308: Leading with Impact to Help Your Team Succeed with Lia Garvin

Melissa [: 00:00:00

Welcome, friends. You're gonna wanna stay with us today. I have got an absolute leadership expert who's gonna be breaking it down for you today on how you can more effectively be leading your teams, running your business, getting all the results, creating all the impact. Need some effective tactical advice that actually helps you get results and makes a real difference in your life and business? You've come to the right place. If you're finding yourself here today, it means you're getting ready to gain serious traction in your business, rapidly multiply your income and impact, and you're ready to make it happen while living all out. Guys, I'm Melissa Henault, your trustworthy corporate dropout turned 6 figure business burnout turned happy and healthy CEO of a multimillion dollar online business, and you're listening to the burnout to all out podcast. On this show, we're serving up innovative growth strategies, simple implementation methods to put them into practice, and action stimulating inspiration tailored specifically for the modern entrepreneur. Let's dive in.

Melissa [: 00:01:18

Leah, so excited to have you here today on the burnout to all out podcast.

Leah [: 00:01:23

So excited to be here. Oh my gosh. I'm such a fan, and I love all that you're doing and and excited excited to be doing it live on LinkedIn as well.

Melissa [: 00:01:29

Yes. And I think what's so cool I'm gonna break down your bio here in just a second for everyone, but you're gonna wanna listen in. What I love about Leah is that she's been in the corporate world. She's worked for Fortune five hundreds, and now she's running her own business. She's coaching and she's consulting in the leadership space. And like that in itself is like wildly inspirational. You've published multiple books now. You're a TEDx speaker.

Melissa [: 00:01:52

You have broken through to the entrepreneurial realm and it's really, really cool because you're an inspiration to a lot of my listeners. You're an inspiration to a lot of my followers over on LinkedIn. And so today, what we're really gonna do with Leah is we're gonna unpack her journey through corporate and the journey of exiting. And then on the back end, on the second half of the interview, we're really gonna dive into strategies for effective leadership. But before we get started, for those of you who don't know who Leah is, I'm gonna give you the formal bio. The informal bio is she's a good friend of mine. We were in Chris Harder's mastermind together, and this is the value of investing in masterminds and meeting amazing people.

Leah [: 00:02:31

So Yeah.

Melissa [: 00:02:33

And she's been a guest expert inside of my mini mastermind, and we're in conversations about her coming back again because you just bring so much value. So really quickly, Leah is the team whisperer. So she transforms workplace dynamics through practical leadership strategies honed during her tenure in Google, Microsoft, and Apple, and she's a three time best selling author. We're gonna talk about your latest book, The New Manager Playbook today, and a TEDx speaker. So Aliyah breaks down complex management concepts into actionable frameworks to reduce overwhelm and improve team performance. And her best selling book and top ranked podcast, The New Manager Playbook, showcases her unique abilities to make leadership accessible at all levels. And I know you've been featured in the Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, Wall Street Journal, Fortune. I Leah brings a rare insight from both executive and the ground level perspectives.

Melissa [: 00:03:29

And I think that's really valuable making her sought after as a consultant for organizations seeking tangible operational improvement and team excellence. So Yes. Yes. What an accomplishment. So let's go back before we dive into effectively leading your teams. And especially, I have a lot of entrepreneurs who have Yeah. Their subject matter experts. They start as, like, a solopreneur like you are now.

Melissa [: 00:03:53

Like, you start and then you start hiring people.

Leah [: 00:03:56

Yeah.

Melissa [: 00:03:56

But unlike you, a lot of the entrepreneurs I mentor had no leadership experience. They just came up with a great idea, and they hire one contractor and then another contractor, and the business starts to take off. And then all of a sudden, they've got, like, eight people under them.

Leah [: 00:04:12

Yeah.

Melissa [: 00:04:12

And they have zero experience leading teams. And this can be catastrophic to a really good business. So we're gonna get into that. But before we do, let's talk about your inspirational story. Like, take us back to Google, Microsoft, Apple, the big companies. And where did you get the drive and the motivation to pivot? Like, what drove the move for you, if you don't mind sharing?

Leah [: 00:04:41

Absolutely. So thank you for the amazing intro. And, again, so excited to be here because the exact thing that you mentioned we're gonna talk about, that's the struggle that I think both folks face in corporate and without. It's inheriting a team or sort of amassing a team and then being like, oh, wait a second. Like, I don't have all the pieces here. And so my journey in the corporate world was driving team operations. So I worked inside of product teams, ensuring that everyone had all the information they needed around timelines, project requirements, deliverables, all of that. So really in that program management space within the product team.

Leah [: 00:05:17

So I say that because a lot of times folks assume I have a HR background, and I actually don't. I have a real operational programmatic background. And in doing that, I had this visibility into, well, wait a second. If we have the smartest folks in the world, the highest paid people, we have all the resources in these companies, why is it still hard to get things done? Why are there still missed deadlines? Why are there still miscommunications? Why are people frustrated? Because all the pieces were there. And so it couldn't be because folks weren't trained in the right ways or whatever. It was something else. And so I developed this passion for kind of getting under the hood and figuring out, well, what really was going on on teams when they weren't performing? Mhmm. When they weren't delivering? Or what was the difference between a team that had all the same sort of conditions and then one one did and one didn't? Right.

Leah [: 00:06:03

And I started to see that over and over and over, it was these underlying miscommunications or team dynamic issues. And so I started to say, okay. Well, if we open up lines of communications by creating a really simple status report, or where is this process too complicated, or where are we having two people really working on the same things because there's too many meetings or too few meetings to talk about. So I started to implement really targeted things to help open up lines of communication. Mhmm. And that's why, you know, when you talk through my bio, it says actionable, simple, practical so much because so much of this is theoretical. And I think when we actually peel it back and say, what are some easy wins and things we can do? Teams perform so much better. I did this within Microsoft working on products like HoloLens to launch their PRRS AR headset, brought the same kind of methodology into Apple, worked on the iPhone 10 launch, and sort of see, okay, this is more than just wanting to do it on this these specific teams.

Leah [: 00:07:02

When I was at Google, I had the opportunity to really go bigger and do programs across the company, building out manager development and really getting a lot more in-depth and kinda like organizational wide team operations. And I think that point I made early on of, like, not being in HR, I think doing that within corporate and within software teams, while it was appreciated, it wasn't always understood. I kinda had this internal side hustle as, like, doing team dynamics while also having to do the day job of, like, software program management and operations. So the shift for me came when I felt like I had to always justify why this was my approach and had to keep doing a lot of extra work to get by in around some of these things. And feedback like, hey. Let's focus on the work stuff and the people stuff later. And so I sort of feel like, well, maybe this makes more sense doing it from the outside in. And, fortunately, in a place like Google, you do get it at the time, like, in the early COVID years.

Leah [: 00:08:01

If you're a high performer, you're given space to, like, you can publish articles. It's fine to write a non software related book and things like that. Like, they actually advocate for you to have a presence outside. And so I was able to explore some of these things and find that really was where my passion was. And so I think the critical moment was and I actually say this to a lot of corporate folks that are navigating, branching out. And maybe you have time to kind of build something out in the evenings, writing a book or designing a coach or doing a certification over the weekends. A lot of us high performers can do the two things at once. We can nail our corporate job.

Leah [: 00:08:38

Right? Yes. We could, like, moonlight this other thing.

Melissa [: 00:08:41

I think about in the very beginnings, even when I came out of school and had my doctorate in pharmacy and went straight into corporate America and worked for a fortune 500, I moonlighted as a pharmacist on the weekends. And then that helped pay for my wedding. And then when I was in corporate and I stopped moonlighting because I realized I could make more money running my own business around my nine to five, I started launching a business around my nine to five as a high performing corporate professional. So it doesn't have to be the either or when you're getting started. Yeah. Okay. Go ahead.

Leah [: 00:09:12

And it's such a great point you're making and we're both hitting on. It's it's not quiet quitting. And I think, you know, any company listening is like, wait, you're not supposed to do that. It's like, when you are crushing it, it is you've earned space to do something in in your evenings and on your time that's unrelated to, like Yes. This work. And I do encourage folks, and I think you and I both went to explore that. And, actually, Adam Grant talks about that in the book Originals, which I highly recommend of I think a lot of us think that to build something, we have to, like, quit everything and bet on put all our chips on this. And, actually, many, many successful companies and startups, I think he talked about Warby Parker as one, were built kind of incubated when people had a bit of a safety net.

Leah [: 00:09:55

Mhmm. And they had time to see, like, yeah. I really am passionate about this. Because the stakes are slightly lower, so you can be a little bit more thoughtful about it.

Melissa [: 00:10:02

Well and the other thing I will say on this is and there's a two way energetic flux here too, because I believe, and this is something my spiritual mentors talked about is like, what is the energy your business is built on? And to your point, like, if you burn all the ships and you have, I mean, there's two approaches. You can burn all the ships. Think and Grow Rich talks about that. But if then you're operating from a space of scarcity of, like, not from abundance, but, like, straight up scarcity and you build a business based off of that, that can really impact Yeah. Like, the energy of the business if you're super scarce versus coming into it abundantly, that you're doing this and building it with your income coming in from your corporate job. And I think it's a two way street too. One of the things I noticed when I actually had ultimately matched my corporate income, but was still working in corporate. And I think this was a benefit to corporate.

Melissa [: 00:10:52

I wasn't afraid to like truly speak my mind in a way that I knew was gonna impact the company because I wasn't concerned about the ramifications of how I was being viewed or if I was gonna lose my job or if they weren't gonna like me. Because quite frankly, at that point, I didn't really care. And actually it was beneficial to the company for me not to be operating from a group think mentality of being like a yes. You know what? Do you know what I'm saying? I was almost like a market disruptor in a good way. Yeah. Because I wasn't attached. I wasn't so financially attached to the company, which actually can be a good thing for companies.

Leah [: 00:11:29

Yeah. Anyway Yeah. I love that point. No. I do. And I think it's also it's giving folks space to have multifaceted interest experiences. That's like a recruiting draw as well. I mean, I think years ago, it was I think some of the tech companies, Google was one of them, had, like, you could have a 20% project and work on something.

Leah [: 00:11:48

For many people, it was, like, a 20% because you're so headed to your full job. I think encouraging folks to go to conferences, give talks, to write articles, to have a personal brand, it only improves your company. So I think we both would agree. And I love that point of setting yourself up where you can take more risk. And I think it benefits us both in a corporate job, and the biggest challenge that I found moving in the entrepreneur space was really owning my voice and and putting myself out there and coming from a more of a technical tactical background without marketing and sales and things like, I know how to do this thing, but I don't really know how to talk about it as well. And so, like so glad

Melissa [: 00:12:26

you hit on that because that was gonna be my next question to you was I wanna talk about what was your biggest challenge maybe you didn't see coming as you pivoted, and then we'll talk about what have been the greatest gifts. But, like, can you double down on that or just share a little bit more about what that's been like for you? Because I experienced that with a lot of our clients, and I tend to attract a lot of people who gravitate towards LinkedIn because they feel like it's safer. It's where they're from. They don't have to go to the big scary Instagram Facebook place. You know? Can you talk a little bit about that challenge of you were the subject matter expert? For all intents and purposes, you had a personal brand within the company and culture that you came from is what I'm hearing you say. And then you're pivoting into, like, the online space. Yeah. How do you market yourself?

Leah [: 00:13:09

Exactly. And that is, I think, something when you're saying your client experience it, I had no idea that that would be, like, actually have to be, like, a big part of my focus is really crafting what's my messaging, what do I do, how to make that simple and understand. I think if you get to know me over the course of one hour or twenty minutes or something, like, maybe even ten, I can share the ways that I support teams and businesses. But in one post, it's hard. Right? Like, more one thirty seconds because there's so much so much depth there. And I think when we are really in that when we're so dialed into the doing and the how, we can get really tech technical how to describe it. It's not the right level of altitude. We don't kind of figure out what the person they run's actual emotion is or, like, what their challenge is.

Leah [: 00:13:56

And so this was and has hands down been my biggest challenge is to figure out two things, how to really tell that marketing and sales sometimes. I guess, just kinda like what's the story around it that gets people to see, yeah, like, this person is the person I need to help support me because of the results that I'm able to deliver, but in a way that they really connect with. But then also, like, the I think not figuring out, like, how to continue to evolve that story and focus it and kind of really be tuned in and have your ear to the ground of what people are really needing as well.

Melissa [: 00:14:28

Well, and I love that. You hit on something we talk about a lot inside our Legion Academy, and that is we work with a lot of folks who come in as subject matter experts. And I love what you said is we have to help them pivot their thought process of marketing from marketing how, like, the technical way will we can work with you to their desired outcome, like knowing what their desired pain points are, what their desired outcomes are. Because even though you know all the nuts and bolts of what needs to happen, it's like, to sell that, people don't want it. Like, people don't wanna know it's that much work. They want to hear how you're gonna transform their business, how you're gonna transform the results in the business. Like, I know we're gonna talk about this in a bit, but it's like talking about delegation and positive team culture and building trust is like, great. But the person you're marketing to is more thinking about the bottom line.

Melissa [: 00:15:17

And it's like you said, they're like, can we just talk about the work stuff now and the people stuff later? But it's like, but the work stuff will perform better if we focus on the people stuff. Right? And it's like, how do you get their attention on that from a marketing perspective without going into the weeds where they kind of gloss over. Exactly. And I think we can get stuck

Leah [: 00:15:40

in this. I know I have been in, like, I just need to get on more podcasts and more articles and more mentions and more things. And like you say, without that story, you will have a million things that are completely disconnected and nobody knows what you do and how you help them. And and that's been a hard lesson as like a corporate you're trained more is better. It's just like Yes. More more more. So that's been an unlearning as well on how to get really focused. And I think participating in masterminds, as you mentioned, has been a really helpful way to build community, understand other ways that high performing entrepreneurs are really operating and Yeah.

Leah [: 00:16:17

How to manage your time and ways to build in mindset and inner work, some of these things that if we have blocks around money or around putting ourself out there and all these things, like, it doesn't matter what we've achieved. Totally. Feeling.

Melissa [: 00:16:31

Oh my gosh. That's a whole another rabbit hole we could do a whole another episode on is what's between your two ears that's actually holding you back.

Leah [: 00:16:38

Yeah. And we

Melissa [: 00:16:38

can give you all the business strategy in the world, but that if there is some level of shame or fear or inner child block, it has to be addressed. It has to be addressed. Entrepreneurship is like the number one personal development opportunity. Well okay. So we talked a little about your biggest challenge. Let's talk about what's been the biggest gift in your pivot. What's been the biggest gift to diving in entrepreneurship? And then I wanna get into some things around leadership. But what's been the biggest gift of becoming an entrepreneur and leaving the w two?

Leah [: 00:17:11

I think the biggest gift has been truly to be able to do exactly what I know I need to do to add the most value for folks. Like, I have found you know, it incorporate you. Some stuff you like to do and you think it's worthwhile, some stuff that you just gotta do. It's the cost of doing business. And I think feedback from clients or from podcast listeners and readers of the book is I continue to hear, like, this is exactly what I needed to help me know how to handle a feedback conversation or know how to get out of the weeds as a business owner or feel more confident as a manager. And the getting that reinforcement back from my audience has been such a gift and something that is just such a fuel to know, like, hey, people are really hungry for it, and it's such a driver to keep putting stuff out there and keep supporting people.

Melissa [: 00:18:00

It's yeah. I love that. It's soul filling just like a positive feedback loop. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So good. Well, okay.

Melissa [: 00:18:07

So I love this. Well, let's get into being the team whisperer. I've got a couple questions. So I'm trying to decide whether I wanna dive right into the book or if I wanna jump into like, well, let's actually jump first into when I think about it, I kind of pitched this in the beginning or talked about this in the beginning with our entrepreneurs and you're navigating the space now. A lot of entrepreneurs come in as solopreneurs. Right? Yes. And they have no leadership experience. I feel I still have tons to learn around leadership, but I also feel, like, wildly grateful that I was in a fortune 500, and I went through second line leadership, like, years and years of leadership training that I've used to this day with my team.

Leah [: 00:18:50

Yeah.

Melissa [: 00:18:50

But the average entrepreneur who's a subject matter expert comes up with a great idea, solves a problem, goes to market, the business takes off, and now they have a team of people, and they have no team leadership experience. They've not been through any formal training. Where can they start from the foundation up with really getting a grasp on leadership? Because it's hard to be I talk about this a lot even with my team. In the world we're in now, and again, you're experiencing this now, you're the face of the company. You are the face of the company. You're the product. But as the company grows and scales, not only are you the physical product delivering on a daily basis, you're the CEO, you're the manager, you're the CFO, your operations, and you start hiring people to then start to fill some of those gaps. But like, even to this day, I have like eight people on my team, but I'm the face of the company.

Melissa [: 00:19:45

I'm the product. And I still manage the books and I, I have a CFO, but I still, I am the one that really owns all the numbers. And so it is my husband and I talk about this because he's in a medium sized business of about 300 employees. And we talk about the difference between my industry and his is he's a senior level leader, but like he's not the product.

Leah [: 00:20:05

Mhmm. Yeah. You see

Melissa [: 00:20:06

what I'm saying? Yeah. Like to me, it's a whole another level of responsibility from a marketing perspective and deliverability in the company if your face has to market, and then you are the actual product, but then you also are the CEO.

Leah [: 00:20:20

I love that point. And it even differentiates between a brick and mortar c business owner, CEO, entrepreneur Mhmm. And someone that, yeah, you're the product. I love that. I hadn't thought about it that way, and that creates even another dynamic as a leader. Yeah. Yeah. Because where do

Melissa [: 00:20:35

you start? Because that's where I I wanna paint the picture because I know some of my listeners are like, yes. That's me right now. You are the physical product. Whereas in my husband's company, he has a ton of responsibility as a leader leading teams, but their product are valves and instrumentation. He's not expected to be on screen marketing his product and then physically being the one delivering the product. Another layer of complexity, which to me underscores even more importance of a structured leadership strategy in your company. Because personally, I believe you have less capacity to lead because not only are you the CEO, you are the product and you're the marketing instrument too. So where would one start if they've got a couple of team members, they have zero experience leading a team, Where could they create the biggest impact in foundation in their company if they did these things first?

Leah [: 00:21:24

So I think first and foremost, it's not assuming that just because you're dealing with people and you've you talk to people on a regular basis, you know people, that you know how to lead. It is a fallacy, and that's what you're talking about. It's like, hey. Yes. You can oversee a contractor doing your kitchen remodel, and you can oversee maybe you're coaching softball or you're involved in PTA or you are heading up your charity or board. Those are not the same thing as leading businesses, especially where you're the face of the business. So I think one thing that we can misjudge is that I will build up these skills a leader when I get to a certain level of success. Because what happens is sometimes we don't get to that because we're way too far in the weeds.

Leah [: 00:22:04

We're not delegating the right way. And because we are so connected to the brand, we're holding on way too tight, especially things like marketing copy, anything written, anything video, anything that, like, you're portrayed in because, hey, it's your image. And so we can get real tight on that one. And so a lot of folks ask me, when is the right time to invest in support for your team? Frankly, I think it's as you're making your first hires, even planning what that looks like. Because one challenge we can make too is we say, okay. I'm drowning. I'm underwater. I need to hire, like, a partner, like someone really, really senior.

Leah [: 00:22:39

Or we say, I just need, like, a VA to offload some automated stuff. Those two things are potential roles, and then there's, like, a whole set of roles in the middle. And we're just guessing at it if we haven't kind of brought in an expert or kind of done some research to figure out what that looks like right now. If you bring in a very senior person, you might get some support on the strategy on direction, but a senior person's assuming there's a team or someone to be implementing. What becomes hard, like, if you're hiring c suite director, even head of, and you're calling it that and you're that person's like, where where is my team? Who's gonna implement all this?

Melissa [: 00:23:15

Yeah. And we ran into that last year. I don't know how much you remember me talking about this in Chris's mastermind, but, like, I hired a CMO.

Leah [: 00:23:23

Yeah.

Melissa [: 00:23:23

And she had hundred thousand dollar ideas. She had all these ideas, but was not the one that was executing. So we hired someone to come in who had this big vision and then blew up my payroll by an extra $50 per month and, like, ate into my margins. And actually, what I learned over that year, unfortunately, for me, it wasn't unfortunate. It was a lesson. Blessing and a lesson was, like, be judicious in the senior level executives you bring in, and are they the right fit? Because what I learned over the year was, like, she was the wrong fit, and she didn't understand my company. And all of her practical background experience didn't apply to how we ran our company. And I learned the hard way that I was the one that drove this company, the 3,800,000.0 in a year, not anyone else.

Melissa [: 00:24:11

And so that's a tough discussion too is when does it make sense to bring in an executive and when doesn't? Because when I started off that year, I thought I'm ready to delegate this off. Kind of like what we just said earlier, I was

Leah [: 00:24:24

tired of being in charge of marketing and the CEO and all

Melissa [: 00:24:24

the things. So it's like, this is your baby. Of marketing and the CEO and all

Leah [: 00:24:29

the things. So it's like, this is

Melissa [: 00:24:30

your baby. What I learned was I gave it away way too soon. And it was very costly.

Leah [: 00:24:34

And I would say, I think some of it is like leap in the net will appear. We have to take a lot of risk. And I think the piece the learning there was, like, really when you're bringing a senior person to figure out soup to nuts, what is the implementation strategy, and what's that gonna cost you? Because sometimes hiring a marketing manager where they're really implementing your ideas because you have a wealth of them, that can be more bang for the buck than And

Melissa [: 00:24:58

that's where we landed. We kept the marketing manager that she helped us interview him fine, and she ultimately took over most of the CMO's responsibilities. And I'm now still back to the visionary with the marketing, and we just don't

Leah [: 00:25:09

have a CMO. Exactly. And so that in that case is exactly what I'm saying. I think then the other end of the spectrum where we hire a virtual assistant to offload something and I think, yeah, email automations and and some stuff with social media, I think there's a ton of stuff that we can hand off. And I think to really build out a team, it's helpful to figure out what is, like, what would that structure be like to have the right set of people even if you're doing even if you made an org chart and your name was on all five jobs, like, what actually with the delivery like, what would the strategy be? And you start to see that, and then you can start to say, okay. What would this person be focusing on this person, and where do I really have expertise in, and where is it, like, not my domain at all? And you I think, started visualizing the shape of that org would is very helpful. And then when you start to bring people on, literally, this is why I wrote the New Energy Plimic because if we haven't had things career conversations, given hard feedback, set up what is a performance system so your team members aren't asking for a raise every time they finish a task. Right? Like, you get this these things that are so frustrating, and we just we're winging it.

Leah [: 00:26:17

And I think we maybe had a great manager in a job that we were in, and we're kinda applying some of those skills. But, actually, how do we wanna show up as a leader? That's what I start the book with is, like, what is our identity as a leader? And and what does that mean? How do we have hard conversations? How are we transparent? How are we compassionate? What are these values that we wanna bring? And then how do they show up when the times are good and times are not so good? And that becomes this foundation that when we operate consistently with that and integrity with that, that's what builds trust. The trust makes it easier to give feedback, talk about hard things. The trust allows us to delegate where people don't think we're just throwing stuff over the fence. Right? So there's, like, a series of building blocks that that is what the new manager playbook's all about. And it's not just if you're new at managing. It's, like, if you need a new approach to how you're managing.

Melissa [: 00:27:10

Yeah. No. And so I love this. So let's talk about the new manager playbook because I know some of the core categories that you talk about in the new manager playbook is building trust. You talk about delegation.

Leah [: 00:27:23

Yeah.

Melissa [: 00:27:23

You talk about positive team culture, and I know you talk about constructive feedback. Can we pick a couple of these and talk about this? Because especially I see this in the online space more than I ever did in corporate. Even in corporate, I wasn't in a bricks and mortar. I always worked remotely in corporate America.

Leah [: 00:27:41

Yeah.

Melissa [: 00:27:42

But there was significant, maybe overly communicative in that world. But I see the opposite in the online space, especially as entrepreneurs. It's like, especially folks who've left corporate. It's a pendulum swing of, they want to go so far polar from like the way they operated in corporate. But then there has to be this neutral space that you swing back into the middle from, like, a cadence of communication and, like, how you're creating culture and rapport and all those things within the team. Let's talk about strategies to build trust, and let's talk about maybe some like, team culture is big for me. So maybe we can talk about those two things, like building trust and team culture.

Leah [: 00:28:19

Absolutely. And I think, bringing in one of the biggest probably reasons that's important is then for things like constructive feedback. So right? Because that's where we're like, I think we miss and we are frustrated, but we're like, well, I didn't really give the feedback. And so I think with culture is often described as the behaviors that we reward or punish. It's the things that, like, are the subtext of how we operate as a team. And so that's where having that intentionality to how you lead, having a set of values or behaviors that really govern how you all show up, and then you as that leader modeling them. And so I encourage folks to think of statements instead of just, like, a value, integrity. That means a lot of things to different people.

Leah [: 00:29:05

So maybe you say, we follow through on our commitments. Is, like, the value there? And then you as a team talk about, well, what does that mean? What does it mean internally? What does that mean with our clients? What does that mean when deadlines are tight or we have competing priorities? And you start to talk about these things so everybody's on the same page. Now that starts to build trust internally and really hit on that culture because everyone is really building that together. And so you reduce a lot of confusion around what that meant.

Melissa [: 00:29:33

Yeah. One of the things we've done this year, in years past, I always had core values. But this year, we review them. We have this beautiful, my EA created this beautiful sheet with all the core values on them, on the kickoff of every Monday team call. We shout out to teammates how they lived a particular core value. So it doesn't just like live on a document. It has the past seven years. It brings the core values to life.

Melissa [: 00:30:00

Like one of our core values is everything is figureoutable. I just live by that. No is not an option. Like let's think through how we can figure out this problem. It is to me, this is we embody entrepreneurship and navigate and succeed in entrepreneurship by taking the assumption that anything we can figure out. And so it instills a culture of, like, no is not an answer.

Leah [: 00:30:23

And it instills a culture and sets an expectation. So I wanna build on that is, like, one thing that can become so frustrating as a designer is, like, stuff seems so obvious to you because it's most of it's common sense. We're like, why the hell is my team missing this? It's so, like, obviously, we need to have clients to, like, pay the bills. What why why would that be confusing? But the having these conversations, having people living these values and understanding them and explaining to each other what they meant and celebrating each other like you talked about, that then is not just a value, it's also an expectation. So when someone doesn't come to you, like, if someone came to you and said, well, I don't know, Melissa. Like, I'm stuck. There's nothing we can do. You're like, well, that's really not how we work here.

Leah [: 00:31:02

Like, you're back to me with the solution.

Melissa [: 00:31:04

You know

Leah [: 00:31:04

what I mean? And so you don't even have to give feedback about that

Melissa [: 00:31:08

because you have

Leah [: 00:31:09

broken expectation at the outset.

Melissa [: 00:31:11

And then we can rate ourselves. Like, we rate ourselves on a quarterly basis. And I get it's a three sixty review. I get feedback too. How am I operating in the core values?

Leah [: 00:31:19

I love that. And so once we have these core values, we have these working norms, then layering on expectations around how we communicate, how we show up, level customer service. I think a lot of times business owners and and leaders ask me, hey. We have a really high quality product. We wanna create a really high end service. I want my team members to embody that, but I don't wanna micromanage. And I think that's all about timing. Really setting a high bar saying what that means.

Leah [: 00:31:45

Maybe it's as as far as email communication, even tone and messages, timeliness to meetings, all these different things that can be a little bit tactical. Mhmm. Communicating those upfront as really how we operate here that gets everyone on the same page so you're not doing these little micro corrections later on. And I mean, it's one of the biggest challenges folks come to me a lot when they say so I mentioned I do a lot of trainings, workshops, but also really one on one coaching consulting with business owners and team leaders. And a question I'll get is, like, gosh. I don't think this person's a fit. But they had a lot of potential, but they're just not delivering. And the first question I ask, spoiler, everyone, it's, well, what feedback have you given them? Yes.

Leah [: 00:32:27

But a lot of times, I'm like, that's I didn't say. That is the first step. Someone, if they haven't heard, even if it's obvious, even if it's so freaking frustrating because it's, like, the most common sense, if you haven't given feedback, then it's the question is, like, well, what expectation was set? Did they even know this, or is this really a preference you have? If it's a preference, that's fine, but you gotta let them know that. And so those two things can actually get us a renewed opportunity with a team member that we maybe would have written off. That's so good. With our team, I do quarterly calls with all the department heads and it's expected.

Melissa [: 00:33:03

It is expected. There's a field where how can I improve? What can I do to remove barriers for you to make your job easier? And it's a two way street. Like, there's questions about what in retrospect, what have you done really well this past quarter? In retrospect, what would you do differently? We're creating an open dialogue for self assessment, and it makes it an easier segue for me as well to give the feedback as well as, like, yeah. Awesome. Here's what I've seen that you've done really well. And it's a sandwich of, like, and we're gonna do some constructive feedback on but we create this cadence and heartbeat in the company that, like, it's expected. It's a quarterly review that's for growth and development. But to your point, and it's funny because the first couple of years, I didn't do any of this.

Melissa [: 00:33:45

And part of it was because I had just come out of corporate and I was just done with, like, the structured corporate. And I didn't want the responsibility. I didn't wanna be in charge of anyone. I just wanted to, like, be a single age agent doing my own thing. And then I woke up one day and had this, like, ridiculously large team. And then it was, like, back to having to institute what I learned in corporate because it's the only way to create that culture of feedback. It's so, so important. And you're right.

Melissa [: 00:34:13

Because I think back to my first couple of years and people who fell off and we had to off board, it was a lot of it was my fault because I didn't give them the feedback they needed from the beginning.

Leah [: 00:34:24

And like I said, it's building. Right? You've built that trust. You have that clear culture. You've set the expectations. That's where the feedback is really actionable. And feedback is hard. It's very a lot of uncertainty right now. Emotions are high.

Leah [: 00:34:37

There there's a lot, like, of pressure in general. I think everyone in whatever environment you're in is feeling like a little bit, like and so we can be they can be easy to wanna avoid it and just sweep stuff under the rug. And I gotta say, like, the biggest thing that I see in any kind of industry is, like, the cost of doing nothing is so much bigger, and I it just breaks my heart to see if you have a team member who's just not a fit, it is doing both of you a favor to give that feedback and then move on if it's not working because that problem doesn't go away. It doesn't work itself out. Right? You've gotta have an intervention. And I think the the time to invest in your team is like yesterday because this is really how you really add to that that bottom line is by figuring these things out. It's more than just the cost and time savings. It's this is really growth for your business and your company.

Melissa [: 00:35:31

Totally. Well, what I have found it's funny because when I finally pulled up my big girl panties and started running my company the way I was expected to do my department in corporate, it's been really interesting to shift in culture, the shift in performance. We are a leaner team that's more profitable, generating more revenue than we did the year before. And we spend more time connecting, and we spend more time on KPIs. Like, you were talking about, like, the whole, like, am I getting a raise thing? This is the first year as a CEO that I did the hard work and, like, literally calculated down to the dime profit goals, revenue goals. In the company, the team has been tracking, like, week over week, quarter over quarter. There's no guess. They know how we're performing and if they're gonna get their bonus or not.

Melissa [: 00:36:18

And it all ties into their KPIs that feed up to the business goals. And those aren't things that you just like come up with off the cuff. There's work that has to be done there and education over and over and over again with your team to, like, get the vision of that and understand it.

Leah [: 00:36:36

Exactly. And I think that's one of those things where when you're feeling like, oh, my team's not motivated. I want them to really be more bought in. Showing them exactly what you've done, which is, like, how they connect to the bigger picture Mhmm. What their role is and why it's so important into helping achieve the vision and serve your customers and clients and deliver this service, whatever it is. Showing people that that's what's reenlisting that buy in. And, like, having them have those clear goals, clear KPIs, not overloading them with information either, but saying, like, what's the thing that you're really owning and moving the needle on? How are you doing that? Asking them for their plan and what they're doing. Right? Kinda holding them accountable to having to doing the course corrections along the way.

Leah [: 00:37:21

Those things are what really instills this ownership mindset that allows you to scale so much faster. Like small business owners, we need all of our team members to, in some way, be helping grow the business. Like 100%. Part of the job. Well and

Melissa [: 00:37:35

I love it because now I revamp my entire compensation model for the team. And now they, like, say this a lot, but in years past, especially last year, the most expensive year. It was our highest revenue year yet, but it was also our lowest margin year. And I liken it to, like, when you take your kids into the grocery store on the cereal aisle, and, like, they wanna put every cereal, like, in the grocery cart. You know, they just want or you go to Target and they want everything.

Leah [: 00:38:02

Yeah.

Melissa [: 00:38:02

How much it costs? Like, you have the pocketbook. And I'm the one, like, flying the jet, checking the jet fuel engine, and, like, having to make sure the revenue stays at a certain place. And so but by creating the profit share where their bonuses are literally based off the margin, it's so funny how they will think through what they ask for in the company. Like, this past couple weeks ago, it was like, oh, we really need someone to write out this email sequence and we could get a copywriter hire. The conversation started to go down in a rabbit hole with a copywriter for like $10 to do this or that. And someone else on the team was like, I'll write it. Because now all of a sudden, the $10 they know eats at the margin that's gonna pay them. So now they're better stewards of the company's investment before they were totally blind to it.

Melissa [: 00:38:52

And now everybody can lose a little bit of sleep at night over how we're spending money in the company, not just

Leah [: 00:38:57

them. Yeah. Right. And that's how they in the framing, they know what's in it for them. That is my like, number one for any sort of getting you on board with anything, whether it's tracking their tasks or watching the bottom line, whatever, it's showing them what's in it for them because Yeah. There's so much in it for them and having, you know, having that direct understanding of, like, the things that I do or the right way to spend or, like, these things have the most upside. Now, again, you have so much opportunity for scale because you're not the only one having to think about all of that.

Melissa [: 00:39:26

100%.

Leah [: 00:39:27

And I think the struggle of, like, how do I know my team members are focusing on the right things? How do I know, like, where we can worry, we go back to the trust thing right at the beginning? It's like, I think that takes a little bit of a leap of faith again. But by setting expectations and giving little opportunities for them to nail and improve it and show it, like, that's what builds that up. And then it becomes a two way street. And I think with feeling like where can I let go and where can I loosen the reins and how do I know, I always air on the side of over communication, you know, because if you don't know, not to assume no one's doing it, but to ask, hey? Where are we at with this? And I'd love to share a resource that I just launched, which is, like, folks always ask me, how do I know my team members are working on the right things? And it's not just what's in Asana or ClickUp because you're not gonna look through thousands of tasks. Right? And be like, that's my sense of it. And so I created this template called the snippets where people share their top focus areas for this week, top wins from last week in places they're stuck. And I love this. Yeah.

Leah [: 00:40:37

And you can find this on leahgarvin.com/snippets. And this was created from wanting to give folks an insight into, hey. We wanna be able to celebrate wins on our team. We wanna know folks are are focused on the right things. And we need a place where people can share where they're stuck when they feel like I don't wanna bother you, which is, like, a big thing that I think can come up on Teams too. We're like, why didn't you say anything? They're like, well, you were busy and, like so this template and having people adding to it week by week gives you a real sense of, hey. How is this person doing on the whole? Do I have duplication of efforts? And is someone actually communicating whether getting stuck or just, like, holding things till it's too late? And the framing for that and why I thought of this as similar with the collaborative and bonus is, like, the framing is it's so I can help you be successful. It's not so I can monitor your task, and I don't trust what you're doing and this and that.

Leah [: 00:41:34

It's like the more tools we can create to show people, like, hey. I implemented this profit sharing so that everybody has an opportunity to have unlimited upside. With the snippets, it's I implemented this so that we know when folks are overloaded, when you maybe need some support, and most of all, so I can always have a sense on your wins and be celebrating you and helping you grow. Our framing's always gotta be what's in it for for the team, and then they get bought in.

Melissa [: 00:42:00

So good. Well, we'll make sure we put that in the show notes as well. Well, this has been so good, Leah. Just to kinda wrap up Yeah. As listeners are listening, number one, how can people work with you? And if people are stuck, they're scaling businesses right now. Well, let's just start with, like, how can people work with you? In what ways can people work with you? And what resources do you have beyond the snippet that you just talked about?

Leah [: 00:42:22

Yeah. Absolutely. So ways to work with me, I do workshops and trainings for teams. So if you're wrestling with a specific challenge, maybe giving feedback or this afternoon, I'm going to a law firm to do a manager training series around specifics to their team dynamics or really help get targeted around what are some of the challenges they have around billing and getting people really bought in around that industry specific. So targeted trainings, I do coaching with teams and with leaders. And then for entrepreneurs and business owners, specifically, I will set up your team operations playbook, which is really mapping out the nuts and bolts of how you get from where you are today to where you wanna be in six to twelve months. So how to get the vision you have in your head, the what and the why into the how. So I map all of that out for you so everyone's clear on expectations and priorities.

Leah [: 00:43:14

And like we said, this, how are you incentivizing folks? And Mhmm. By having that all on the same page, I found my clients have so much relief that, like, wait a second. First, they know they have a lot more figured out, then maybe they gave themselves credit for. Okay. I do have a system. There is a method to the madness. And then they feel like they have somewhere to direct people to to get them bought in. And so that's been such an invaluable tool for folks to be really becoming so much more profitable immediately because they're wasting less time, there's less duplication of efforts, and we've communicated some of these expectations upfront.

Leah [: 00:43:49

And so Yeah. That's the ops playbook, which is one of my favorite things to support folks with.

Melissa [: 00:43:54

That's powerful. So for those of you listening, if that speaks to you, absolutely check it out. I know personally doing a org chart audit and, like, a full sweep on people's roles and responsibilities, finding there was so much redundancy and waste, and then building out the responsibilities and KPIs was an absolute game changer in my company. So if you're hearing this and you're feeling like it's a bit of a mess under your hood, you should definitely reach out to Leah. So where's the best place for them to connect with you?

Leah [: 00:44:27

Best place to connect is my website, LeahGarvin.com. Check out the book, The New Manager Playbook. My podcast has also been renamed New Manager Playbook to keep it easy so you can find it there. And the podcast has a ton of concrete strategies around diving into these issues we talked about today, so it's a great place to start. Also, please connect on LinkedIn. I do spend much of my time on LinkedIn as well. And so I'd say website, LinkedIn are really best places to get in

Melissa [: 00:44:54

touch. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for showing up here today and just sharing your story and being an inspiration for how you've navigated exiting corporate and now just serving back to business owners and corporations with your gifts. So thank you so much, Leah.

Leah [: 00:45:09

Thank you. Alright. We'll see

Melissa [: 00:45:11

you inside the community then.

Leah [: 00:45:12

Yes. Absolutely. Okay. Bye bye.

Melissa [: 00:45:19

Thanks guys so much for listening in on today's podcast episode, and I can't wait for you to see my upcoming guest in the next episode. You are going to love this keynote speaker. Hey. Here's the deal. If you like this, please subscribe and leave a review. And you want the latest online business growth strategies and exclusive LinkedIn pro tips sent straight to your phone? Text the word update to (704) 318-2285. That is text the word update to (704) 318-2285. Can't wait to see you guys.

Melissa [: 00:45:59

Come find me over on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, cannot wait to hear how you are enjoying and applying what you're learning. You guys reach out to me over on social because I love hearing what's resonating with you. When you reach out to me and you send me those personal DMs, they really do impact the content I continue to bring forward to you. So, again, come find me, melissa underscore hinault over on Instagram, melissa hinault over on LinkedIn and Facebook. Can't wait to see you guys over there.