Unpacked with Ron Harvey
People Always Matter. Join Ron as he unpacks leadership with his guests.
Unpacked with Ron Harvey
Leading Effectively in 2025
Unlock the secrets of exceptional leadership with Anton Gunn, a celebrated leadership expert and former advisor to President Barack Obama. Join us on the Unpacked Podcast as we promise to equip you with the tools to cultivate a dynamic and diverse workplace culture. Gain invaluable insights into building high-performing teams and the art of making employees feel truly valued. Anton's extensive experience with Fortune 500 companies and healthcare organizations reveals the necessity of unlearning ineffective leadership habits and developing impactful communication strategies.
A new era of leadership calls for empathy and trust. This episode explores strategies leaders can employ to connect meaningfully with their teams and emphasizes the significance of communication and culture in retaining top talent.
• Importance of transparent communication
• Effective strategies for employee retention
• Building trust through listening and engagement
• The significance of delegation in leadership
• Fostering a strong workplace culture
• Developing leadership skills for 2025
• Addressing the challenges of diversity and inclusion
• Creating an empowering environment for teams
• The value of mentorship for leaders
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Just Make A Difference: Leading Under Pressure by Ron Harvey
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Disclaimer:
The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers and guests and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any organization or entity. The information provided in this podcast is intended for educational and informational purposes only and should not be considered as professional advice. Listeners should consult with their own professional advisors before implementing any suggestions or recommendations made in this podcast. The speakers and guests are not responsible for any actions taken by listeners based on the information presented in this podcast. The podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice or services. The speakers and guests make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the information, products, services, or related graphics contained in this ...
Welcome to Unpacked Podcast with your host leadership consultant, ron Harvey of Global Core Strategies and Consulting. Ron's delighted to have you join us as he unpacks and shares his leadership experience, designed to help you in your leadership journey. Ron believes that leadership is the fundamental driver towards making a difference. So now to find out more of what it means to unpack leadership, here's your host, ron Harvey.
Speaker 2:Good afternoon. This is Ron Harvey, the Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for Global Core Strategies and Consulting, excited to be with you once again. Of course, we know we own a leadership development firm based out of Columbia, south Carolina. If you're following us, you know that's where we are. But today I woke up wondering if I was in Columbia, south Carolina, or was I in Virginia somewhere, because the weather was absolutely insane. It's not supposed to be 34 degrees or 27 degrees where we live at, but I'm excited to be able to do the work we do.
Speaker 2:Our company spends all of our time helping leaders be better connected to their workforce so they can do the right thing and take care of their team while taking care of their clients and all these stakeholders, their team while taking care of their clients and all these stakeholders. But today we do what we call Unpack with Ron Harvey. I get to invite leaders from around the world talking about all things that help leaders be better. I'm super excited because not only do I have a friend, a colleague, I have someone that since Columbia, south Carolina, that I followed as a good friend, that is very good at what he does, and so I'm going to hand him the microphone. Anton Gunn, you're well known in your own space. You do a lot of great things, but I'm going to hand you the microphone because I don't believe in messing up people's intro, so I'm going to hand it to you and let you do it for us.
Speaker 3:Well, good afternoon. It's great to be with you, ron. My name is Anton Gunn and I help leaders in organizations build diverse, high-performing teams in a world-class workplace culture that you can easily identify, because those organizations have two main characteristics Characteristic number one is that they have leaders that everybody admires because of how they lead. And number two, they're full of teams and employees who never want to quit because they feel valued, they feel respected, they feel included, they feel visible but, most importantly, they feel empowered to execute on their mission, which helps to grow the margin.
Speaker 3:And so I own a small boutique management consulting practice in Columbia, south Carolina, where I work with everybody, from boards to senior leadership teams to frontline staff, to help them to build the culture and to become those leaders that everybody admires. Most organizations that I work with it starts off with them bringing me in to speak at their annual leadership kickoff or their annual meeting for their teams. I'm a dynamic keynote speaker that when people leave my presentations, they not only feel empowered but they have been impacted with information that allows them to go execute immediately, to become the kind of leader that is admired, to build a world-class culture. I've worked with more than 15 Fortune 500 corporations and another 350 organizations really focused on leadership and culture in their organizations and I'm excited about being with you and very happy to have this opportunity today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you, man. I mean he's being humble. So if y'all watching and listening, he's being humble. You know he does the phenomenal stuff, so I'm not going to put him out there on Front Street yet, but so let me unpack some stuff on that time.
Speaker 3:Let me just let me just go ahead and say it. I'm a former senior advisor to President Barack Obama, worked for the President of the United States for about three and a half years, advising him on leadership and engagement strategies as it relates to the Patient Protection and the Affordable Care Act. People call it the ACA, some other people call it Obamacare. I am a bona fide health care expert, but in order for us to understand how that's tied in, is that I help a lot of healthcare organizations.
Speaker 3:I've worked with some renowned healthcare organizations. I've spoken at Mayo Clinic, I've spoken at Emory Healthcare, I've spoken at HCA Healthcare Corporation all across the board. So healthcare is an area of expertise because those organizations are full of people who want to quit every day because of how hard it is sometimes doing the healthcare work and we've seen the burnout and the stress that a lot of healthcare employees have. But we also have a lot of leaders that work in healthcare who absolutely don't know how to lead Like they are great at their skillset. So you might be a great doctor, you might be a great nurse, I might be a great clinician in some kind of way, shape or form, but the things that help you to be a great clinician can help you to be a terrible leader, and so I have to unlearn a lot of bad behaviors and teach people new behaviors, and that all started with my work working for the president.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, I'm glad he unpacked that so I didn't have to. He does some great stuff. He's a friend, anton. You, I'm glad he unpacked that so I didn't have to. He does some great stuff. He's a friend, anton. You and I both are in the leadership space and we're friends, we're colleagues. We iron sharpens iron and for those of you that are listening, you know I don't do competition unless you're playing football or something. You talk about my dolphins, you know. Then I got a problem with you, but I always tell people that You're one of those people. Yeah, I want to be able to walk through and unpack. You're in leadership and you're in Columbia, but you also have a book that talks about some of the stuff you've done. So, really quick, before we dive into it, I know you have a book that you've written and a couple of them, and you don't work. What are you working on now? Are you working on the book, or are you still promoting the one that you currently have out there?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I'm a man of many things at the same time, if you want to put it that way. So, first and foremost, I'm a three-time author, so I have three books. My most recent book, the book that is out now, is called Just Lead. I want to share it with you. The subtitle of that book is 44 Actions to Break Down Barriers, boost your Attention and Build a World-Class Culture, and the reason why I call it 44 Actions because this is unlike my other two books.
Speaker 3:My other two books were full of narratives. They're full of frameworks. They're full of all of the nitty gritty things that most intellectual leaders look for in books what you look for as an academic tool or resource to help you to move forward. But this current book, just Lead, is exactly what it sounds like an action guide. These are, step-by-step, 44 different actions that you can literally implement tomorrow, that you don't actually have to wait until next month, and they're so robust. You can open up the page to 41 and find an action step that you can take right now that will help you to break down the barriers between you and your teams, and so when I use the word breakdown barriers, I'm talking about a subject that people want to make it taboo. They want to make it a negative term. They use words like DEI and make it a pejorative and make it seem like it's something wrong. But it really is around understanding the diverse makeup of your team and valuing the diverse experiences and backgrounds that people bring to the table, because the more diverse you are, the more you're able to see things that other people can't see, and so I talk about how you can implement and break down barriers between people on your teams.
Speaker 3:I also talk about how you can boost your retention, because, let's be real honest, if we're unpacking it the way we need to unpack it, more than 80 million people over the last two years have left the job to go work somewhere else, and so organizations and leaders are losing their top talent to their competitors. They're going to other people to work for them because you haven't built a culture where they want to stay. So these actions will teach you the things you need to, if you will. What it does? It teaches you how to build a world-class culture, because in the book Ryan, I unpack the nine reasons why people quit a job.
Speaker 3:There are really nine reasons, and most of us want to try to boil it down and say people quit because of pay.
Speaker 3:Yes, pay is one of the factors, but it's definitely not the most important factor, because most people don't quit organizations, they don't quit jobs, they quit managers, bad managers, and so if you understand what you're doing or not doing that encourages your people to leave or encourages your people to stay, the better you are as a leader.
Speaker 3:And I put a buttonhole into this and say that my book a leader and I put a buttonhole into this and say that my book Just Lead is something that is so actionable. I intentionally made it small, I intentionally made it short. I intentionally cut out all of the fluff and all of the stories and all of the theoretical research. There are some statistics in there facts and statistics about why people leave and the data points and how much this is costing your business, because we love to think that turnover or diversity or not building a great culture doesn't impact us financially, but it does, and we have data on that. So I spend my time helping people to understand how to solve those challenges, retain your talent, earn more money and be more successful.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, and you see why I brought you on. So, anton, you think about you know, one of the things that I noticed in our organization, almost like a wildfire burning right now, and that's the ability to communicate effectively, and it's often overlooked. What are you telling leaders about the importance of their communication style and the habits they're creating around communication?
Speaker 3:I literally just wrote a piece on this recently on my blog and you can see that at AntonGunncom slash blog. The context of communication is really important. Leaders always want to feel like that they're sharing enough information. And I tell leaders transparency breeds trust. So whatever information you think you're sharing with your people, you're not sharing enough with them. You got to share a whole lot more. And so my context is as a leader, you better be focused on over-communicating rather than under-communicating, because people only will retain a third of the information that you say. So if you think you communicated once, then two thirds of the people didn't get what you communicated once. If you communicated twice, well, you might get to half of the people in the group. So if you communicated three times, then literally you might be able to saturate everybody. But we all know that three times is still probably not enough. And it's not just what you communicate, it is how, where and when do you communicate.
Speaker 3:So some leaders I remember working with a client organization the CEO would say all the time well, we communicate what's going on here? So our team knows what's going on. And I asked the question how are you communicating the directors, the priorities of the organization? He says well, I spend time every week typing my email newsletter and I send it out to the entire team. And I said do you really think that everybody is reading an email from you? And he assumed, just because he was a CEO, that every email that he sent was the most important email that any employee in the organization was going to read. I quickly dispelled him of that notion and reminded him that most employees want to hear information from their direct supervisor and not from the CEO. They want to communicate with the CEO and read what the CEO has to say. But the person I report to is the most important person to give me information. So I asked the CEO what elevated information are you giving to everybody in a management role? And he said well, you know, I never thought about that. And I said well, you have to understand that. Number one, everybody's not going to get it via email. And number two, you need to make sure your managers and leaders are briefed, in the know that they can answer questions, because the number one way to make people quit or disconnect, check out or even leave your organization is the following it's for somebody to ask their supervisor tell me what's going on in the organization and that supervisor says I find out last, just like you find out last. That's going to tear the culture of the organization apart.
Speaker 3:So I first and foremost say over communicate. Number one don't just rely on email. Communicate in person and recognize that you got to do it multiple times before people receive the message. And then the last piece, if I added on this is it's not just what you say, but it's how you say it. Your tone matters more than anything else, because people can understand the words that are coming out of your mouth. So I could say good morning, that communicates something. Or I could say good morning and that communicates something else, but I thoroughly could also say morning, and that communicates something totally different. So your tone is really, really important on how you communicate as a leader, and sometimes people won't understand the tone If you only send it via email, unless you're using all caps. Then they understand that. But you need to do more in-person communication If you really want people to understand where you're trying to take the organization and what you're doing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so let's unpack that for a second in time. I love that you're laying out strategies and things that people walk away with, that they can do, but what do you say to the leader that's busy, the CEO that has 100,000 things to do, that I got to get this message out three times and I need them to check the email and people will make a policy reach email. What do you tell the leaders? I don't have time to say it three times. I need them to get it. I need them to get it the first time.
Speaker 3:If you don't have time to communicate with your people, then you don't deserve to lead. That's what I would say to you, because everybody is busy. Totally get it, totally understand, totally got high priorities and everything. But if you're not willing to make the investment of time for your people to understand the most important things in the organization, that is the vision, that's the values, that's the goals, and if you don't have time to repeat the vision, the values and the goals, how can you expect to keep people focused on the main thing you can to keep people focused on the main thing.
Speaker 3:Yes, you can't keep people focused on the main thing if you don't have time to communicate the main thing and if you don't create a culture in your organization where every leader understands that I need to spend time communicating the message and making sure people have the vision, that they understand the values, that they understand the values, that they understand the goals and they understand what they're going to be held accountable for, then what are you really doing? I mean, you just go into meetings rehashing things over and over again, or you're off chasing something bigger, but you don't have the team coming behind you because they can't keep up with the changing and the shifting priorities, because you don't constantly remind them of the vision, the values, the goals and the actions that you're expecting them to take and that you're going to try to hold them accountable for. I literally had a meeting recently with a client and it wasn't the senior leadership I was talking to. I was talking to the employees of the organization because, as a part of my keynotes before I come in to do a keynote with an organization, I do a detailed pre-event process. I ask them to give me the names of five employees and I'm going to interview them, ask them about the culture, the experience of the organization, so I can tailor my keynote content to not only solve their challenges that they have, but really speak to the concerns that most of them are having.
Speaker 3:So when I was with this client organization, I was talking to this employee and the person said to me my biggest frustration with this place, anton, is that we have a flavor of the month priority. One week is the year of our people, the next week is all about these patient satisfaction scores. The next week is about something else. The next week is about revenue. He says I can't keep up. I need to focus on one priority in order to be able to make a movement.
Speaker 3:But as soon as I get started on it, we shifted to something else and I said well, where does this come from? And their answer was well, we get the updates from the CEO about what the new priority is. And so I had to have a conversation about listen, you got to narrow, cast your focus in the organization to do the things that are necessary for your people to actually make progress. But every time you move the ball, every time you move the goalposts or change the yardstick, they're off chasing something else, which means they actually never have impact on anything. So it's critically important that leaders slow it down. Less is actually more. The less priorities means you can make more impact on fewer priorities, but sometimes it's very hard for leaders to understand how they have to do that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is very difficult, I mean because the world is changing so fast and things are moving 100 miles an hour. But I think, as you shared in the end, time is, your people don't need to feel the pain of running 100 miles an hour all the time. No, that we're working with trust shows up in every conversation, or lack thereof. How do you help a leader that's in an organization, that's running an organization, begin to build trust in an organization is the first question. Then I'll caveat it with the second question how do, if I'm coming in and I'm the person that's going to lead, how do I build trust? You know, because you don't have a year. It used to be, I think, when I came in position. I would get about 90 days to maybe 180, if I'm lucky to get my stuff together, that's not reality for a CEO today.
Speaker 3:Yes, you only got to have it in 45 days.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's really difficult because trust is something that is earned over time and not won overnight. But I actually do have a framework that every leader can use to start to build trust and to lock their trust in to their organization. It's to answer three fundamental questions that every employee is asking when they show up to work. So when I say every employee, it doesn't matter what role they play, how long they've worked there, whether it's their first day or whether it's their 25th year. Every day they show up, they're asking their leader three questions that they never verbalize. You can actually pretend that they have these questions tattooed on their chest, so they got on a t-shirt that has these three questions.
Speaker 3:Question number one is do you care about me? Question number two is will you help me to be successful? And question number three is can I trust you? And the reason why those three questions are important is you gotta understand that you have to show people that you care about them and you have to intentionally help people to be successful at their jobs in order for them to feel like that they can trust you. Because why would they ever trust you if you never once showed them that you care about what they're going through as a frontline team member or as a senior leader. How can they ever trust you if they never feel like that you're doing the things necessary to help them to be successful at work? And so let me unpack that while I'm on it.
Speaker 3:The first thing is is it's hard to show your employees that you care about them if you don't know them, and this problem was coming up over and over again with a lot of organizations that I was working with, and that's why it led me to develop a product. I actually have a team building in a leadership development tool called Just Know your Team. This is a deck of cards that is very simply and easily a way for a leader to use these cards to get to know the people on your team. Now, when I say get to know, let me just break it down with you, as a leader, you should know not only the first name of everybody in your team, but you should know how to pronounce it correctly, because one of the ways you can show people that you don't care about them is to intentionally mispronounce their names, or even repeatedly, unintentionally, and you can't pronounce my name as Anton. You call me Antoine, antwain, antonio, anthony, then you're showing me that you don't care about me to get my name right, if you don't know my spouse's name, my wife's name, if you don't know what my favorite color is, or whether I like and drink coffee or not, if you don't know the basics about who I am as a human being to show up at work, if you don't know me, then how are you really gonna show me that you care about me? Because if I don't believe that you care about me, why am I gonna invest into you if you aren't invested into me? Which leads to the second question, which is help. And when I say help, I want you to understand that I teach leaders.
Speaker 3:Your main responsibility is to give people the tools, the information and the resources to be successful at work Tools, information and resources. Tools means do I have all of the equipment that I need to do my job? That's number one Information. Do I know everything to be successful or am I finding out information last or am I being blindsided with information? That's the second piece.
Speaker 3:The third piece is resources. Is my team big enough? Because you know, there's plenty of people who get the burden of having to complete a task but don't have any help or support enough people on their team, complete a task, but don't have any help or support enough people on their team. So, as a leader, if you're not providing the tools, information and resources, you're not helping people to be successful and they are not going to trust you if they feel like they're being set up for failure because they don't have the tools, information and the resources.
Speaker 3:And then the last question is again trust that's where you started is is how do you build trust? Well, here's the short answer trust that's where you started is is how do you build trust? Well, here's the short answer I'm cutting through the chase now. The cut through the chase is this If you repeatedly show me that you care about me, if you repeatedly show me that you're helping me to be successful, then I know you got my back and therefore I'm going to trust you. But if you don't ever show me that you care, because you don't know me, and if you don't give me the tools, information and resources that I need to be successful, but your team is not going to trust you. That's just the bottom line.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, hopefully y'all are taking great notes. I mean, he's dropping all kinds of cues, you'll get his website and information at the end, but he's giving out real information that works. So, anton, let's dial it to. I'm that leader and I've made a mistake and broke trust with you. What's your quickest method that you can help me figure out how to rebuild trust once I've broken it?
Speaker 3:Yeah, when you asked me earlier am. I working on a new book and I'm actually in the process of writing my fourth book right now, and this fundamental question that you ask about breaking trust is at the center of that book, and that is leaders many times inadvertently, will break trust. Leaders will make a mistake. Leaders will fail. An organization will break trust with its customers, its consumers and constituents. We know the failure will happen at some point in time.
Speaker 3:So the first step that, if you really want to turn it around, the first thing you have to realize is that you did something wrong and a lot of times a lot of leaders won't admit that they've done something wrong, that they broke trust. I know a leader who literally broke trust or did something wrong with his team and he refused to acknowledge that it was wrong. So if you refused to acknowledge that it was wrong, so if you don't acknowledge that it's wrong and everybody else knows it's wrong, then there's no way that they're going to trust because you can't even be truthful and authentic and accountable to that something went wrong. That's the first step. Second step is this you have to apologize for what you did wrong.
Speaker 2:So you're telling me I'm a CEO, I got to come apologize to you because I didn't do something right. Absolutely yes.
Speaker 3:Absolutely Like. It's as simple as saying two words, or really a hyphenated word, and a second word I'm sorry. I mean, nobody ever died from saying I'm sorry. Yes, nobody ever died, nobody ever got fired for saying I'm sorry, yes. Usually people say I'm sorry after they've been fired because they didn't say I'm sorry in the first place. Yes, so I really try to get leaders to understand you're going to make mistakes and when you make a mistake, just say I'm sorry, really, just say I'm sorry, really, just say I'm sorry. And then the third part of it is is, once you say I'm sorry is ask the people what can I do to make this right?
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, I love it. Three steps Own it, apologize and ask what you can do to help make it right. But you're including them in the process, because what I'm hearing is don't just go off on your own and just do what you think may fix it. Get feedback from the people that's been offended by it. I love it. What advice do you give to those leaders that are enthusiastic? They're excited, that are good at what they do, but they're getting in their own way, they don't delegate and they don't empower?
Speaker 3:Yeah, delegation is. Delegation is a very important skill that none of us really learned growing up and actually, as you climb up the professional ladder, the goal is to try to take on more tasks for you, to show your worth and to show your value, to show what you can contribute, to show the dexterity of your abilities. Right, and if I was to use a sports analogy, in our younger years we learn how to play every position to be the point guard, to be the shooting guard, to be the small forward, the power forward and the center. We want to be able to show people that we can play all kinds of positions and that, no matter where it is, just give me the ball, I'm going to put it in the hoop. But that is a mistake. The higher you go up in the leadership ranks because successful teams are really around understanding what your strengths are and finding out the strengths of the people on your team and then giving them tools, tasks and the opportunity to use their strengths towards success in the organization. Which means before you can delegate, you have to understand what are the strengths on your team. You know what are people's strong suits or their skill sets in order to be able to do the work and then take a self-assessment to know what you're really really good at. And when you figure out what you're really really good at, or what you're great at, so to speak, that's actually the only thing you should be doing. You should not be trying to do what you're decent at or what you're okay at. Focus on what you're great at and delegate to your team the things that they are great at, because that's how you're going to get perfection in every role and every task.
Speaker 3:And this mentality of thinking that I have to control everything or I have to be the one to do it I'm just telling you there's not enough hours in a day, you don't have enough time on the clock in order for you to actually do all things, rather than leaning into the strengths of the people on your team and then asking for help that's the other part of it is that sometimes, if you struggle with delegation, literally state what you have to do hey, I have to do A, b, c and D. Is there anybody on the team that can help with any one of these four? And then somebody on your team will raise their hand and says, hey, boss, I can do D or I'm good at D and C, I can take those off the plate and that allows you to only focus on those two things that are left A and B. So sometimes it really is around understanding the strengths of your team, leaning into those strengths, helping them to be successful at what they're great at by offering the opportunity to allow them to take things off of your plate if you don't have the wherewithal or the mental wherewithal to say you know what. You're better at this than I am, and that's the greatest. Leaders are the ones who really learn how to delegate. Like if I look back at some of the greatest football coaches, I'm going to use Bobby Bowden as an example.
Speaker 3:I really don't like Florida State as a school, as a team, but he's a great coach and has been a great coach because he built the model where you would see him stand down at the end of the sidelines when the game was going on. He had on his hat, he had his arms folded, but he didn't have on a headset. You know why? Because he delegated running the offense to an offensive coordinator. He delegated the defense to the defensive coordinator, he delegated the special teams to the special team coordinator and they called on him when it was fourth down.
Speaker 3:Should we go for it, coach, or should we kick the field goal? So he made those decisive calls per game, and sometimes it might have been 10 or 12 calls, but a game normally has 85 to 90 plays on offense and defense. So rather than him making 180 calls, he narrowed it down to only 10. And that's why he's a national championship winning coach with some of the best teams. I mean that 93 Florida State team, the 99 Florida State team, were two of the best that ever played a game. One of them had a Heisman Trophy winner on it. Maybe both of them did, if I remember Chris Winkie and Charlie Ward because the coach literally got out of the way and delegated the majority of the responsibilities to the game plan. And that's what good leaders do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love it. I mean, use the sports analogy. You know, one of the things I share is you listen, always tell people that we get a chance to work where you can't be coaching player. Pick which one you're going to be and, as you're a player, you're real young and you got all the energy and all this wisdom and you're a subject matter expert. Once you become coach, you slower.
Speaker 2:You're not expected to be the subject matter expert when you become the leader, can you speak to leaders that think they must remain subject matter experts and not lean into this being an expert in leadership.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So, man, you really got me, got me on this one right here. So I will tell this when you become a leader, there is healthcare clinician, it doesn't matter what your expertise was. The moment you become a leader, that expertise becomes secondary to becoming an expert in understanding people. Yes, see, the art of leadership is really about understanding people.
Speaker 3:And what do I mean?
Speaker 3:Understanding people? What motivates them, what inspires them, what makes them angry, what makes them frustrated? Why do they show up to work every day? You need to become an expert in all of those things for every person that you lead. Because if I understand why a person shows up every day for work, if I understand their motivations, if I understand what makes them angry, what frustrates them, what literally puts them in a tailspin, if I understand that, then I know how to move more intelligently as a leader to get the absolute best out of the people on my team. And you can't get the absolute best out of your team if you don't understand people, particularly the individual people on your team.
Speaker 3:And that kind of goes back to my just know your team cards.
Speaker 3:This deck of cards is a tool to help you to really understand what makes your people tick in your organization, like I have a question in this deck that basically says what's your number one pet peeve? Like we take it for granted that you know, we know people, but have you really ever asked someone what their number one pet peeve is? And if they responded that their number one pet peeve is people who don't delegate responsibilities but yet you're the leader who never delegates, then you just alerting yourself that you're spending all your time doing the thing that really upsets your team and, as a leader, why would you want to do that? Why would you try to do that? You shouldn't do that. So my context is is you can't stay a subject matter expert other than becoming a subject matter expert in people, which will help you to become a subject matter expert in leadership. You have to know what makes people tick and what puts them in the best position to be successful, and that's your product knowledge, that's your expertise is in the people.
Speaker 2:The question for you. All this sounds like I'm working for my people, they work for me. I mean, I'm the boss. They show up, I paid them, I signed in front of the check. What do you tell a leader that has that mindset Like I feel like I'm doing all the work, like I'm working for them versus them working for me?
Speaker 3:them versus them working for me. Well, let's be honest, that is the job. The job of a leader is to know the people get the best out of them, and that's your day-to-day work. You, I mean like? Let me just be clear, I worked for the president of the united states of america.
Speaker 3:So every day, the president of the United States has a gazillion things that he has to do, a gazillion things, but the thing that he does more than anything else is meet with his people. That he leads meeting. Or when I say he, I worked for President Obama. He had a 6 am meeting with a small group of people it was four. Then he had a 7 am meeting that had about 12 in it. Then he had an 8 am meeting that had 25 in it.
Speaker 3:That's how he started every single day, meeting with his people in a group, and then for the rest of the day it was smaller groups of meetings, sometimes they were one-on-one, sometimes it was a group of three, sometimes a group of five, and sometimes those small groups would take him to an event and say here's what you need to do in this event. You're going to be here for 30 minutes. You're going to be here for five minutes. You may be here for the rest of the afternoon, but he got there because he spends his day with the people that he leads, understanding what they want him to do, need him to do to help them to be successful for the broader organization.
Speaker 3:And so, yeah, it might feel like you're working for your people, but you are and you should be, because you are the leader. They're looking to you for leadership and they're looking for you to do the work that they cannot do and they don't have the role and the responsibility to understand everybody in the organization. They don't have the responsibility to care about the people that they lead. They don't have the responsibility in order to build trust, lasting trust that is never broken. That's your job and that's the work. So, as I said a few minutes ago, if you're not willing to do the work of leadership, then you don't deserve to lead, and not everybody deserves a lead. And just because you got the title, just because you got the corner office, just because it looks good on a business card or look good on your LinkedIn profile and look good on your resume, doesn't mean you're earning your leadership, and leadership is earned every day.
Speaker 3:And it only takes a second to lose it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love it. I love it. I always tell people I think we get in trouble because the organization has this pyramid, if you will, anton, and this hierarchy, and I got what that image is and I think that we need to flip that upside down, that you know 21 years of military service, the lesson I learned when I became a leader. That was a hard lesson. I was feeling pretty good and full of myself, like man. I'd have worked hard, I'd have got promoted, got my education, I'm in charge, y'all work for me and my boss didn't know you work for them. They would report to you, but you're going to spend the rest of your time in leadership going forward. So when you think of it as a parent, most parents get it when you ask them the real question, because I work my butt off for my kids, like I go out here and I'm working, I'm doing hours, I'm paying for all the bills, but my kids come back and tell me their grades and I check in with them.
Speaker 2:You said something that's important. I'm going to wrap this up with the question around culture. You said something earlier. When you start thinking about leadership and taking care of people and ensuring that they know that you have their back. What's the greatest thing a leader can do when they take over a team that's been broken, disheartened, not treated fairly? And now I'm the new leader, inheriting a team that's feeling wounded. How do I get started in that position to start taking care of it?
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So very simply, I know lots of leaders who are coming in to pick up the pieces after things have gone wrong, and gone wrong for a long time. The first thing you can do is listen like really, really listen, and understand what people have experienced, understand what they want to see in the organization, what they want to see in their next leader. You got to have a listening ear. Building this habit in this process of getting to know people, because you're taking time to listen to them, is the most important thing you can do, because people want to be heard. A lot of times, people don't ever feel heard, particularly in a circumstance where things have gone south. They might've raised things before and they never got up to any kind of leadership level. You want to make sure that you create the space for people to be heard, and so your job is to listen. I would say go on a listening tour. I have this framework that I teach in some of my keynotes. I also teach it in my workshops. It's called the first 100 days, and in your first 100 days you need to do 100 one-on-one interviews in the first 100 days, and I get a lot of pushback. People say, oh, that's crazy man, I don't have time to do 100 one-on-one interviews, and I'm going to say it again 100 one-on-one interviews. And I'm going to say it again If you can't take 30 minutes out of an eight or 10 hour workday to interview an employee in the organization for 30 minutes to find out who they are, why they work there, what keeps them working there and what challenges they've experienced and what they want to see different in the organization, you don't deserve to lead. If you don't have 30 minutes to do that Now I say the first 100 days you probably could do three of those a day. You can take 90 minutes 90 minutes out of your eight or 10 hour workday to have three conversations and do that every week.
Speaker 3:For the first three and a half months you're in an organization and if you do it, let me tell you what's going to happen. You're going to come out of every one of those meetings knowing the culture and the character of the people that you work with. Number two you're going to come out understanding what they love about the organization. Number three you're going to come out with your work plan for the next nine months, because all of them are going to tell you the things that they don't like. They're going to tell you what's wrong. They're going to tell you what's broken and your job becomes to fix those things that they don't like, the things that are broken, the things that don't work.
Speaker 3:And that's the best way you can reestablish trust is because people are going to take a wait and see attitude. When a new leader comes in, they're going to say, yeah, well, he talked to me or she talked to me. Yeah, I heard her and yeah, I told her what was wrong. But if six months goes by and they don't see a single change or a single improvement, they're going to check out and say, see, she ain't no different than the last leader we had. They ain't listening to a single thing that we say. So my context for any leader is to listen, understand what's going well, what people love, why they stay there, what's not working and the super million dollar question. This is my great question that I tell leaders to ask If you were me, what's one thing you would change in this organization?
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, I love it. I love it. Anton, I'm going to do a rapid fire with you. Sure, we're getting ready to kick off 2025. And people are going to listen to this the first week of 2025. So I'm going to rapid fire. What's one thing that you'll tell leaders to make sure they do? To kick off 2025 to make it better than 2024?.
Speaker 3:Focus on your culture.
Speaker 2:Yes, what's one thing you'd tell leaders not to do that they may have done in 2024? That's not going to be helpful going forward.
Speaker 3:Don't cut out your diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
Speaker 2:Awesome, yes, thank you. Give me one thing I can do to delegate more. I've struggled with it in 2024. What's one thing I can do to turn it around immediately.
Speaker 3:One thing you can do to turn it around immediately is to find a person on your team that you trust and ask them for help.
Speaker 2:Yes, what's one thing I can do to empower my team so I can stop doing so much stuff I shouldn't be doing going forward.
Speaker 3:The first thing you can do to empower your team is to be transparent with them about all of the work that's ahead. The more information they have, the more they know, the more empowered they will feel to help you to execute what's ahead.
Speaker 2:How do I make my workplace more fun and I'm not talking to get pool tables, ping pong tables how do I make it a place of fun where we get stuff done but we also have a good time with it?
Speaker 3:The first way to make things fun at work is for you to be vulnerable and transparent as a leader. Tell people what your first car was and what you named it. Tell people the biggest mistake that you made with your kids. Tell people the biggest mistake that you made the first time you were in a manager position. Transparency and authenticity and sharing with people will allow people to share themselves, and that makes an organization like-hearted and fun, because you've shown them that you're a human being and not a superpower robot.
Speaker 2:How do I make sure that I'm accessible and people don't think I'm not reachable? How do I make sure that I'm accessible and people don't think?
Speaker 3:I'm not reachable. Best thing you can do to make yourself accessible is to set intentional hours, not just one hour but multiple hours where people can schedule on your calendar to come and meet with you. But you got to remind them that this time is for them to fill, so don't just set it and think that people are going to show up. You got to reach out to people and get them to fill it up and actually encourage people to come and meet with you.
Speaker 2:Awesome. Do you think I should have a mentor going into 2025 as a leader?
Speaker 3:Absolutely Everybody needs mentorship. There isn't a single person here who can be successful on their own, and you never will outgrow the need of mentorship.
Speaker 2:Awesome Anton, phenomenal having you on the show man. I mean you dropped a lot of knowledge. If someone was listening and watching this, what are the top three things that would be happening in their organization? To say, pick up the phone and give your organization a call that they can use your support.
Speaker 3:Yes, very simply. So, number one if you're concerned about your culture and retaining your top talent, I should be the first phone call that you make. I'm an expert in workplace culture. I'm an expert in leadership development and talent development in your organization, I should be your first call. The second thing is if you want to kick off your year with a bang, if you really want to set the tone and the intention for your teams to be successful in 2025, you should reach out to me because I am a dynamic keynote speaker.
Speaker 3:Now, when I say dynamic, this is how I explain what my keynote is like. My keynote is hip hop, smoothed out on a leadership tip, with a corporate feel and a business appeal. So, if you're looking to launch your team in 2025 in the right way, reach out to me. I love to be your opening speaker for an internal event or maybe even your annual conference. You just feel free to reach out. And the last reason why people will need to call me and you want some help around if you're worried about how you're going to be successful in this post-election landscape, I have a premium insight and analysis to help set business strategy on how you can thrive in any social or economic, political environment. It is my area of expertise. That is bar none in that space, and I can help any industry find a pathway to success, regardless of what's happening in Washington or even what's happening in the world.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, I mean, I love it, love it. So, anton, what's the quickest, most effective way to reach out to you?
Speaker 3:Quickest way. You can definitely go to AntonGunncom. I got a contact form on the page. You can go find all of the information you want to find about me. Secondly, if you want to call me, want to call me. My number is 843-732-4866, 843-732-4866 and that's basically 843-732-GUN reach out to me.
Speaker 2:We'll get back to you, be happy to help you and your organization. My last final question, and it's gonna. I know you're gonna be biased, but but who's gonna win the college national championship this year?
Speaker 3:oh, man, man, I'm super biased. He snob is who I am and what I am, and I think I'm going with the Texas Longhorns to win it all.
Speaker 2:The Texas Longhorns. I know Ohio's looking pretty good, I don't know what.
Speaker 3:yeah, they're looking dangerous right now they look dangerous, but they were dangerous because they was in cold weather. But when they got to play in a warm stadium and everybody got blood pumping through their body and not frozen to death, it's going to be a different circumstance, I believe.
Speaker 2:Awesome, awesome man, thank you. Thank you Now, if you put a title out for your next book, I know you're working on it. So is there anything you know?
Speaker 3:don't get in trouble with your team but do you have a title already out there? But I will tell you it's going to help you to build a world-class workplace. That'll be a cornerstone of it.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, anton, thank you, man, you've been phenomenal for our guests. That's listening, our viewers, our listeners. That's following us all the time. You know we're going to well, hopefully, you'll enjoy this and, as all of you are listening, we will tell you happy new year, because we're going to release this for you the first week. So if you're listening to this, you're already been celebrating that. You know, watch the ball drop, everything else that happened and you are already into the new year.
Speaker 2:So we tell you please, feel free to reach out to either one of us. We love what we do, we're friends, we're colleagues, we do the work together. We care about what we do. So you know, ron Harvey, with Global Core Strategies and Consulting, you can always find us on LinkedIn. It's the quickest and easiest way to find us. I'd be happy to support you, answer questions. So feel free to reach out to us, but, most importantly, please, please, add value, make a difference and take care of people that you're responsible for and responsible to. That's what leaders do all the time, and the reality is you do work for them. At the end of the day, they report to you, but you work for them and they're expecting for you to get it right. So until next time, anton and I will sign off and tell you Happy New Year and we're looking forward to hearing from you in 2025 and hope we get to do some type of partnership to help you and your organization be successful.
Speaker 1:Well, we hope you enjoyed this edition of Unpacked Podcast with leadership consultant Ron Harvey. Remember to join us every Monday as Ron unpacks sound advice, providing real answers for real leadership challenges. Until next time, remember to add value and make a difference where you are, for the people you serve, because people always matter.
