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The People Gardener Podcast with Rhonda Delaney
The People Gardener Podcast with Rhonda Delaney
Revealing Leadership Deficiencies: Honest Feedback and Self-Improvement
Ever wonder how a simple blood test can reveal hidden health issues? Discover how this parallel applies to leadership as Rhonda Delaney shares her personal journey and the importance of honest feedback in identifying leadership deficiencies. By establishing a leadership baseline and embracing a non-judgmental approach to receiving input from your team, Rhonda delves into practical strategies for consistent self-improvement. Learn to continuously enhance your leadership skills through actionable feedback, ultimately striving to be the best leader for your team.
Stay connected and elevate your leadership journey with exclusive resources and support from Rhonda. By subscribing to her email list, you'll receive the latest content tailored for leaders like you. Rhonda also introduces the Raving Fans Society app, which offers both free and paid memberships. With full access to teaching materials, a resource library, monthly group coaching sessions, and quarterly guest speakers, the app is a treasure trove for small business owners and leaders. Join the community and seize these opportunities to grow and thrive as a leader.
Well, hey there, welcome to the People Gardener podcast. I'm Rhonda Delaney, your host, also known as the People Gardener, thrilled to put this podcast together to help small business owners, new business owners, frustrated business owners and aspiring leaders, whether they're inside business or outside. Each week, we bring you some actionable steps so that you can actually improve your skill as a leader. That's what we're about. We're here to help you become a better leader by giving you access to lots of different perspectives. The guests are varied. We're thrilled to have them. Get out your pen, get out your paper and be ready to learn Every single episode. You're going to be able to take something away that you can implement. Are you ready? Let's get to work. Well, hey there. Welcome back to the People Gardener podcast. Happy to have you here this week.
Speaker 1:Do you go for an annual physical? Have you ever been for an annual physical? Well, I go once a year to my naturopath and this last time she wanted to do a blood test. And I go for this blood test and I feel like they're taking all the blood out of my body because there's so many vials and so many tests that she wants run. She wants to see what's going on inside of my body with all my different systems. I've never had this done before. I've been super healthy and I'm still healthy, but as I age, she decided that no, let's do this. I've been a patient of hers for, I want to say, the better part of 15 years. Never done this. I thought, okay, so let's do it. And so what she's trying to do is to get a complete understanding of what's going on inside. So we did that back in late February, march, and then done it again just last month. She had given me a couple of things to do, a couple of supplements to take, and definitely you need to hydrate yourself more, and so I'd be doing those things. So it's three or four that I was doing the supplementation and just really trying to be diligent about getting the water in. The change positively is phenomenal just by doing these two things. So it got me thinking about deficiencies and supplementation and thinking more so on you as a leader, understanding your deficiencies, and the only way to really understand them is to get feedback, to get other people who have experienced you in your life, at work and share what they've observed, what they felt, what the conclusion that they've come to. So that's what we're going to talk about this week is deficiencies and supplementation.
Speaker 1:So the first thing for establishing your deficiencies, you have to establish a baseline. Where are you right now? When was the last time you asked those that you lead, those that you serve, how they experience you as a leader, you as a boss? It's so easy for us to look at ourselves with rose-colored glasses and everybody else under a microscope. Let's give those that we serve the microscope and let's take off the rose-colored glasses and really embrace what people are experiencing. As far as us as a leader, it's the only way that we're going to grow. But first we have to get this baseline. So you have to go through the maybe uncomfortable process.
Speaker 1:This isn't something that you've been doing regularly. Which I absolutely recommend that you do is ask your people okay, so how can I do better? What should I change? How are things going? Is this system working? Is that system working Really? Get the knowledge from every single one of your people. So now, if this is the first time, let's use this, as this is the baseline.
Speaker 1:Kind of like my blood test back in February. Never had one before, so that was the first one the naturopath noticed. Okay, there's some things that need to be addressed. Here's the supplements that I want you to take, and now we will test again. So right now you're at hey, this is the first blood draw. Hmm, that sounds a little bit. Anyway, you are going to establish the things that you feel that you need to work on, and when I say you feel people are going to be giving you feedback and you're going to notice trends, you're going to notice numerous people are going to say the same thing. They might use different for instances, but they're really saying the same thing, and so the more times your employees are saying the same thing, the more attention you need to pay, because it is a universal deficiency. Let's call it that. Now, don't mind me when I for those of you that are watching the video mind me when I put my head down because I was writing a bunch of notes, because it's like, okay, I want to make sure that I get to everything that came up in my mind.
Speaker 1:One of your challenges if you haven't been regularly asking people for feedback. There is a lot of fear associated with being completely honest with your boss and with your leader. If it's not something that they are used to, it's something that they have to practice and they have to test how honest they can be, based on your acceptance of the information, your response to what they're saying. Are you taking it in and doing nothing? Are you reacting negatively with an outburst that that's not possible? I'm not that way. Or are you taking it in, you're assessing? Okay, so how can I address this and you actually make some changes?
Speaker 1:One thing that I don't want you to do is to ask them okay, so on a scale of one to 10, where am I? That is really uncomfortable and more often than not, they're going to fudge it higher than give you the actual. So what I'd encourage you to do instead is let them know hey, on a scale of one to 10, I want to be at a 10. I may never reach the 10, but I want that as my goal, and I need your help to understand, from your perspective, how would I conduct myself, what are the types of things that I would be doing for you and for the company in order for you to actually score me at a 10. Start pulling the information from them. That will help you understand what's important to them, and every employee is going to be different. Yes, there's going to be some aspects that are universal, but a lot of them are going to be unique to this particular person, to their personality, to how long they've been with the company. I mean, there's so many variables, right?
Speaker 1:Find out what behaviors you need to address in order to get to a 10. In order to get to a 10. Just like when you're onboarding people, you're talking to them about the behaviors that will be exhibited in order to be in alignment with the values of your company. Same thing, same thing for you. So your homework this week is get that baseline. This week is get that baseline. Get a clear understanding of what it is that they are experiencing in you. What behaviors are you exhibiting that they appreciate? The ones that they don't? Help them by being open, being completely willing and humble to hear what they have to say. So that's the baseline. Once you understand what your baseline is, now it's time to supplement, move into the improving, enhancing and getting things healthy.
Speaker 1:One thing that you can do is there are so many episodes on this particular podcast that are specific to helping you grow, and I would really encourage you to listen. I think it's the first interview that I did. She's with a neuroscientist and it's about gratitude did. She's with a neuroscientist and it's about gratitude. That particular episode will help you immeasurably to be in the right place for each interaction with each employee to just appreciate and to be thankful that they're there and that they're doing their job. Gratitude it is so important in every aspect of our life to just be grateful. There's always something to be grateful for. The other thing that I would encourage is get on YouTube and get into the TED Talks and the TEDx Talks and just immerse yourself in how people conduct themselves and how they think. It doesn't even necessarily have to be a topic that applies to your situation, but sit back and view and experience how they approach the subject, how they approach people, expanding your how you do things.
Speaker 1:Books are another great opportunity. There are so many books. If you go on to the Raving Fan Society app and you get in there and become a member of the Raving Fan Society, I have a whole resource library in there, so the society is going to be opening up here in. I think it's the 7th of October, so you'll be able to have a peek inside there. The biggest thing and I'm learning how to do this and probably why it's come to my mind is to become a math scientist, to try things, to tweak things, to understand that how you operate and how you speak and how you are to one employee isn't necessarily going to be the same with another, no different than if you're a parent and you've got multiple children. You understand that you are disseminating information in a completely different way for each because they are unique. They are unique humans and we need to embrace that. You need to embrace that they are unique and have fun. Just have fun with it. Join memberships. As I say, the Raving Fans Society is coming open soon.
Speaker 1:Taking courses, opensoon taking courses, finding a mentor, becoming involved in peer groups inside your community there's so many ways that you can supplement your skills and your abilities as a leader and a boss that will address the deficiencies that come up. So now we've addressed the deficiencies, we're dealing with some supplements and now in another six months, we're going to go back and we're going to find out whether or not the supplement that we have chosen have actually addressed the deficiency that your employees have expressed. If that worked, great. If it didn't, let's go back and tweak. That's why I say the mad scientist thing so important. Anyway, this all from having my own blood work done and finding out that there were deficiencies in my body and I needed to address them and supplement them. Exactly the same with you, your business and your employees have fun with this, and I chose the term mad scientist because that's kind of fun. There is no stuffiness to it, it's just get in there and try different things. That's it for this week. We'll talk to you again next week.
Speaker 1:Well, thanks for joining me today. Just a quick reminder if you were not on my email list, go to my website, rondadelaneycom, and there's a place there that you can subscribe, keep you up to date on all things people, gardening and leadership and also a reminder that the Raving Fans Society app is available on the Apple Store and the Google Store. I do have a free membership in there that you'll be able to access some of my material, and then there's also a paid membership, and right now it's $49 a month and you will receive access to all of my material, all of the teaching content, including a resource library that will really help you along, as well as group coaching every month and then quarterly bringing in guests that will talk on topics that pertain to small business owners and leadership. Thanks again for listening and we'll see you again next week.