EPISODE 2:  ELEVATE

PODCAST 
TRANSCRIPT

Ep 2: ELEVATE, released 10/11/24

Hey, everyone, welcome to the Unstifled Podcast.

I'm your host, George Nijmeh, and this episode is called Elevate.

Elevating your employees is all about empowering them.

Empowering your team is everything.

Give people the freedom to make decisions and trust them to do their thing.

It boosts their confidence, creativity, and results.

It's not just about delegating.

It's about unlocking potential and watching your team crush it.

So because this podcast is about me trying to share my experiences with you, I'm going to start this episode by sharing an experience on the benefits of empowering your teams.

This experience will show you the benefits of team empowerment.

But before I do, I want to read off a few bullet points about empowering your team.

I'm going to read these bullets first.

So as I share my experience, you can see how it all falls in line.

All right, so here they are.

Delegate authority, not just a task.

Encourage problem solving.

Build trust.

Foster a culture of accountability.

Promote open communication.

And of course, last but not least, celebrate the win.

All right, so as I ramble off my experience to you, keep those points in mind.

All right, so one day, I was leaving work, as I always do, in my merry self.

Said bye to everybody.

Got in my car, and because I'm a big procrastinator, found myself at the gas station.

That's usually how my week ends at the gas station.

All right, so as I'm pumping gas, I got a call from one of my department managers.

And they are going on and on and on about how one of their coworkers in a different department would be just fantastic, would be awesome.

That this person would be great, he would contribute.

He knows how to do this, and he knows how to do that, and this is perfect for them, and this is what they wanted all along.

And all I'm thinking in my head is like, wow, this is great that they're collaborating at this level, and they're actually talking to each other, and they're being open with each other, and they're communicating, and they're sharing, you know, their future goals with each other, and how they want to move up in the company.

So I said, hey, I love the idea, but I'm at the gas station, and so, you know, let's talk tomorrow.

All right, so it's now the next day.

So what is going on?

The department manager who needs an employee is in my office.

He says, hey, listen, I got this great candidate, but he's in another department.

So I need your approval that I can get this person to be in my department.

And I, you know, I asked him who it is.

He explained to me who it was.

And I told him right away, I'm like, hey, listen, this person would need to be replaced almost immediately because they're just absolutely crucial to the day-to-day success of the other department as well.

So we can't just, you know, pluck them out of there.

I said, did you talk to the other manager?

So what did I hear back?

No, not yet, I was waiting to speak to you to see what you'd have to say.

I said, okay, so go ahead, let's do this, let's run with it, but go chat with the other department manager.

And the last little bit of information that I told this manager was, I, you know, whatever you guys come up with, I just don't want to disrupt the day-to-day operations.

So I told them, go speak with the manager, create a plan that works for everyone on their teams.

So I could have stepped in and created that plan and timeline and who I wanted to backfill the position with, but I didn't.

I wanted them to be empowered.

So that was the part of the conversation that was in my office.

So you're probably going, all right, wow, George, that sounds like everything kind of went perfect.

But yeah, not really.

So when everything just kind of sounded great, the outcome was not the best.

So what ended up happening is they failed to communicate the plan properly with their departments.

The manager spoke with each other about this person.

They took that person.

They started training that person, but they didn't explain to the other members of their team exactly what they were doing.

So they failed to communicate the plan properly.

And let's just say everyone wanted to kill each other the next day.

So how did I find out about this?

So that day, that afternoon, from the conversation where I told my manager he can talk to the other manager to take this employee, I actually received a few calls from Second Shift asking me what's going on, and they shared how it's affecting them, and how terrible this is, and how there's going to be some down time now, and we're going to lose some production hours.

So, you know, I thanked them for letting me know, and I assured them that I will help get everything cleared up, and that all this is for the best, and they will see that the next day.

I made sure to listen to the Second Shift employees' concerns, but I also made sure to support my managers at the same time.

So, here we are now, the next day.

The managers came to me, and I told them, hey, you know, I got a bunch of calls from Second Shift.

They said, yeah, no, we know, you know, they like to blow things out of proportion.

And I told them, like, well, hold on now.

You know, yes, that may be the case, but, you know, I think if you guys just communicated with them and shared the plan and address their concerns and then delegated any tasks that they might have to perform to, you know, ensure that you're able to pull this employee while you're training, that I think, I don't think they would have called me.

I think they would have worked with you guys better.

So what did the managers do?

After we had this little session in my office, the managers both went out.

They hit the reset button with their department employees.

They shared the goal.

They established a timeline.

And what happened is that their employees actually helped them by sharing the extra workload while they train and look for a replacement.

So all of them are now stronger than they were before.

And they have real life experience on the importance of proper communication and sharing objectives with their teams.

I told my managers when, you know, after this meeting and talking to Second Shift the following afternoon, that they did do a great job winning their teams over and learn from this and apply it to the next time they're making department changes.

All right.

So that was my rambling on that experience of mine.

So what is my point, right?

So the point is empower your team, but be there to support them.

So thinking back to my recent experience that I, again, I just rambled off, what happened there?

You remember the bullets now that I read off in the beginning?

So let's look at those bullets again, right?

So what were they again?

So I'm just going to spit them out again, and then we'll talk about them one by one.

So delegate authority, not just a task, encourage problem-solving, build trust, foster a culture of accountability, promote open communication, and like I said, last but not least, celebrate the win.

All right, let's go back to delegate authority, not just a task.

All right, so how was that done in this experience?

All right, so the position was okayed.

I did, you know, I okayed the position.

Then the manager had to speak to the other department manager about this decision.

And they were tasked with, you know, creating a timeline and working with each other to achieve this goal.

All right, so I didn't step in, I didn't pick anybody for them or anything like that.

The number two, number two bullet is encourage problem-solving.

So we're in the story was problem-solving and courage, right?

So you got to create the plan, you know, when to move, how to move, who are you going to backfill, how are they going to be trained?

Number three, build trust.

You know, I said, let's run with it.

I let my managers handle the department change.

They went out there.

They got to do everything with their employees.

I wasn't there, you know, putting training wheels on their bicycles for them.

The next one, foster a culture of accountability, right?

So we're in the story that that come up.

I told them, I agree with this, but it cannot affect the day to day, right?

So go ahead and do this, move.

You know, it's always great to upgrade your workforce.

It's always great to promote from within.

That's actually a huge policy of mine.

That'll be another upcoming episode about promotion from within.

You know, so again, accountability, right?

Go ahead, approved, but it can't affect day to day.

The next one is promote open communication.

All right, so where did this come up in that experience, right?

So second shift felt it was okay to call me and let me know their concerns, right?

So there was very open communication with me, at least, where at least out they told me what's going on.

And then the last one is celebrate the win.

And that was at the very end where I told my managers good job and to make sure that you apply all these lessons learned to the next event.

All right.

So in order to really appreciate proper empowerment, you need to see what the opposite looks like.

All right.

So what did I not do?

All right.

So this is what the opposite looks like.

So right.

So what the first thing in the opposite is micromanaging.

Right.

That's failing to delegate.

Right.

So that's constantly hovering over your team's work.

Right.

So had I done that, let's say the manager wanted to move another employee, I could have just easily said, okay, I'll take care of it myself.

Thanks.

I'll let you know when it's going to happen.

The other thing that the opposite would look like would be ignoring feedback.

I could have just said when they called me, when that manager first called me, when I was at the gas station, I could have just said, I'm busy, or I could have just ignored the phone call, or I could have just said, you know, this is not a priority right now.

And then what's going to happen?

That employee, you know, most likely would have just gone right back to his desk or, you know, back home and started looking for a job.

The other thing that the opposite looks like is taking credit for success, right?

I could have picked my own employee for that role, back filled with somebody else that I know.

I also know the people very well.

But again, horrible leadership style.

You know, let the man, the managers are your managers for a reason, right?

So, you know, it's their whole objective is to, you know, develop their own teams.

The other thing that the opposite looks like is punishing mistakes, right?

So, I could have written up my managers for disrupting the day to day, but what good is that going to do?

They're not going to learn anything.

Again, they're just going to go right back to their desks and then they're going to shut down.

They're going to say, you know what?

Forget this.

I'm never going to come up with an idea again, because every time that something goes wrong, I get in trouble and I can't lose my job.

I really need this job.

So, you know what?

It's just easier to be out of sight, out of mind.

And that again, when your employees are out of sight, out of mind, nothing is happening.

You're not innovating, and you're not growing.

And then the last thing here is being unapproachable, right?

So, I could have sat in my closed door office.

I could have not share my cell phone with anybody.

What would that have done?

Then I wouldn't have gotten a call from Second Shift.

And then I wouldn't even know that my managers needed my support.

I would have no idea that there was something wrong until I pulled up some report a couple of days later, and I would have asked them when it's almost too late, hey, what's happening here?

Why is this department's performance dropping all of a sudden?

I thought we were going to move someone to help you, and it's not helping.

And then the subject would have gone into a whole different situation.

We would have been focusing on data, as opposed to if I just addressed this issue and supported my managers in the meantime.

All right, so let's try to wrap this up.

Empowerment is all about trust, growth, and real connections, right?

When this happens, your team is unstoppable.

All right, we're going to go ahead, I'm going to read the bullets again of what you need to do to empower your team to elevate them.

And this is in absolutely no specific order, right?

So delegate authority, not just a task.

It gives your team the power to make decisions related to their work.

You trust them with the responsibility to choose their methods, timelines, and solutions.

The next thing is you want to encourage problem solving.

When challenges arise, encourage your team to find solutions on their own rather than immediately stepping in.

This helps them develop critical thinking and confidence.

Build trust.

Trust your team's abilities and demonstrate that you believe in them.

Do not micromanage.

Instead, give them the space to manage their own work and solve problems.

And then foster a culture of accountability.

Encourage accountability.

Make it clear that the team owns both their success and the challenges.

This fosters a sense of pride and responsibility in their outcomes.

Promote open communication.

Establish regular check-ins, feedback loops.

Again, do this without being too intrusive.

Make yourself available as a resource.

Don't hover over the team.

You know, give them freedom to manage their own work, but know that you're there to support them, just like in the experience I shared.

They went out there, they did everything on their own, but when it was time for me to support them, I stepped in, gave them some advice.

They went back out there and won over their team.

Again, that's the last thing.

That's celebrate the win, acknowledge and celebrate when teams take initiative, and they handle the projects independently.

Always positive reinforcement encourages more autonomous behavior.

Alright, so thanks for tuning in to episode 2, Elevate.

I want to just mention follow Unstifled on LinkedIn.

We try to do daily content on all things Unstifling.

And remember, an Unstifled team is a winning team.

Thanks!