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The People Gardener Podcast with Rhonda Delaney
The People Gardener Podcast with Rhonda Delaney
Four-Way Flashers for Leaders
Ever notice how drivers use four-way flashers to signal something important is happening? As a business owner, you need your own version of these warning lights to communicate effectively with your team.
During a recent road trip in our motorhome, I watched my husband activate the four-way flashers whenever we slowed significantly on steep hills. This simple act of communication sparked a powerful leadership insight: most business owners never establish clear signals that help their teams understand what's happening without guessing.
Your team is constantly trying to interpret your needs, priorities, and boundaries - often getting it wrong because you haven't given them the tools to understand you. By establishing consistent communication "flashers," you create a shared language that eliminates confusion. These might include phrases for urgent situations ("all hands on deck"), boundary setting ("no interruptions unless urgent"), celebrating wins, or even signaling when you need to step away and recharge.
What makes these signals effective isn't their cleverness but their consistency. When you use specific language patterns only in certain situations, your team learns the pattern and responds appropriately. This builds confidence on both sides - they understand your needs without guessing, and you can trust they'll interpret your signals correctly.
Perhaps most importantly, these communication patterns help address an area where many small business owners struggle: the willingness to step away and recharge. By establishing clear signals for when you need breaks, you not only give yourself permission to disconnect but also demonstrate trust in your team's capabilities.
What are your leadership "four-way flashers"? Develop your own authentic signals and watch how quickly your team's understanding - and your leadership effectiveness - transforms. Share your communication strategies with me on social media or email me at Rhonda@RhondaDelaney.com!
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. 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.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's been a few weeks since I recorded. We've been away down at our property in Arizona and had a delightful time, got lots of things accomplished and more clear on what our next steps are, but it was fun as we were traveling. We were in the motorhome, so it was a four-day trip there and a four-day trip back, with some time down there, but during those four days I'm in the passenger seat. Trev did all the driving, bless his heart. We were pulling a car for the first time when we did our big huge trip in 22,. I did drive a fair bit, but man motorhome's 38 feet long and then he had another 15 feet for total vehicle and I'm going. Yeah, that's a bit long for me, so I don't think I'm going to drive. But it was interesting as we were going along lots of passes, lots of hills and as we would go up the hills, as soon as Trev noticed that the speed really reduced, he put on his four-way flashers. And when I say really, we're, you know a 70 mile an hour speed limit and we're at 35, maybe 45 miles an hour. So considerable difference. Some of these were, you know, four lane highways, others were two. So it was a big deal when you're going that much slower than the rest of the traffic.
Speaker 1:The purpose of the flashers is simply to make sure everybody coming up to you is aware that, okay, there's something a little bit different here. The person may be having problems, just might be slower. You've probably noticed a lot of the semi trucks going up and down. When they are in a very slow mode, they'll put their four-way flashers on too. So you, just you know that there's something a little bit different, so I need to pay that extra special bit of attention.
Speaker 1:And so I kept thinking as we were driving. It's like okay, so you as the business owner, what are your four-way flashers saying? How many four-way flashers do you have? Do your people even know what they mean? Do they know that you have them and do they recognize them? What are the ways that you are communicating to your team that, okay, there's something you need to be aware of. We need to pay attention here. So me and my friend AI, we have done some work and we've come up with some ideas for you.
Speaker 1:And it's just another facet to communication, whether it's nonverbal or verbal, and as I'm going to give these to you, think about words that you use with your team right now, phrases that are common to them, and when you say them, are you consistently meaning the same thing each time, so that they understand when you say this, this is what he means, when you say that, this is what he means, when you say that this is what you mean, and they can incorporate that into how they're processing whatever work that they're doing. So the first one that you know, the all hands on deck moment, that flashing light Okay, we need everyone's focus. Now that might be one. It could be okay heads up people. It could be in the Zoom meeting that you move things to the focus mode in the Zoom tools so that nobody can see anybody else. All the focus is on you. And it could be every time in a Zoom meeting when you want things to everybody to be on deck. That that's what you, that's what you do Encouragement and motivation. Where's the flashers there? You know we're in this together. Let's push through.
Speaker 1:What's really important is that these be authentic words or phrases that you would say I'm just throwing things out there. It might not be your language, it may not be your language pattern. You wouldn't be caught dead saying some of these things. I mean, I'm 65. If you're 33, if you're 33, your language is probably different than mine. Maybe not, but probably and you need to use the language that your team is already familiar with.
Speaker 1:You know, a new opportunity alert. Something really exciting has come into the company and you really want to grab hold of it and take off with it. And that could be hey, let's capitalize on this, and so when you use that phrase and you use it judiciously, and you only use it when it is an opportunity that you, as the business owner, absolutely want to capitalize on, then when they hear it, it it's like oh okay, dig in. What do you need from me so that they are all in as well? The whole course correction flasher that's going on is like pause. You know we need to shift gears. We absolutely need to shift gears Again.
Speaker 1:Find the words and stick to those words. Each time something needs to be course corrected Could be deadlines, and that is a simple hey, this is time sensitive. Drop all non-essentials, all hands on deck for this particular thing, the boundary setting modes. You may be the business owner that has an open door policy, but there are times where that door needs to be shut, physically as well as metaphorically, because you have to focus on something. It could be something only you can do, that you have to prepare. Could be for a bank, it could be for a presentation. They need to know what's the phrase. When you say no interruptions unless urgent and you only say that when you absolutely must be focused yourself, then they're, they're going to respect that and they'll know. Okay, no doors closed, absolutely, this can wait. Not a not a problem celebrating wins.
Speaker 1:My big thing was an air horn and everybody in the building and the neighborhood heard the air horn and that was an indication that something exciting had happened in the sales department. There had been a milestone made. Ours was written a million dollars of sales. I always used the air horn. What is your flasher for the wins that happen?
Speaker 1:One that most yeah, I'm going to say most small business owners suck at, totally suck at, is the willingness to step away and recharge, to have some downtime. Many of them are control freaks. Many of them are distrusting their staff because they haven't got them to that raving fan society that I always talk about. Your team will have your back, so you need to help them understand when you need to be gone, when you need to recharge, and that you trust them to do their job. So you need to find that phrase and it could be as simple as you know what I need to recharge. I'm gone for an hour, so they know. Okay, not texting, not emailing, not phoning. Give him her some space and they can recharge. Her some space and they can recharge.
Speaker 1:I don't know why I couldn't get rid of this four-way flasher thing. It happened to be on the way down and then on the way back and I kept on saying you know what? It's all part of you learning how to communicate with your team, learning how to help them know who you are as an individual and not being afraid to share who you are as an individual and to share what you need and how you want them to interact with you. And if you're not showing them and you're not telling them by the words that you speak, it's really difficult. And then they start guessing and most of the time they guess wrong, because most of them make an assumption and we know what that means right, an ass out of you and me.
Speaker 1:Having these flashers and having these consistent messages that you're sending to your people in very specific scenarios helps them to feel so much more confident and so much more comfortable when it comes to interacting with you as the business owner, because they get you, they understand where you're coming from. Come up with your own four-way flashers. I'd love to know. So you know, feel free to message me or in on YouTube, put it down in the comments, send me an email at Rhonda, at RhondaDelaneycom, or you know, send me a message on Instagram at the People Gardener. Your team will benefit so much from you being clear on your four-way flashers and for you to be okay with having four-way flashers, because you're not going 100 miles an hour every day, all day. You need those boundaries, those guidelines to slow you down so that you can actually work through things with the help and the collaboration of your team.
Speaker 1:That's it for this week. We'll talk to you again next week. That's it for this week. We'll talk to you again next week. 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. Thanks again for listening and we'll see you again next week.