resist change, particularly when it’s like pretty logical? We need to move in that direction? There’s just something just so basic. I’m curious on your thoughts about why people resist change. I mean, why is it? Why is that just a natural reaction so often?

Sean Glaze: [00:25:11] I think that arrogance leads to those annoyed looks and the eye roll when you receive advice, and we’ve all received advice that we didn’t appreciate, right? And so recognizing that, you know, advice and feedback is always a gift. You know, we’re going into Christmas season now, and we will likely all of us have that, you know, kind of Uncle Louis who’s going to give us a gift that we know are not

Stone Payton: [00:25:38] To use,

Sean Glaze: [00:25:40] But when we receive the gift. The question is, how do you respond? And when Uncle Louis gives you that box and you know, it’s going to be the scarf you’ll never wear or the socks, they’re going to be hideous or whatever that thing is that you would never use, you’re still going to say thank you. And so receiving all feedback and advice and saying thank you, I think is important. The second part of that is to just like we recognize Uncle Louis may not be the best gift giver. There’s also somebody in your life that you know, has an understanding of who you are and where you want it to go and what you’ll appreciate. They give great gifts. And then when you say to thank you, you’re not just mean to get, but you’re not going to appreciate it, and then you’re probably going to apply it and use it. And I think that feedback and advice is much like that. You need to be very sure a of where you want to be. What does that destination or hunger? Part two, I think, is what inspires humility, and that is once I acknowledge where I really am, once we as a team acknowledge, here’s our numbers.

Sean Glaze: [00:26:45xGjpCYwjcFg8yytjgvE4iUzM7EZxqAUQT4c1bGz4uXUJKRrK3ZCac7zsfWbA6fdnHYDZDXpbo86LkfSrWmkWptV9fvM6zthis room. If I’ll accept and acknowledge this is what I am and where I’m at right now. Then you have to recognize that there is a gap between those two places and it’s the gap between where you want to be and where you are. That opens the door for people who would otherwise not be humble to recognize that they do have a weakness and they can’t necessarily get better their way because if they could get better doing what they’re doing, they would already be there. And so that’s what opens the door to those conversations about, you know, what do you need to do differently? What is it that is the weakness that you do need to acknowledge? And then when you acknowledge that weakness, then you can seek out the mentor that’s going to give you the gift that you really can apply.

Stone Payton: [00:27:27] So on this hunger thing, a couple ideas kind of surfaced for me as you’re just this is very helpful, by the way. By the way, guys, if you ever want like a good deal on books or sometimes free books and you want free consulting, get yourself a radio show, man. It’s a marvelous way. But now this this this idea of of hunger, a couple of ideas, a couple of things come to mind for me. One is in my my the example that’s coming to mind. I got a marketing degree and so I rarely went to class and I got pretty good at pool and really good at table tennis. Much better than you might think. Now when I say really good, I mean, really good for, you know, southern Alabama. You know what? I traveled to South Florida and some other places. I found out I wasn’t as good as I thought, but there was a transition where a gentleman, you know, I played with the old sandpaper paddle or whatever, he talked me into using a different type of some different equipment and taught me a completely different way to stroke the ball. Well, I was really good, you know, I thought and then when I started doing it his way, I was really not good for a while. And then I, you know, I kind of had this dip thing, but I wanted to be really, really good. Bad enough, I was willing. To be a bad for a while, can you can you speak to that? That’s part of this hunger

Sean Glaze: [00:28:53] Thing, right? I think that is such a tremendous example, and I wish I had a personal story like that that I could use in my keynotes because I think that that really does speak to the experience that most people have as they’re looking forward down that path of I want to go from good to better. I want to go from better to great. I want to go from great to better because better is always going to be, you know, that next step. And sometimes we get complacent. I think that’s when people stop being coachable is they become complacent, they get comfortable camping somewhere instead of climbing to the next summit. Hmm. And so the idea of, you know, what does it mean you to be willing to live through that dip before you can make that next rise to the summit? You know, I think that it’s really. Important as a leader and as a teammate to recognize that. You have to be willing to be bad long enough to be better. And I think that if you’re learning from a mentor who you know has been successful and lead people to summits previously and enjoyed those summits himself or herself previously, then that’s quality advice that you can follow and you can trust their previous results. But even somebody else’s previous results are going to lead you into that early dip before you begin to ascend. And you know, I remember when I was teaching my son, you had dribbling the basketball or whatever that might be in terms of the basketball analogy. Everything that I would talk to my players and athletes about is, again, you’ve got to be willing to be bad long enough to get better with, you know, when Steph Curry started shooting, he missed a lot of threes. Yeah, but he was willing to miss enough that he got better and started making. And I think that that idea of giving ourselves permission to be bad long enough to get better is what allows us to climb that next hill.

Stone Payton: [00:30:43] So I guess part B of that, so very helpful. It helps me process it from individual achievement, individual effort, how to approach change, make sure I really do want it that bad and if not, then OK, be honest about that with myself. Don’t pursue it. But if you’re really serious about this stone, you’ve got to kind of you’ve got to work yourself to the trough. So part B of that was my my second thought was as coaches of our organizations, as leaders of our organizations, we it would be helpful if we were more prepared to coach other people through that dip and not well. And because this has happened, I’ve seen don’t sell them on the idea that there won’t be a dip. That’s because I think it’s easy. Oh yeah. And until this is going to be great, right? Do you see that people try to sell them like there’s going to be no dip,

Sean Glaze: [00:31:32] It’s all going to be sunshine and 70 degrees and beautiful. And and sometimes there’s going to be a storm in the midst of, you know, those those experiences. And so, yeah, I think that as a leader and it starts with yourself, you know, every change initiative begins with a leader being willing to change. Yeah. And so I need to expect and be aware of it, acknowledge that I’m going to experience a dip and can I live through that and continue to stay consistent? And you know, oddly enough, that’s the fourth part of the book is, you know, if you’ve identified the hunger and if you have been honest about acknowledging a clear mirror of kind of where you are and you know, what is your current honest situation? Humility is the next step, because there’s going to be some Hillary recognizing the gap between those three, between those places of where you want to be and where you are. Well, once you’re humble and you get that advice and you find that mentor and you get the information that you know has been successful or will lead you to a better place.

Sean Glaze: [00:32:33] Knowing that doesn’t change anything as a leader, as an organization. Things only change when you do something differently. And so the last part of that is, you know, what are you going to do differently? What are those habits that you’re willing to commit to and stay? Because again, intensity is nice. But if I were to work out really hard for one day, that’s not going to change what I’m looking like. If that consistency over time and as a leader, we’ve got to be willing to commit to the things that we were humble enough to accept his advice. And once we’ve identified that path, we’ve got to walk it consistently instead of, you know, thinking that you. It’s going to be easy because I think that it is that process that’s going to be a dip and for us to not just acknowledge ourselves as leaders, but for us to make sure that our team understands and is given permission to be bad long enough to get better. There’s always that transition from what we’re doing now to what we want to do better.

Stone Payton: [00:33:25] So when I come across a book like this, I don’t just see a good, interesting read over the holidays, although it certainly will be. And, you know, if nothing else, I just act like I’m reading sort of some of the family to leave me alone. But no, I will thoroughly enjoy reading this over over the holiday. But this kind of book strikes me, if it’s used properly, that it could be a real strategic resource. It could be more of a more of a tool, a personal development tool and a leadership tool. Insights counsel on what? What can we do as leaders or as individuals to get the the most value out of the book is there are certain ways we should go about reading it and trying to apply it.

Sean Glaze: [00:34:04] And I think the the first and most important change occurs internally and again, all habits. This is one of the few quotes from part of the book. Habits are external evidence of internal commitments that we’ve made. And so as a leader, we need to demonstrate through our habits that we’ve made a commitment to move ourselves forward. But the next part of that is how do we get our team to buy in and to understand and to not resist that change that we might see is necessary for the next level of success in our organization? And that goes back to not commanding and controlling but asking questions. Questions are the way that you engage people. And if I can get you to digest this question and to come up with your own answer. That’s the power of the book is really introducing not just the process, but what are the questions you can use first with yourself and then with the people on your team to help them create the buy in internally that’s going to lead to their behavior change.

Stone Payton: [00:35:01] All right. So help me think this through because I absolutely screwed this up 20 years ago. A marvelous mentor of mine and John Miller, who we mentioned earlier, a gentleman by the name of Steve Brown wrote a great book called 13 Fatal Errors Managers Make and How to Avoid Them. Just, I mean, just chock full of good solid wisdom about about leading people. And the first time I had a team outside of the fortune group was the name of that company where I was leading. I just thought, Well, that’s the magic pill. I’m going to mail everybody a copy of Steve’s book. Well, when a book lands on your desk with no explanation and it says 13, failing that anyway, that didn’t go over well. But and I got to believe there must be some way like for my team I’ve got I’ve got one in twenty nine markets now. I got 19 studios, I got a dozen plus studio partners doing what we’re doing here and I’d love I’d love to to tap into and benefit from the power of something like this. But I’m getting the idea. If I do it right, don’t screw it up. We could all sort of dove into the book process. Yeah. Your thoughts on that?

Sean Glaze: [00:36:10] Yeah. And I think that that’s hopefully the power of the book and there is a great results team building. You can find the book, you can find the book on Amazon. But more importantly, on my website, there’s free downloadable application guide that you can use not just first individually, but then with your team when I speak on the book. Each member of the audience gets a card that has those questions for them to answer in the midst of the moment to go back, because I think it’s important first for people to have time to consider because again, you simple questions don’t always lead to easy answers, and so it takes a little bit of introspection and personal time to really be clear and thorough and honest about answering those questions for ourselves and then bringing that to a team conversation. And what does that mean to us collectively? Because I think absolutely that any change initiative is only going to be. And I think that there’s some research out in terms of change that 70 percent of change initiatives fail. And largely that’s

Stone Payton: [00:37:04] Because it doesn’t surprise me, but out

Sean Glaze: [00:37:07] Because the manager or the leader hasn’t done a really good job of creating. Buying and buying doesn’t always occur at the very first, you know, people will buy in at different points along that process once they’ve seen some results, once they’ve had the chance to process the questions that allow them to be a more engaged part of the change or wanting to create

Stone Payton: [00:37:26] Now this whole change thing. It’s a murky mess, right? You’re dealing with people they adopt or don’t at different rates. They see things differently. You’ve got to communicate differently. Some of them think it’s a marvelous idea and in reality hits. And, you know, and then some of them are pessimistic as hell, but then they get in there. I mean, this is this whole thing of managing change. It’s a big, hairy book.

Sean Glaze: [00:37:52] And I remember again, so much of my experience again, you hearken back to as a basketball coach, right? Right. And we’re going to do things this way, and this is what you need to do.

Stone Payton: [00:38:02] New sheriff in town.

Sean Glaze: [00:38:04] And and again, you’re talking about you. 15. Eighteen year old kids that even then as I was working, you would sometimes see some resistance and maybe it wasn’t outwardly like you’d get with you adults or people who are a little bit more willing to share their thoughts and concerns. Right, right. But they didn’t necessarily buy in. It was something that I realized as I became a better leader that when I would have those one on one conversations and we implemented that as part of our team culture, that for me to have those conversations once every couple of weeks with every member of our team. And you can’t do that with 300 people, but you can do that with 10 to 15 people every couple of weeks. You list your schedule 10 or 15 minute check in. Want to know what’s going on with you and your family? How can I help you? How can I support you? And then you can ask some of these questions because it’s through those conversations that you build trust and that you begin to get a better picture of what they’re experiencing. And if you can feel what their perceptions are and what their fears are and what their challenges are, then you as a leader can address them a little bit more effectively.

Stone Payton: [00:39:05] What incredibly rewarding work this has to be, you must really thoroughly enjoy the work now.

Sean Glaze: [00:39:12] Well, it’s when you have that opportunity to work with leaders who are struggling in some way and to give them a little bit of confidence and a little bit of a of a sense of the clarity of a process that they can follow, whether it’s in terms of building a culture, helping to implement some type of change. Again, it’s still something that, you know, people don’t like fog. And if you can give them the benefit of clearing away some fog because I had to live through fog and I had to make those mistakes myself. And you know, if I made a mistake as a basketball coach, we would lose a game or a few games, and there weren’t necessarily large stakes. We weren’t losing millions or billions of dollars that as an organization, if you’re implementing change or if you’re having issues with your culture, it absolutely affects livelihoods. And so to be able to give people that toolset or that set of insights that makes them more effective as leaders or teammates is something that I absolutely enjoy.

Stone Payton: [00:40:06] Well, you also I was going to say, strike me as that’s no. I know for a I just know I feel it in my bones. You’re the kind of guy that would take this book periodically, if not daily thumb through here. And you’re like, dead gunman. I’m really falling short on this. Like, it’s not like you feel like you’ve just totally conquered all this stuff, right? I mean, that’s part of it.

Sean Glaze: [00:40:27] No, I’ve got it all figured out because I’m sitting at the top of the mountain. Oh, goodness, no. And I think that that’s part of what comes with some maturity is a willingness to acknowledge, my goodness. What what a knucklehead, ignorant dude I am because I’m still in again. The more I can learn, the more hungry I am, the better I can be for the people that I serve.

Stone Payton: [00:40:45xGjpCYwjcFg8yytjgvE4iUzM7EZxqAUQT4c1bGz4uXUJKRrK3ZCac7zsfWbA6fdnHYDZDXpbo86LkfSrWmkWptV9fvM6z hands on the book and also if they’d like to have a conversation with you or somebody on your team to talk about some of these topics. Whatever, whatever you think is appropriate in terms of LinkedIn, email, whatever website, and let’s make sure they can get their hands on this book.

Sean Glaze: [00:45xGjpCYwjcFg8yytjgvE4iUzM7EZxqAUQT4c1bGz4uXUJKRrK3ZCac7zsfWbA6fdnHYDZDXpbo86LkfSrWmkWptV9fvM6zto do so. I’m available as a resource, whether it’s through email or you just you brief conversations you can. You set up via Counly that there’s a link on my website at Great Results Team building the book itself. I know we’re discussing staying coachable is something I’m very, very proud of. Just released back in end of October, it’s been doing really well and looking forward to sharing that with a number of teams across the country in the next few years.

Stone Payton: [00:41:35] Fantastic. Well, Shawn Glaze, it has been an absolute delight having you back on the Business RadioX microphone here in the studio. Let’s let’s don’t wait so long before we do the next one, huh?

Sean Glaze: [00:45xGjpCYwjcFg8yytjgvE4iUzM7EZxqAUQT4c1bGz4uXUJKRrK3ZCac7zsfWbA6fdnHYDZDXpbo86LkfSrWmkWptV9fvM6z I can be a resource or of any assistance, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Stone Payton: [00:41:55] What a marvelous way to take us out of 2020. One. Have a great holiday, man.

Sean Glaze: [00:42:01] Merry Christmas. Happy New

Stone Payton: [00:42:02] Year! All right, until next time, this is Stone Payton for our guests today with great results. Team building Mr. Shawn Glaze and his new book Staying Coachable and everyone here at the Business RadioX Family saying We’ll see you next time on Cherokee Business Radio.