David:

[0:00] Imagine putting a team together for launch of a new product and just released from corporate. And you are building a team with the best players, but once you get them together in a meeting, you find there's division because there's different opinions about how to get this product to market. What do you do? If you've ever worked with people, you know that they're all different. And sometimes it's a challenge to get them to align and play together. And today I brought along expert Joe Stewart to talk about team dynamics and how to basically read a room and how to, more importantly, how to get a, hopefully not a dysfunctional team, but a dysfunctional team into unity and work together. Joe, welcome. And to start off, why don't you take three to four minutes, tell a little bit about yourself and as an EOS implementer and the experience you have in aligning teams together.

Joe:

[0:49] Yeah, thanks, David. Thanks for having me on. appreciate uh the lead up there i'm excited to talk about some team dynamics and alignment today uh myself not always you know the funnest conversation but uh i've been an entrepreneur most of my life so that was kind of accidental i didn't plan on doing any of that but uh several years ago that's just kind of how it shook out so oh i'm having some my out of focus son of a gun, so uh in my early 20s i helped a guy um oh man this is throwing me off i'm sorry you're good i just don't know why my camera's doing that.

Joe:

[1:38] There we go. Okay. So in my early twenties, I was working for somebody, uh, he owned the company. I called him up. I said, Hey, I want to do your job, right? This is cool, but I want to do your job. How do I do that? And, uh, long story short, I mean, that was a bold swing. I didn't realize how bold that was until many years later when I looked back on it. Um, you know, but luckily he invited me over for dinner and, uh, took me in under his wing and, uh, started to kind of show me the ropes of the insides of running his operation. I didn't end up doing that, but it was a valuable lesson. Ended up opening the company with my parents. We built it from the ground up. I was there for the first five years, built all the ops, ran all the ops, which is just code for doing everything all the time whenever it happens.

Joe:

[2:29] Trial by fire there. Left the family business after about five years, Started two companies of my own. Several years into that, we just hit a ceiling. We had two good companies, but we hit a ceiling. We were frustrated and discovered EOS. EOS was the system that really helped us to look at our business differently, to have a better relationship with our business, and ultimately break through some ceilings.

Joe:

[2:57] Over four years at one of those companies, we ended up growing about 250%. It was really...

Joe:

[3:05] We created just a really turnkey business, too. So when the opportunity came up, we were able to sell it. And that was great for our family. It was one of those God moments, right? We didn't really plan on that happening. But in that moment in life, it was the right thing to do. And we had a great business that we were able to sell to somebody. And they were able to. It's still going today. So I went back and helped my parents and their company for a couple of years. They were growing. Things were a little bit messy. and we hired an EOS implementer. He came in, he helped us figure some things out. We grew, we, we about doubled in size over three years and, um, it's got real financially healthy. We're delivering our service at a much higher quality. And, um, it was just, it was really impactful. Helped my parents retire. Uh, I moved on to the next phase of life, which is now just helping other business owners, you know, get out of their own way, get freedom, um, get what they want out of their companies. You know, so I do that by helping them implement EOS and EOS is just a complete set of simple tools, um, business principles. There's a proven process. And, uh, from a high level, it's really just helping them to get what we call vision traction and healthy. So what I mean by that is vision, uh, from the standpoint of I'm working with those leaders to just be on the same page in a hundred percent alignment with where the company is going to go and how it's going to get there.

Joe:

[4:34] Traction from the standpoint of helping those leaders to instill the discipline and accountability into that team that it takes. Thank you on that vision day in and day out. And then healthy is about just being a healthy team. Sorry, my lights were going off in my office. Um, you know, as leaders, we don't always make great teams. So healthy is all about having an open and honest, uh, culture, being around people that you're having fun with. You love to be together. You can be vulnerable with each other. Um, most importantly, you're all rolling the boat in the same direction, right? So as goes the leadership, we'll go the rest of the company. We're going to get to the point where everybody in the business, whether it's 10 people or 250, 300 people, everybody's in alignment with that vision. Everybody's working in the day-to-day with discipline and accountability to execute on that vision, gaining consistent traction. And you're all just moving forward as a healthy, cohesive, functional team. So that's the high-level nutshell, you know, of Joe Stewart, where I've been, where I'm at, and what I do now.

David:

[5:41] Okay. Yeah, very good. Well, hey, Joe. This is a Christian podcast. I like to encourage my listeners to be salt and light in this world. And so I like to ask my guests, what is one thing, What is one way you have found that you can glorify God in your business that others may be able to implement or may not know about?

Joe:

[5:58] Oh, one way. It's like every way, man.

David:

[6:03] I know that. I know that. Just pick one way.

Joe:

[6:07] We, you know, I think one way that I do it, this is goofy, but before every single session, we check in. It's like it's the first part of the agenda.

Joe:

[6:19] And just sharing how God's working in my life, you know, and it's not always going deep. But sometimes it's just saying, you know, my personal best is, you know, I've been I've been praying about this and, you know, God's been speaking to me and it's awesome and I can feel it and I love it. And then it's just moving right along to whatever's next. I have a handful of Christian companies that I work with that it's just we're just open about it. We pray before we start. We pray at lunch. We pray when we end. It's, you know, like like the spirit is present with us. But then there's other companies that aren't and that's OK. right um but there's an opportunity there just you know to share god with other people who might not know him like i know him and i've had one example that i can think of recently where a guy called me and just said hey man you're always talking about god like just can you tell me about it like i'm just interested you know and i don't know that's that's the stuff for me you know because uh you know my wife and i are in unity on on this like everything we have is just been a gift from him and you know the the challenge is to be present enough to to to try to be good stewards of all this stuff you know of our of our business of our resources of our time and our energy and all that stuff so.

David:

[7:48] No, good answer. I love it. It's good. And so, okay, we're going to talk about team dynamics. Okay. So to define it, what would, how would you define simply team dynamics?

Joe:

[8:00] Gosh i i'd have to look on dictionary.com to define it the right way but for me it's just how people interact with each other yeah it's it's um you know when you have a group of people there you know one dynamic is that group of people so if it's five people it's how does how do these five people interrelate with each other but then inside of the team you know what are the subsets? If there's five people, you may have, you know, two groups of two, there might be an alliance here, you know, there might be some mistrust somewhere, or maybe there's, you know, somebody has a relationship that's just deeper and longer than the other. So there's the group as the whole, but then there's also individual relationships and dynamics that can happen within that team as well. Did that answer it?

David:

[8:54] That makes sense. Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, people working together and yeah, it's, it's just like family dynamics. Um, I, I know when I meet with my brothers and sisters on individual basis, I can talk to them. It's fun. I don't know what happens when we all get together. My, my brothers just get hyper and loud and everything else is like, why are you doing that? But you know, individually they don't. And it's just the dynamic of everybody in the group and it just goes wild. So it is different between just two people or five people or 10 people that there's different dynamic there. Absolutely.

Joe:

[9:32] Yeah. And I think, uh, like when we're talking about business, we're talking about, you know, like a leadership team, you know, the heart of team health for me is, uh, trust, you know, and that's, that's one of the, I mean, I, I kind of.

Joe:

[9:48] I kind of sell, sell this out right away in the beginning. I tell people, look at all these tools are going to work for you. Um, the velocity in, in which that they will work will be directly correlated to the level of health that we can build here. And that level of health is predicated a thousand percent on how open and honest we can be with each other. And what I mean by that is honesty, I define it like honesty is just being 100% you, true, authentic you. Don't give me a facade. You don't need to be someone else for me, right? I want to know 100% like what you need, what you want, what you feel, what you desire, what's holding you back, what's ticking you off, just complete transparency. And then openness is the other half of that. Openness is just being able to receive that when somebody's just being real and raw with you right just taking it in and letting it go right you don't have to love what they're saying you don't have to agree with what they're saying you don't have to solve what they're bringing up right entrepreneurial people you know achievers we love to solve stuff right so.

David:

[11:05] People in general do

Joe:

[11:07] We don't want to, yeah, we don't have to attach ourselves to those moments. But if we can agree to be 100% honest and 100% open with each other, we're going to create the space where we can have vulnerability based trust. And not like, hey, let's do it today. This is like putting in the reps every time you're together. It's little by little by little by little. Every time just going a little bit deeper. Every time just pulling back one more layer. And to me, that is the source of everything else that comes later. All the success and the results all drive back to the level of vulnerability-based trust that we can have within that team.

David:

[11:50] So you're saying openness and trust is going to help unify the team. So if you have a team that's not open and not really trustworthy, where do you start?

Joe:

[12:04] That's good. First of all, you got to want it. So I say that to everybody. Do you want to do the work? And if some people just don't want to do the work, you know, if they're fearful or they're not ready or, you know, that's okay. Right. But that's a question I always ask, you know, especially if, if some people know I've had clients come to me before they were my client and said, I'm really worried about, you know, the team health stuff. Like, you know, I said, that's, that's okay. If you want to do the work though, I will go through the process with you. I'll trudge through the mud with you. Um, it always starts with just setting the expectations, to be honest with you. Like I, my expectation is that we are open and honest in here and that we can have open and honest conversations. And I don't expect anybody to be a rock star today, but what I do expect is if you want it, we're going to start learning about this stuff today. And if there are some, some things that come up that make you uncomfortable.

Joe:

[13:07] Then I want to lean into that discomfort. I'm not in the business of keeping people the same, right i don't people don't hire me because they want to grow linearly right yeah like we're not getting the calculators out and saying we can get 8.9 growth year over year if we do that look at that's for some people that's great if you're coming into my room like we want to grow, and you cannot grow without discomfort so that's another part of the the teaching that i do is you know discomfort is such a gift and if you're yeah.

David:

[13:43] We don't like it

Joe:

[13:45] We don't like it don't like.

David:

[13:46] It yeah yeah yeah

Joe:

[13:48] Well here goes my lights again uh if you're if you're not comfortable, in my head one of two things is happening one you're not in a safe space right this is a danger this is a red flag it's a survival mechanism okay if you are in actual danger then you have to go find a place where you're not in danger.

David:

[14:06] Yeah.

Joe:

[14:08] If that's not it, then you're just being challenged.

Joe:

[14:15] You're being pushed a little bit. You're being stretched a little bit, right? You're being questioned maybe. Maybe you don't have all the answers, you know. We just got to lean into it. That discomfort right there, like if you're here and you're saying, I want to go from here to here, that discomfort is going to be present. And I just want people to lean into it. We don't have to solve it right now, but just let it be. because whatever that is, that's forging you for what's coming your way. And I don't know what's coming your way.

Joe:

[14:50] I can't tell you that either. Right. But this moment is getting you ready for that moment that you don't know about. And if you want to continue to, to elevate in whether it's life personally or in business, or as this team, you know, so it starts by setting that expectation, clearly defining it. And then also, um, I don't know. I like to just reassure people like, look at, it's just one tick. This one, one tick better. Okay. You don't have to do the whole thing today. Just one tick. You know, if you're feeling this kind of just, just a little bit more than you would have yesterday. And then just do that again tomorrow. And then the next day and then the next day and then the next day. Right. And then you're going to wake up two years from now. And this thing's going to look completely different. There might be different faces in the room though too.

David:

[15:39] Probably probably yeah it's interesting a lot I've been in a group of a lot of teams and nobody's ever worried about the team unity it's just like just get it done we're all adults and I don't care what you guys think just just move ahead and I've never had anybody say okay we're going to try to unify the group and move forward on the same page because yeah you have for lack of better words proud people in there people's like it's my, I got the best ideas in the room. You know, you have those people. Um, but yeah, it'd be interesting to get that direction and have a, somebody just say, Hey, let's get on the same page.

Joe:

[16:18] Yeah. The, the ego is strong in all of us, David. I mean, it's never going to go away. Um, being aware of it, you know, working to, to be humble. I think there's a, there's a fine line between, you know, humbly confident and, you know, egotistical and cocky and, you know, hard charging people, we flirt with that line, but, you know, and when, when we're working in groups, EOS teams, we don't, we put ego aside, you know, and some, it's harder for others than, than some.

David:

[16:53] Yep.

Joe:

[16:54] But again, I'll go back to day one. Do you want to do the work? Can I call you on this? Can I say, Hey, is that ego talking? And if you say, yes, I want to do the work, then you're going to get that. But I want to teach the team to do that. And I want to teach the team to be healthy enough to be able to have that kind of conversation without me, because that's the real goal, right? I'm not a babysitter. I'm not a business chaperone. I'm looking to grow people to be independent and run their companies long past me.

David:

[17:28] Sure. Yep.

Joe:

[17:30] So what are some common mistakes?

David:

[17:32] That people make when they're in a team and I'm the leader, I'm trying to get everybody together and what I do doesn't work. What is there anything common that people do that just doesn't work?

Joe:

[17:47] With the, with, can you be more specific, like with the team health?

David:

[17:51] Yeah. The team health, you know, trying to get the team on the same page. You know, one, they're all thinking different things and you're trying to get unity in the team. But it's not going well.

Joe:

[18:03] A lot of times, you know, lack of alignment, lack of clarity, lack of focus. And sometimes it's not necessarily intentional. You know, the tools in EOS are so great because they drive everyone to the common good of the company. And as the leadership team, we have a tool called the VTO, the vision traction organizer. There's eight questions. It's basically a simplified two page business plan. And once we answer these eight questions, it becomes the greater good of the organization. Right. So now we all agree, like this is the greater good of the organization. This is what we're fighting for. And I, we have to have absolute clarity on that. We have to be on the same page with all the answer to all eight of those questions. Like, I'm going to ask you, you like where the comma is, David? Like, do you like the comma there or not? You know, is that bothering you? Like, you know, maybe I'm being a little dramatic right now, but I'm also kind of not.

Joe:

[19:03] We want to get rid of the ambiguities. We want to have as much clarity and focus as we can. And if we can get there, we can start to get to alignment now. If we, if we build open and honest in our culture, we can get alignment, right? Because we can just talk about those things. We can just say like, you know, I feel like I'm trying to accomplish X, but I'm just not seeing that. Like, it seems to me like you don't want that. Like we want that. Can we just talk about that? And in a healthy team, you can have that conversation. In an unhealthy team, someone might get defensive.

David:

[19:42] Absolutely. Yep. It's a matter of how you approach things. Yes. Whether you approach it positively or come at it as like poking at all your problems and then it's like, let's fix them for you so you can get better.

Joe:

[19:55] Yes. And I think there, you know, sometimes leaders, right, we have strong personalities uh and we can get in the business of telling you know telling and solving like i'm going to tell you what you got to do and if you're talking to me instead of just hearing you and trying to understand i'm thinking well this is what you have to do and this is what you have to i'm a solver so like i've been working on this stuff for years and i still have to like tell myself like you don't have to solve this right now i just got to listen to this person and just try to understand where they're coming from you know i just what's happening below that question you know this is And I think if leadership leaders in general can flip that around, you know, where instead of doing 80% of the talking, let the other person do 80% of the talking, you know, get really good at being curious and asking questions. Well, what do you mean by that? You know, well, it seems like you're feeling this way. Can you tell me more about that? You know, I'm not really clear. It sounds like you're saying this. Is that what you're saying? You know, and just trying to get some clarity and get some understanding can go a long way. And then you get out of this mode of just telling people.

David:

[21:15] Yeah, no, that's, that's a good tip for switching it. And I think Stephen Covey said that, you know, be quick to, you know, you want to first understand and then try to be understood. So you have to try to understand the other person, where they're thinking, how they're feeling, all that stuff, why they, why they do what they do. And then you can say, okay, now that I understand you, let me show you my point of view. Because yeah life life is like that so many times there's you've seen the picture of the old lady and then you look at it closely and then it's a young woman that picture it's just optical illusion thing life i see it in life a lot where people look at two different things different ways and yeah depending how you look at it it's old lady or young woman yeah well you know,

Joe:

[22:06] It's, it's, it's a real skill to be able to just sit and listen and not have to solve something for somebody, not have to have an opinion about it, you know, and when we're in the room with a leadership team, just going through this process, just, just being able to feel like I can just say something without fear of retribution, you know, or being looked down upon or being looked as less than just being able to get that on the open. If you just build that over time, you get some really neat stuff that happens. I mean, I have some teams that we started and I thought, wow, this team is, is one of the healthier teams I've started with. This is, this can be great. And you know, you go over a couple of years of work with them and they get to levels that I didn't even know existed. And the deeper they get, the closer they get, the more they trust each other, the more that they can have, you know, some conflict and debate with each other um they can attack the issue together but not attack each other right man they accelerate their progress in ways that just i'm i chuckle sometimes i'll go oh like i got a quarterly coming up with the team next month i just actually i just got off the phone with the integrator before we hopped on and um i bet they're about to say we just had the best quarter ever. And if they do that, David, that'll be 10 quarters in a row.

David:

[23:34] Wow. That's neat.

Joe:

[23:38] It's wild. You know, it's, They got this health thing going.

David:

[23:44] Oh, yeah. And what's interesting, a few years ago, I was reading a lot about Toyota and the Toyota production system and their rules for management leadership. And after reading, I look back. It's like, you know what? All they're doing is working together. That's all they're doing. They're looking at every single way of looking at something, picking the best one, trying it all out, doing it. It doesn't matter who comes up with the idea. They're, they're just making inch, inch by inch progress. And it doesn't matter if the payback's 10 years or one year, they do it just to make progress. Just a whole culture of working together. And that's, that's what I found amazing with them. And I, I really liked their stuff and they, I think they do a great job. But yeah.

Joe:

[24:31] I got into that, that, that Toyota method stuff when I had a, when I owned my company, we had a production shop and it was kind of like a manufacturing setup and, and uh yeah the all the lean stuff in the toyota way the toyota method whatever they call it um yeah yeah it's about uh it becomes about constant improvement yeah that's just of the thing that we're doing you know and if that's the greater good of the organization or if that's the service you're providing or the product you're providing but if all your energy is going into that collectively as a team um man fun stuff happens oh.

David:

[25:12] Yeah yeah fun stuff

Joe:

[25:13] Yeah yeah um well.

David:

[25:17] Joe we're closing to the end of this podcast um i have one other question for you um you've talked a lot about interesting things here if you could pick one thing challenge us today with what would be one thing my listeners could take away from today and take action on

Joe:

[25:32] Oh my gosh one thing in the vein of of team dynamics or.

David:

[25:39] Whatever it doesn't matter

Joe:

[25:42] Uh you know i i love this challenge i do this sometimes i travel a little bit for work um so i see a lot of like flight attendants you know gate attendants you know baristas car rental kind of people like like these service people you know i just have checkpoints with them all over the place.

Joe:

[26:03] I think it's really, I kind of like use those moments to try to like sharpen my own skills, you know? So, uh, just by listening and asking questions, trying to like build a relationship in a short amount of time. Right. Um, so I would challenge people to do that. And, and here's a couple of tips. It's not about telling them about you. Like you go in this to learn about them. Like, Hey, like just observe them for a second. A lot of times flight attendants are feeling a little frenetic, right? That's like all this stuff going on. So I'll go, Hey, it seems like a crazy day today. And then they'll go, Oh my gosh. Yeah. You know, it's a busy one. Yeah. It seems like you're handling it pretty well though. And then, you know, they'll get talking a little more and then just try to listen. It's like, so sometimes, you know, you might say something like, Oh, it sounds, it sounds like, like you're really focused on just making sure all the passengers get on safely or you know it's oh it seems like customer service is like a big deal for you you know or like i'm kind of snarky you know and sarcastic to be honest with you i might say something like wow you take this customer service thing real seriously you know and this just gets people talking a little bit and then just asking more questions seems like sounds like feels like question yeah hear what they're saying and then say it back to them.

Joe:

[27:28] Rephrase it a little bit. You know, oh, it sounds like you're saying this, like, you know, flight attendants. Oh, you came in from Boston and then you went from Boston to Miami and Miami over here. Sounds like you must just be exhausted traveling all over the place. Here's the beauty. You're never wrong because they're going to go, Oh my gosh, I am, which is just going to validate that you've been listening to them. Or they're going to say, not really. You know, I kind of love it. It gives me energy to do all this. Like I, and they're just going to correct you. And you just learned a little bit more. Right. So paraphrasing, uh, reflecting is great. Sometimes just echoing back to them, what they said, um, gets them to go a little bit deeper. Uh, you know, I'm running out of example. I'm, I'm, I'm sitting on an airplane. Oh, that's good.

David:

[28:15] Yeah, that's good. That's good to talk to people. And not only are you, you're basically making their day as well, because a stranger is talking to you, being personable, allowing them to talk about themselves. And you're learning how to communicate better. Yeah, that's good.

Joe:

[28:29] And there's nothing that is ever going to blow back on you in a negative way just from being nice to people.

David:

[28:37] Absolutely. Yep. I love that. Joe, thank you so much for your time and encouragement today. And so my listeners, next steps for you to be doers and not hearers of the word is to check the show notes. There's going to be links and sites and stuff for you to contact Joe to learn more about him and the EOS system. Two, sign up for our newsletter because it's a great way to communicate and not miss out on future episodes or opportunities coming up. And if you're a perfectionist and habitually get caught in the trap of indecision, book a call with me to get unstuck and move forward in your business in a way that honors God. And friends, that's all for now. Trust you've been inspired to redeem your business, redeem your time, fight back, and walk worthy of God's great name. Bye for now.