From the Yellow Chair
From the Yellow Chair
You're Only as Strong as Your Bench: Why Team Strength Matters in Home Services
Ever wonder why your service business hits a ceiling despite your best marketing efforts? The answer might not be in your advertising strategy but in your leadership bench strength.
In this enlightening conversation, Crystal welcomes leadership strategist Elise from Velocity Leader to explore how contractors can build depth on their teams. Drawing from her experience coaching over 150 contractors annually, Elise shares invaluable insights about identifying and developing leadership potential within your existing team.
The discussion tackles the uncomfortable truth many contractors face: technical excellence doesn't automatically translate to leadership ability. Just because someone is your best technician doesn't mean they should manage your team. Leadership requires a distinct set of skills – emotional intelligence, communication flexibility, and the ability to stay calm under pressure. As Elise points out, "If you look at the most calm person in a room, that's your leader, regardless of title."
Both experts emphasize that leadership development must start with self-awareness from the top. Before building your bench, you must become "a leader worth following" who models the behaviors you expect. This means confronting common roadblocks like fear of letting go, perfectionism, and the need for control that prevent many contractors from developing strong teams.
The conversation provides practical tools for leadership development, including DISC training to understand communication styles, the "delegate and elevate" framework to identify strengths, and creating clear systems that remove excuses through documentation. Most importantly, they affirm that leadership can absolutely be taught to those who "get it, want it, and have capacity for it."
Ready to break through your revenue ceiling? Stop doing everything yourself and start developing the bench strength that will carry your business forward. Your future growth depends not on how hard you work, but on how effectively you develop others to lead alongside you.
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From the Yellow Chair is powered by Lemon Seed, a marketing strategy and branding company for the trades. Lemon Seed specializes in rebrands, creating unique, comprehensive, organized marketing plans, social media, and graphic design. Learn more at www.LemonSeedMarketing.com
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We'll see you next time, Lemon Heads!
Up Lemonheads. Welcome to another episode of From the Yellow Chair. Today I'm pulling out a little bit of a sports metaphor because those of you that know me, I'm Crystal and I love a good metaphor and analogy. So because, whether you love football or not, one thing that's true, and you're only as strong as your bench, and so in-home services growth really doesn't just depend on your starting lineup. It really depends on who's ready to step in, who's ready to come in when somebody goes down right, who's ready to take the lead and carry your business forward.
Speaker 1:I'm really excited. Number one, I love sports analogies and, second of all, I love leadership and understanding who you should be putting in what seat. So, whatever you're doing, listen up, grab your lemonade, because let's sip some lemonade, all right. So, joining me today, I'm super excited. I've always had this little from a distance relationship with you, and so I'm excited to have you here today. But joining me is Elise from Velocity Leader. She's the leadership strategist founder of this fantastic company that I've kind of gotten to see through some work with women in HVACR, but she works with contractors across the country about building depth on their teams, and so I'm really excited. So, elise, welcome to From the Yellow.
Speaker 2:Chair. Thank you, I appreciate the invitation. Yeah, we have. It is funny how we've had this friendship from afar.
Speaker 1:I know. Well, I always say this, elise like why should anyone care what you have to say? Like I try to have people on the show that really have some authority in the space that they're about to talk about, so why should anyone listen to Elise about leadership?
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, I've only coached and trained about 150 contractors last year and I'm on pace to do double that this year. So I have some experience in training and coaching, and before that I have about 12 years of experience on the wholesaler side for HVAC. So I started this company. To be perfectly honest with you, I started this company to serve this industry. My husband is a carpenter, owns his own business, so when I say that I am here to support and serve the trades, it is very near and dear to my heart.
Speaker 1:We're going to bond, we're going to have a trauma bond over that, because I'm the same way and people are like, yeah, you're in this to make money and so, yes, you know, you and I would love to make money, but at the end of the day, we just have a heart for contractors. I come from a contractor family. You live that life every day and it changes your perspective on doing. If it doesn't, yeah, yeah, it definitely does, yeah, absolutely, absolutely. So I know you've been doing this a long time with lots of contractors and so I'm really excited.
Speaker 1:So, you know, I think our first kind of topic that we'll dive into is man leadership for your company has to start with the head coach. Like operators were talking to you, owners were. Has to start with the head coach. Like operators were talking to you, owners were talking to you like leadership. A lot oftentimes is modeled right, and so the better leader you are, the better your team becomes, and so I love this idea. Like before, we can even talk about building the bench. Shouldn't we talk about how they should develop themselves as leaders?
Speaker 2:That's the first question I ask them. Usually, people don't wake up one day and be like, hey, I think leadership development is what I want to do, or I think you know, one doesn't roll out of bed in the morning and be like disc training would be a great thing for our team. You know, usually it's okay, you're experiencing something, some whether I'm the problem. I like to tell people like I have the Taylor Swift moment of like hi, it's me, I'm raising a little.
Speaker 2:Swifty, I'm a girl mom, but you know it can be. It's really the. That can be the the. The ceiling that they hit sometimes is it could be revenue. Sure, it could be that you're not willing to let go and and part everything, whatever, whatever level. I don't care if I'm talking emerging leaders, you know you're like the key technicians or the owners. It's what. Am I a leader worth following? Do I keep promises to myself? Am I doing the things that I've asked other people to do, that I've already done myself? I'm not asking you to do anything I haven't done already. Those are the things that you know that we talk about in terms of self-awareness. It starts with that.
Speaker 1:Oh, oh gosh. Well, and listen, like I was just talking to this, I'm doing a little little coaching program with a friend who's trying to build her business, and one of the things that we were talking about today was, you know, self-awareness will make or break you when it comes to your ability to adapt your leadership style. And so you and I both know that, like I can't lead every single member on my team the same there's different needs and different things. But, as a leader and as an owner, most contractors that I meet you know what they're excellent at Fixing heating and air conditioning equipment, installing water heaters, pest control. They're excellent at actually you know roofs and shingles and things like that. Yeah, they're not actually super excellent yet at being a leader, and I think that is such the epitome of our talk today is about. Just because you have a fantastic technician on your team does not mean he needs to be the lead technician. Just because you have a great CSR that's a rock star does not mean she needs to be your office manager. And so I know that, like I listen to contractors that are struggling with leaders the contractor themselves. They need help, they need leadership support on their team.
Speaker 1:I was listening to a contractor the other day. So it's a $5 million contractor in Florida and doing a great job. I mean, he's built this company literally with his bare hands right. So, like I'm here for it, I want to celebrate it with him, but he is so still down in the trenches that he no longer can. He can't, he can't look up, right, he's so busy looking down that he can't look up and he's so petrified to bring up someone into a leadership role that the other teams want to. You know, somebody's going to be mad and all these things. But, man, I just feel like before you can start working on your inner team, you, as the leader, have to look around and see what you're missing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's the hard part about that is so much of. It is what are the stories we tell ourselves, the inner narrative? I call it like the self-talk track. It usually is rooted in fear, because our brains we're wired as humans for comfort and familiarity. So any change that we go through where our brains initially like, well, it's going to go wrong. Well, what if this person doesn't like me? What? All these what ifs? And usually it's to keep us safe and familiar.
Speaker 2:And we want to start by recognizing that number one because, like so often that's why it's called a self-limiting belief is because our brains are like well, no, don't do that. And you're like but what if? What if I did it? And it was amazing, what if I did it? And I looked at this technician who has been with me for 15 years and we give him or her the opportunity to rise up and they do a freaking awesome job at it. What if they're better at it than if I'm an owner, operator and I'm good at running the business? Then run the business and bring somebody in to manage the people, to lead the people through the work. The work's going to get done regardless, but your job, that transition is, I'm going from managing the work to managing the people and getting the work done through them. So how does that shift take place? That's what we talked through. That's the first session in. One of the programs I lead is role of a manager.
Speaker 1:Yeah well, and it's so needed. And you know there's some common roadblocks. I think that contractors face like fear of letting go, which I mean heck. You and I probably deal with that in our own businesses Like the minute that I take my eye off my team of strategists, my team of graphic designers, the team of social media, when I take my eye off of those departments, that's normally when there's going to be a problem pop up right.
Speaker 1:So you constantly are like man, I just need to stay in it. If I stay in it, no problems will happen. And it's just not true. And yes, it is a bumpy road to start letting go. But when you start letting go, you have to let go. So you can't micromanage, you can't Monday morning quarterback, you cannot do all of those things. You have to let it go and then give advice and give direction. Perfectionism is another thing. Perfectionism is another form of procrastination. You just don't want to go because it's not perfect. Listen, rarely is anything perfect when you release it, rarely, right, and then just overall lack of control. I think contractors feel like man, if I let go, you know, at least if I let go and I start like letting these leaders really lead, like they're not going to do it like me.
Speaker 2:Totally get it. That's a fair like guess what? They're not going to do it like you. I can a thousand percent promise you they're not going to do it like you. True, that's the things and checklists as you want, but they're going to put their own style flavor, whatever you want to say on it. The thing is, if you delegate tasks, you're just going to create followers, and so that's not going to give you.
Speaker 2:If you delegate authority, that's how you create leaders. And if you're going to put someone into a position, wouldn't you trust them to do their job? Because if you don't, then why step in? I think that's more damaging than anything. Is you put someone into a role and say, okay, hey, take the lead on this job, or I want you to run point on this conversation in the home, Cool. But if you start jumping in and starting to like you know, in your head you're like well, I'm going to save them, or I'm going to say it this way, them they're going to sit there and be like oh, I don't even really know why I'm here, and so that's the thing I try to remind leaders is like the difference is, when I give you a task, do this thing, this specific way. All right, when I'm going to delegate authority, it sounds like here's the project.
Speaker 1:I trust you to go figure it out, yeah and so I'm a very much a delegator, maybe even an over delegator, um, and I feel like like, hey, I'm gonna give you some tools and I'm gonna give you the end result, but how you get there I could freaking care less. I had a contractor tell me one time I just need to know what time it is, not how to build the clock. And so, as an owner, you're managing multiple things. So, like emily and I here at Lemon Seed, we're constantly managing, you know, new client rollouts and new brand rollouts and new team members, and we moved locations. What shows are we going to go to? So if our operations manager kind of sat in a weird spot where she had no power at all, we would really still be doing all the doing, just paying somebody to ask us questions over and over again.
Speaker 2:You know, I'm like I'm just not here for that.
Speaker 1:Like I need to figure out how to empower, and that's also why I think it's very crucial in those first few months of onboarding. At Lemon Seed we call it the best onboarding ever because our goal is it is the best they have ever been onboarded with a company ever and we want them to be empowered.
Speaker 2:Well, that's, I mean the first 60 days is crucial. Like going from my HR background, I mean the first 60 days of any hire is critical because that's where they're trying to say, okay, they're, they're measuring it going. Is this what I thought it was? Is this, you know, is my, are my expectations being met? Sure, there's honeymoon stage and all that, but if it's a, if it's a shit show for onboarding, they're going to go. What did I just get myself?
Speaker 1:into. That's right. And the other thing is like I think operators hit a revenue ceiling and it has nothing to do with actual sales but a lot of things to do with leadership. So again, I'm going to speak on a contractor behalf here.
Speaker 1:The other day I was like man, these marketing tactics that we're doing for this client based in Oklahoma, like we're doing great things for this client, and the phones are ringing, the leads are coming in, they're not converting anything, but in the owner's mind it's a marketing problem. And I'm like this is not a marketing problem, this is a team problem. So our strategist was like, hey, we're not closing phone calls. Like we're not converting, we're not selling anything. And basically the operator was like well, you know, if I force them to convert over to our membership club, they get real mad. And I'm like do you get real mad when you don't make any money this month? Like you're the, you're the boss, right? So you have to set the expectations. And so that revenue ceiling? Yes, it might be because your team won't sell, your team won't upsell, your team won't close whatever.
Speaker 2:But that's because you're allowing that behavior to go on you're spot on, and it's because they don't want to have the hard conversation. They don't want to not be liked or right, but whose business is, at the end of the day? I mean, no one's going to be as invested in that company as you, the person who owns it, which I now have a very appreciation for now these days, well, as the owner you know you don't have to know how to play every position you know.
Speaker 1:So when you look at baseball coaches right in the major leagues and you look at the coach, they don't go. You know what they were an all-star, third baseman, shortstop second baseman, pitcher, outfielder, a relief hitter. They were awesome at something, probably Like they were a good pitcher, they were a good outfielder, and a lot of them don't do a ton of pro work themselves because you know why.
Speaker 2:They're not an excellent athlete, they're an excellent coach and that is so different and that's I can think of a contractor that I work with out of Indianapolis.
Speaker 2:He put two managers through one of my programs and he was like I need these guys to elevate because I know that I am better at the operations and the work side of it and I'm not great with people Like I just and him even acknowledging going back to even our you know, beginning of this conversation self-awareness he had his resi, his residential manager and his service manager going through the class together, so one, they have that shared experience and language, but he's he's recognizing that like I can't do it all.
Speaker 2:I have to have these guys step up and lead because those two especially. The other question that we forget is do we ever ask our technicians or the best, whatever key player, right, they're going to elevate into management? Have we ever asked them if they want it, why they want it? Those are I mean, if you want it, because I've had this conversation. I'll be delicate about it I had that conversation with someone on the corporate side, wholesale side, and the person wanted that title because they wanted the title and the authority and the power that came with it.
Speaker 2:But knowing that I'm going to go into that conversation going. Okay, I had a mentor once that said that leading people is a privilege. Is it messy? Are people messy? Absolutely. But I want people that I'm putting into management to understand that they are there to serve and lead others. You, you look good because they. I mean, yeah, you want the people to to to do it to make everyone else around them look good, Not just them. And if you read Extreme Ownership, I mean that book. If the team fails the fall on the sword, man, own it. I mean that book. If the team fails the fall on the sword, man, own it. I mean that's.
Speaker 1:Yeah for sure. Well, so once we have some self-awareness as owners, once we start realizing putting people in the right seats and doing some good things, now I think we can talk about building our bench Right. So you know, my dad taught me this.
Speaker 1:I was playing seventh grade basketball and those of you that know me, I'm about five foot tall and a little chunky friend, like I'll own this. And so I'm like I don't look like I play basketball and I've kind of been this same shape and build my entire life. But my dad was like, yeah, but you're a great, like person to come in the game because you may not be the best shooter, the best point guard, the best let those that are like superstars go run this but you're great. You know what you do. You fill in gaps and I remember thinking like I don't know if I should be offended or. But as I've grown older, the more I realized like, man, there's power in filling in the gaps and there's power in playing your position of what's needed. And so, alisa, what do you really think the bench really looks like inside of a service company? Should we be identifying emerging leaders? Is it just you know key people like who, when we say bench, who should we be focused on?
Speaker 2:It's going to depend on the company, right? Are you doing commercial work, residential? You know, of course, that that kind of mix but I think I the first part starts with. For me, as the owner, if I look around, who's in my leadership team? Who do I want to elevate, because you can't do it all? I mean, we only have 24 hours, right, I think that the bench is going to look. It may look different for each company, but really, you're going to look at, okay, I don't need to elevate them tomorrow. Let's remind ourselves that this doesn't have to happen overnight.
Speaker 2:But what are those people that I can pull into key roles that, as we grow the business and it gets larger, we're going to need to think about how we have to staff up marketing. We have to staff up HR. Potentially, can those people wear those multiple hats? Of course, you can have an HR team of one for years before you grow, but dispatch technicians you're going to need, especially if you have aggressive growth goals. How are we developing our bench? How are we making sure that we have people to fill those roles to accommodate for the growth in our business that we're going to have? And then from there, okay, now we're going to elevate some managers. What kind of things am I looking for when I'm elevating managers? That's really the conversation to start with and that's where I have those conversations with them, thinking about where are they going to go?
Speaker 2:Who do you want to elevate and what do you look for? That's one of the key things. It's not always to your point. It's not always the high performers. It doesn't have to be the tech who does the best work or the sales guy that has the highest average ticket sale. It can be someone who who understands how to motivate and lead people. It's somebody that people already follow and have that influence.
Speaker 2:You know you, you tap them on the shoulder and you're like, hey, we're going to, I'm thinking about, you know, maybe pulling in a new CRM, and they're going oh gosh, right, Right, I know that's what I we won't go down that example too long, but they're the ones you go to to go hey, I want to read on what the guys are going to like what am I going to get? What am I missing? They're your kind of bell cows that you're that you're going to tap on the shoulder, going, hey, I'm thinking about doing this. Where do you, where do you see for pushback? What do you see for? You know that those are the people that you're. You're already trusting them and they have the influence. Tap them, get them in the, in the mindset of like, oh gosh, they actually value me.
Speaker 1:I you know, yes, I love this, I love this train, that we're on here for a second, so not everyone's really ready for leadership at the specific moment, right, but you should be seeing glimmers of, like man, that tech, something special about that technician or or heck, an installer or a CSR used to see. You should see glimmers, right, and they just need a little coaching, a little cultivating, right, but how, what are you? What do you think are some key things that may be and I'm sorry I didn't prepare you for this question, but I think you're- going to answer it, but how do we?
Speaker 1:what are some tools that maybe not tools? What are some things about people that maybe not tools? What are some things about people that maybe would help us recognize that they're ready, maybe, for leadership cultivation? Are there certain yeah, are there some certain characteristics that maybe and maybe this goes for any business that people show. That should be an identifier for us as owners that this person might be a good, a good candidate for leadership.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. So. That is a great question, and I touch on this yes, there are. So in the HR world we call them hypos high potential employees and so there's going to be characteristics that they share. Number one, I mean they have to consistently perform well, and it doesn't need to be I didn't say top of their, you know all that but consistently performing well, because that means that they're holding themselves accountable, they're doing things consistently. They must have some sort of discipline right. They should have a strong drive for growth and performance. They should be coming to you Either they're stepping up, naturally to take the lead in certain things, tasks or experiences, but I want them to be seeking learning opportunities and not being complacent. I want them to.
Speaker 2:If you're a company that has defined your values, does that person live your values? Because that's really where it becomes more than the plaque on the wall or the coffee cup and the warm fuzzy feeling You're like. No, they're living them. And the other piece that I was kind of getting at this when change comes about, are they a positive change agent? Because those are the. Those are the characteristics to me that I have seen. I have a couple more, but those are the ones that that at top you know quick glance, you can think through people and be like yep, yep, yep.
Speaker 1:Well, we, you know we just did. We're going through EOS and Emily is kind of our implementer. We're self-implementing it and one of the things that I've loved about it is that, you know, do they get it, do they want it, do they have the capacity for it? And you know, I look at that sometimes, and so yesterday we had all of our team here recently and I stood up in front of the room and said, hey, you know our operations manager. She was like who wants to be in leadership? And they're raising their hands and I said I want to be very clear that leadership.
Speaker 1:There are things that we look for Solution-driven people, positive people that are uplifting others naturally. So if you have to work really, really hard at to me and again, maybe I'm out of line here so if I'm going to step on your toes, like just hang with me. But you know, I think about, like, if you have to struggle really really hard to encourage others or you're not a natural encourager, you're not a natural motivator it's going to be extremely hard to have a bonding moment with your team, because they want to feel protected and supported and celebrated, and so that can be a little bit of a challenge. But you also have to weigh in on the facts that some people go too far the other direction and everything feels very superficial and not true, and so it's a very fine line there. But you know, just teaching your team now, set the tone now with your team that leadership is different from the skill set that their job is.
Speaker 1:So you might can install a system like a hero right, change out a water heater like nobody's business, but can you lead a team when they're? Because you start looking at leadership right At least? I know you're going to relate to this too, but you know, and you're not just dealing with their job performance, like you're a counselor, you're a, you're a, you're a navigator, you're a supporter. You have to celebrate you. There's it's very emotionally complex to be a leader. Celebrate you. It's very emotionally complex to be a leader and no matter how good of anything else you are technically, those leadership skills are what will make and break you in a leadership role.
Speaker 2:Well, and one I want to congratulate you for. Thank you for saying out loud what you want a leader to look like at your company, Because that's as simple as we don't need to overthink it. Tell me what good looks like. Tell me what a leader looks like at Lemon Seed or ABC Contractor, Like. You'd said it out loud. So now I understand.
Speaker 1:Oh, it's not.
Speaker 2:Crystal or Emily, you know like they're saying it out loud. And the other thing you talked about was emotions. Like I want people to be, I want them to manage their own emotions really well, and we and as an industry, we've had very terrible role models. I understand, but that's not an excuse. I want people to be dealing with conflict, especially because so I want them to deal with it without the use of aggression or silence or violence, anger. I want them to be when I. I need someone that is in control of their emotions, that they are calm, not like a duck on the surface but underneath their paddle and like no, I want someone who's very if you look at the most calm person in a room, that's your leader, regardless of the title, because we have people throughout our companies that are leaders without that title.
Speaker 1:I believe that. No, I do too. I do too, and just to like piggyback a little bit on that, like I always think through the importance of a path, people seeing a path, and I don't really have a problem looking at someone and saying you're right, there is no other leadership role to go to from here. You've reached the apex of what you can do here. So you either have to own that, know it and love it still, or we completely understand if you're like looking for different directions. But I can't continue to pacify people all the time and I feel like our poor ops manager a lot of times, like we spend a lot of times pacifying people for sake of like not being held hostage. We don't want to be held hostage by our team, and so I think that's that's definitely important.
Speaker 1:But we actually shared what we call best of the zest leaders, and so what makes you the best of the zest? And we have a literal list and I know that they were probably sitting out there my little 24, 25,. Our average age is 31. So you know they're probably sitting out there and looking and going. You know I'm not ready for this, but if they were to see the role published, they'd be like well, they didn't even look internally. We don't have anybody ready internally, and so, but again, you're right, like I love that we prioritized that for our team. I love that for our team because I want them to really feel successful. Well, what do you think, lisa, are some go-to tools for leadership development? Like, if I'm not mistaken, you use DIS training. I do, yep, yep, I'm a high high.
Speaker 2:Are you shocked? So am I Right? Yeah, we had some. I had some structure before this coming into this, so I was like, oh boy, two eyes in a room, we'll never get out alive. Um, we can do this for hours, yeah, we have three hour podcast.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right, um, and that's probably why we've been friends from afar too. Yeah, blisk is awesome for getting to know our leadership style, and by that I mean communication style, because so often we communicate from our preferred style without even realizing it, and that is one key that I've gotten to know myself better. And so, as the owner, go through the experience yourself, but then have the whole team go through it, because once you understand everyone else's style, here's the real flex, if you will right, this is where I need you to flex your communication style to meet the other people. It's not their job to know how to communicate with you. Sure, a little bit, you need to model the way, like anything else. I mean, I feel for you in terms of being a leader, but leading by example and people are always watching you. Holding yourself to that higher standard is really what, what makes a difference?
Speaker 2:And, uh, you know, I've been with my husband. I'll tell you a little story, because his style is different than mine. Um, I've been with him for 18 years and it wasn't until and I really hate to admit this, um, until a few years ago that I started, you know, actually practicing what I preach, and he is an S, so he is like steady, loyal, calm. What I have noticed is, in order for me to communicate with him better, I need to use more contemplative language instead of being like you know, hey, what are we doing for dinner? I want to do this thing this weekend. I have to approach it as I was thinking about doing such and such. What do you, what do you think about that? Or I don't need an answer right now because traditionally, or I guess, for me, um, I've worked with a lot of D's in my career.
Speaker 2:And so there I can be very blunt, direct love that, like I can shoot him a text and be like hey, what are we doing? Hey, you know, and when that version of me walks through the door, she's not as welcomed shockingly as at work, and I don't get the same results. It's just not good, and so I've had to adjust my style and it's been working a lot better. Imagine that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, their love language. You know I'm a strong Christian and so I read the Love Languages book for children and for my spouse and so, like my husband is quality time and acts of service and I am words of affirmation and I'm probably quality time now. But you know, when I look back, like you're saying, like especially both of us, like I have a very high D for a dad and a brother, and so my little I self was just trying to survive with those two dominant people in the room and me just wanting to talk it out. There was no talking it out. Like we're, you know, we're getting to the point, we're clear and direct, and so I've had to learn a little bit. Like I had two choices right, as a high I, I could walk into the room and be offended that I wasn't able to talk out every inch of every detail of my idea and nobody wanted to high five and celebrate with birthday cake. Right, I could be offended. Or I could adapt my personality and say, hey, I would love to really explore this more. Can I get some time on your calendar where I could set expectations for them? Like I need 30 minutes of your time when you are mentally prepared to give me space and it worked well for us.
Speaker 1:But, you know, I struggle a little bit with like I don't want people to think I'm two-faced, but I certainly deal with every single person that I interact with differently, based on how I think they receive joy. Like I want people to leave any interaction with me, or limited, filled with joy, filled with hope, filled with positivity, not feeling like I put them through a ringer and beat them up, you know, and so those things are important in both, like who we are, as core values for lemon seed, and so as a leader, like my goal is always I may have to give you hard, hard words, but at the end I want you to walk away feeling, feeling good about a hopeful resolution and things like that. And so you know you're right, that's a definite go-to tool. Um, is that just like get to know who your people are on that scale and there's tons of other scales, but I love, I personally love this too. Um, I just think it's one of the easier ones to do. So, and again, when you know that it reduces trauma, drama, uh, you know, like, I tell everybody like, like, do not go, put two high eyes together in a room and be like, oh my god, y'all got nothing done.
Speaker 1:What did you think? Right, they're still talking about the project. They've not put one thing on paper. They're still celebrating. You know, um and same thing. Like you can't put a high d like with um, what'd be really hard to put them with a someone like an eye that's just running around the room like a crazy squirrel and how D's try to get stuff done. They complement each other well, but you have to have open eyes right, you have to have open eyes.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So what's interesting about that is you need every style on a team. Truthfully, I mean, is there going to be conflict? Yes, one style is going to rub off on the other styles. That's conflict.
Speaker 2:The D's and I's work well together because they have that same high urgency action. That's where D's and I's will my husband and I have more conflict about lack of action or like quick response, like urgency, because he's like I want to take my time, I want to think through questions or I don't love to be put on the spot. I, you know. There's just certain things where you have to take that into account. I'll live on the spot. I'll live on the spot. I mean we can pivot, like at the drop of a hat. We can, we can. Just we're okay with that.
Speaker 2:Other people it makes them super uncomfortable and very like outside there.
Speaker 2:I mean, think if you ask one of your technicians who kind of like hi, mrs Jones, this is downstairs Cool, and you're like, hey, I want to bring you to that home show next weekend, they're going to like crawl out of their skin, like I don't want that. So you take another technician who is a high eye hey, I want you to. Maybe he's somebody that you think could be in leadership someday, or you want to give them little tests to see how they do, that's a great one, where it's like, hey, I think that you could be good, maybe you sales role or who knows pull them into different experiences to give them that opportunity to see how they do and, if they like it and it's a conversation I mean invite them into the conversation. You don't have to tell them what you're thinking entirely, but give them the opportunity to have those moments that challenge their growth, and DISC is great for that, because it's an experience for them to get to know themselves better and grow and know themselves. It's wonderful.
Speaker 1:I love that. Well, you know, my sister runs a pest control company, she and her husband. So you know I live in the trades. It's just what it is.
Speaker 1:But one of the things that I told her and I learned this a long time ago when I worked for Lufkin Coca-Cola I learned that if I can remove the excuses that anyone might have, I need to go through and look at their environment and make sure that I remove any excuse that they might have for me being the reason that they failed or didn't succeed.
Speaker 1:And one of those was like classic, like having SOPs, you know, having processes in place and listen, it will be torturous to get all these things documented, Like let me just call it what it is, but, man, it is one of those things that it is like a struggle to get through when you're in the midst of it, but you're so glad you did it when you're done with them, Because you can actually remove and say when people say, well, I didn't even know how to do that, yes, you did, you had access to this right.
Speaker 1:Well, I didn't know what the expectations are. Yes, you did. We utilize train you will hear at lemon seed for all of our training documents and documentation of any like lemon seed way we call it of what we want. Um, but I, you, I have to know that to execute consistently, definitely, creating your playbook or your, you know, no pun intended but 100% pun intended recipe for you know, the recipe for how you want your team to be successful is very important, because leadership isn't always a personality trait, right? Do you feel that leadership can truly be taught?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I absolutely think it can be taught. They have to. So your point earlier they get, you know they have to get it, they have to want it and it's a journey You're never I don't think you're ever really arrive. I mean, what I think is the leaders if they're continually trying to grow themselves and get better, they're going to create that culture around them. Leaders breed leaders. I don't know who said it, I hate to say it. We're not claiming it, but it's still a good quote, I hate to say that out loud.
Speaker 2:We're not claiming it, but it's still a good quote, right, but they do. It's because they do it in every way. Like you know how people people that have done work on themselves show up differently. They do and they, they genuinely want to empower and bring other people up around them, and that's that's the spirit of what you're looking for is those people that are others focused when it's such an it's you can get caught up in, being centered me, centered me, focused. Yeah, yeah, that's another one. So you guys use EOS. Have you used the tool? Delegate and elevate.
Speaker 1:Not, not yet.
Speaker 2:Okay. So it's one of those. I use that for my own when I was an individual contributor and I felt sort of stuck in where I was and I didn't really know where I wanted to go. I actually just had this conversation with a friend earlier this morning. It's a four quadrant page that's split up and it's just because you're good at something doesn't mean that you have to like it. Right, like there are things what do I love and I'm good at. What do I like and I'm good at what do I, what am I good at, but I don't like it, and what am I not good at and I don't like it.
Speaker 2:For me, I took an inventory of that for probably a quarter, if not six months. Every Friday I'd go in and I'd write down things Okay, what's something that fired me up, what's something that gave me energy? Because there are all these different experiences or tasks, different things like that that'll give you energy, and there'll be things that that suck your energy, that you kind of just feel drained or exhausted afterwards. Those are your strengths, your values, like your uniqueness. That's speaking to you and that's what's in alignment, and so I would even do that for an individual contributor or a leader who is trying to figure out what.
Speaker 2:Why am I like? Why do I feel like I'm not able to move forward? Why do I feel like maybe it's it'll help you to? Again, the idea is to delegate so you can elevate others. I guarantee if you had people on your team, all across your team, they would do that. And somebody that's like in that bottom box where you're like I don't like it and I don't like I'm not good at it, I bet you there's somebody on your team that's like I love doing all of those things.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, and you're like you can have it. I'm over here, Like you can have this for sure. Well, Elise, thank you so much for sharing Like I feel like we could talk for hours, but I just want our listeners to remember that every great team wins not just because of the starters, not just because of the best operator, but honestly because they build a bench of teams that are ready, they're trained, they're trusted, and so, if you want to grow past where you are now, maybe it's time to stop doing everything yourself, Start delegating to elevate, as she just mentioned, and start coaching your team to rise with you. A huge thank you to Elise. Elise, if people want to get in contact with you, of course it's in the show notes, but how can people reach out to you and learn more about how you support leaders?
Speaker 2:They can reach out to me on LinkedIn or you can visit my website, velocity-leadercom.
Speaker 1:Perfect and listen if you loved what you heard today. Elyse and I would both love for you to share this podcast with a leader that you think might need encouraging Talk about us. Follow us on our social media of From the Yellow Chair Guys. Thank you so much for listening. Please keep sipping that lemonade and marketing with a purpose. I'm Crystal. No-transcript.