Latest / Authentic Living / Make Each Employee a Leader with CEO Shelley Butle
Transcript
- 0:01Welcome to authentic living with Roxanne, a place where we have as conversations about
- 0:08things that really matter in our lives.
- 0:11And now here's your host, Roxanne Derhodge.
- 0:37Hi, everyone.
- 0:38It's, Roxanne Derhodge authentically being with Sandsan.
- 0:41Today, I have a special guest, a CEO of Doverco, and it's Shelley Butler.
- 0:47Shelley is spending, her precious time today to talk about what it is to be, in leadership and
- 0:54acting in an authentic way.
- 0:56She brings a breath of information to other CEOs that are, looking at their leadership
- 1:03style and what kind of things that they may be able to shift or tweak in order to be a truly
- 1:08authentic leader.
- 1:10Thanks, Shelley, for spending the time with us.
- 1:13So, Shelley, just, in your own words, kind of give me a sense about who you are and kinda
- 1:21your path for leadership because I think that's that's very key.
- 1:24So just kinda tell me where what got you started in leadership?
- 1:27Did you just go to school, pursue the traditional kind of, undergrad in business and
- 1:32then on into an MBA, or did you have a different path?
- 1:35I had a completely different path.
- 1:38So my mother, was divorced after 25 years of marriage.
- 1:44I found myself, living with a single mom who barely could make ends meet.
- 1:50And I had to go to work pretty much right away at as soon as I finished high school, pretty
- 1:55much the day I finished high school, she moved to Ontario.
- 1:58Once I got back east because I grew up, in Calgary, Alberta for, for my middle school
- 2:09years.
- 2:09But once I came home, I said that I would never leave again.
- 2:13The Maritimes is my blood.
- 2:15So I actually moved in with my husband now of 33 years, literally the day after graduation.
- 2:23Wow.
- 2:24Yeah.
- 2:25So I have to go to work right away.
- 2:27And I, excuse me, I convinced a gentleman I was, I just I wasn't I was eighteen years old,
- 2:37and I had convinced a and that opened up a little computer story.
- 2:40In those days, this is 1985.
- 2:43Mhmm.
- 2:43And those days, I was selling Vic and commodore 64s.
- 2:47And and, and I convinced him that I knew how to use a computer.
- 2:51Okay.
- 2:52I didn't.
- 2:54You were you were you were able to sell yourself even back then on,
- 2:59that was survival.
- 3:00That was survival.
- 3:02How I wanted why I wanted to work at that computer store.
- 3:05I I don't know, but something spoke to me.
- 3:07I spent the next 15 years of my life there, and I learned everything I possibly could.
- 3:12So my education really was hands on, running a small computer store.
- 3:18It was able to bring the computer stored from $250,000 a year to $6,000,000 a year in that
- 3:25time frame.
- 3:26And we ran a corporate business.
- 3:28I was no longer selling commodore 64s and vic twenties.
- 3:32I kinda went through the era of you know, the PCs, the Art Attorneys, the Commodore, Amigas,
- 3:38you know, so I came up through that era.
- 3:41And, of course, having that knowledge had to build a computer, had a manipulated computer,
- 3:48if you will.
- 3:50I had I had some good core knowledge in hardware.
- 3:54And 2000, as you know, the hardware boom was gone.
- 4:03The millennial had come.
- 4:04It was going to take us all out including every computer.
- 4:08I remember them asking me to do a speech.
- 4:10It was a company called Maricel, and they'd asked me to do a speech.
- 4:13I was really young at the time.
- 4:14And I was in St.
- 4:15Andrews by the sea, and they had said, can you talk about hardware and what's gonna happen to
- 4:21all of our hardware that's supposed to blow up?
- 4:24And I can remember addressing the audience even back then and saying, you know, there's
- 4:29regional settings, and you can just set your date back to, like, 1989 if you want to, you
- 4:34know, Look, your computer doesn't know it's your 2000.
- 4:37Right?
- 4:38I mean, so, you know, I always had that common sense if you will.
- 4:43You know, what they say is just not all that common today.
- 4:46But I was always able to really think fast on my speak, and I was always able to stand by a
- 4:52decision no matter what kind of decision I made, whether it was hiring staff or buying a
- 4:58quarter of a $1,000,000 or a half a $1,000,000 worth of these type of PCs, you know, to sell.
- 5:04So I I worked in a lot of different areas in the computer industry, and that just kinda gave
- 5:11me my footing.
- 5:14Starting at Dovacol though was a whole different ballgame.
- 5:19So, the computer hardware era was ended.
- 5:22They were one of my clients I remember I went up to see Dion Doucette, and she's one of the
- 5:27co founders of biblical software, and she was very pregnant at the time.
- 5:30And she said to me, would you like to help run our company, while I'm on maternity leave?
- 5:37I had already told my husband that I would spend time, raising our tile that was now, 4.
- 5:44And I would spend because I worked really long and hard at this, a computer store that I would
- 5:50start spending some time with her and, look at my career later.
- 5:54So I came home, and this is, like, literally, like, only a few weeks after I had finished one
- 5:59job.
- 5:59And, I came home and I said to my husband, no, I'm gonna go back to work.
- 6:04This time, I'm gonna go on computer software.
- 6:06I have been there now.
- 6:07For 19 years.
- 6:09Wow.
- 6:10Wow.
- 6:11So I went in and I and I just took what I knew, and, we only were 5 maybe maybe five on staff
- 6:18at that time.
- 6:19There wasn't very many of us, a really small location.
- 6:22And, know, it was kind of the same way.
- 6:26I've always run things.
- 6:29Until this was year, 2001, In 2003, Eve Doucette joined our company, and he said
- 6:36something to me.
- 6:37And it was Shelley.
- 6:38We will trust everybody until they're not to be trusted.
- 6:45And I really didn't know what that meant.
- 6:47You know, I've always dealt with management in a way that, you know, people are going to
- 6:53steal.
- 6:54You know, you gotta kind of watch, uh-uh, you know, we were dealing with, you know, we were
- 7:00in a corporate environment, even though you only saw the people that you were working with,
- 7:05it worked 5, 6 at the time, and, we had a dress code in place.
- 7:10A lot of policy.
- 7:12I have to take a lot of, you know, a lot of, locations in those days, there was, you know,
- 7:20procedures and policies.
- 7:21This is the way you answer the phone, and there's a little Right.
- 7:24Right.
- 7:24Answer the phone.
- 7:25And and like I say, he said this statement to me.
- 7:29People are to be trusted until they're not to be trusted.
- 7:32He was working at another location.
- 7:33He was a vice president, another location at the time.
- 7:36And so I only seen him every Friday.
- 7:37He would come in and do these meetings.
- 7:40Interesting, though, He he really kind of started to talk to me in a different way than
- 7:49any other leader had talked to me.
- 7:52And I started really grasping, some a way that we could actually deal with young people coming
- 8:01into work in the IT industry a little bit better than we dealt with them before.
- 8:06I didn't really know what that meant, at the time, but what it meant for me was, oh, you
- 8:12know what?
- 8:13We're gonna get rid of a lot of policies, and we're gonna have a lot of input from people
- 8:17that come in.
- 8:18Let's learn from them as opposed to to putting these policies on them.
- 8:23And I'll tell you how that happened.
- 8:25We had a policy about answering the phone, as I said, it came into the office one day.
- 8:29There was customer who was really frantically looking for support.
- 8:33We had a policy that we verify their address and their email address that it was up to date.
- 8:38You've been on many of those calls.
- 8:39You know?
- 8:40And, but he was frantic.
- 8:43He needed to get his time in probably to get his pay or to to bill or whatever it was for.
- 8:48We do time tracking where.
- 8:50And, I didn't follow procedure.
- 8:53I immediately made sure that he got to support.
- 8:55And he said, why didn't you follow seizure.
- 8:57And I said, well, this gentleman really needed to get he really didn't need me at the time to
- 9:02check his address and postal code.
- 9:04He really needed me to get him to support.
- 9:07And Eve just it was like a light bulb went off, and he went, oh my god.
- 9:11From this day forward, we're gonna answer the phone with a purpose.
- 9:14When is the customer's purpose, not power, not self-service purpose, we can find out other
- 9:19ways to get customer's addresses up to date.
- 9:21Let's ensure that we answer the phone with a purpose.
- 9:24And we started talking like that.
- 9:26We get you back to work.
- 9:27We answer the phone with a purpose.
- 9:29So we started kind of planting those seeds It really never never all of this never really
- 9:35came to fruition until years later.
- 9:38We planted little seeds here, here and there throughout, but in 2013 was the real big
- 9:45awakening at Dobaco.
- 9:47Eve Doucette went to Robin Sharma's 1st Titan summit.
- 9:51And I tell you it was a game changer for us.
- 9:54He came back with ideas, and openings and possibilities that we had never seen before.
- 10:00We doubled down.
- 10:01I went in 2014.
- 10:04But when I went, I wasn't worthy.
- 10:10And I realized in that moment that I wasn't worthy, and I was I had a mask on.
- 10:18I was not worthy, not to be a leader to go to this professional's Titan summit.
- 10:23I wasn't worthy for any of those things.
- 10:25He kept saying we're gonna double down.
- 10:26So, you know, we're gonna have 2 leaders in there, and we're gonna gather the information,
- 10:32and we're gonna double down.
- 10:34So we were at the Ritz Carlton.
- 10:36Not only did I not feel really to go to this $10,000 conference with these millionaires
- 10:42because that's what they advertised it as.
- 10:46I was not even worthy enough to get into to be in the Ritz Carlton.
- 10:49They met me with champagne at the door, and they said, Mrs.
- 10:52Butler, He got me a sweet.
- 10:56The more I was given, the less worthy I was.
- 11:00Wow.
- 11:02To the point where we walked into this conference, and he was on stage larger than
- 11:06life.
- 11:07The sounds were going off.
- 11:08The the music was was unbelievable blaring.
- 11:12There was all kinds of, gratitude and intentions and all these things on the screen
- 11:17that was just so powerful.
- 11:20And I remember Eve looking at me and saying, go to the front.
- 11:23We're going to the front.
- 11:24So everybody is running them through this conference because we have seats.
- 11:28I was like, I've never seen the madness before.
- 11:30So, okay.
- 11:31Okay.
- 11:32You know, I am having a hard time even being at at the Ritz Carlton staying in their hotel.
- 11:37Let alone being in this room.
- 11:39Robin Sharma comes out, and he says, we're gonna share a truth.
- 11:43For the next 4 days, we are all going to share our truth.
- 11:46It doesn't matter how much money you make.
- 11:47It doesn't matter what you do for a living, but you are going to share your truth on these 4
- 11:53days.
- 11:53I want you all to stand up, and I want you to whisper your deepest darkest secret into
- 11:59people's ears as you walk around for this next few minutes.
- 12:03I'm like, what is going on?
- 12:06I'm already, like, so out of my element.
- 12:10I can't even tell you.
- 12:11People stand up and they start to do it.
- 12:14In my mind, I say to myself, I will forgive my rapists.
- 12:20That's what I said.
- 12:22I will forgive my rapist.
- 12:26So I did it.
- 12:27I stood up, and I I'll never forget her.
- 12:29I leaned into her.
- 12:30And I said, I will forgive my rapist to which she she responded.
- 12:36I will forgive my brother-in-law who killed my sister 2 weeks unlike our is this happening?
- 12:46There was a 130 millionaires in the room.
- 12:48Yeah.
- 12:49And I realized in that moment, every one of us was not feeling worthy.
- 12:53Every one of us had so much pain had so much pain that unless we release that, unless we
- 13:02lived our truth, we would never we would constantly be walking around with these masks
- 13:07on of we're great leaders and, you know, patting ourselves on the back, which is
- 13:12ridiculous, right, absolutely ridiculous.
- 13:14So, I remember being so overjoyed in that moment and feeling so much strength that I was
- 13:21actually able to release I mean, it was to a stranger.
- 13:24I would have told you that I Had
- 13:26you ever shared that before with anybody?
- 13:28I have.
- 13:29And that's why I was going to say to you.
- 13:31I would have told you that I was over that pain of my sexual abuse.
- 13:34That story was no longer with me.
- 13:37That story was with me.
- 13:39It was with me so strongly.
- 13:42So strongly.
- 13:45Hey.
- 13:45Day 2 of that conference.
- 13:46They came around with, like, microphones and ice said something to the effect that I'm gonna
- 13:50go back and I'm gonna serve my community.
- 13:53I went back and I started to serve my homeless population that lives in our city.
- 13:57And, I made sure that I found a way to release my pain in every way I can.
- 14:05I now speak.
- 14:06I'm now a public speaker for sexual abuse.
- 14:09I don't get paid for it, so I'm not a professional speaker, because I do not want to
- 14:15get paid for something that I need to give back.
- 14:18That is my release.
- 14:19That is a way for me to to heal myself, but being and living your truth, not standing
- 14:29behind, because I thought everybody could see across my forehead that I was a dirty girl.
- 14:33I thought everybody knew that I was sexually abused and probably wasn't worthy.
- 14:39The feelings of of the the lack of soft worth though really came into play there.
- 14:45And I realized I was, I was £45 overweight at that time.
- 14:50I was just just really holding on to some stories that were no longer serving me.
- 14:57And, not only did I come back and and help other homeless and serve the homeless and serve
- 15:03those people that are sexually abused but I also came back and served our community at
- 15:09Dovico to make sure that 1st and foremost, they served themselves.
- 15:15We fit that pain.
- 15:16You cannot be the creative and innovative self that you need to be in your job every day and
- 15:22fulfill yourself with those stories, with those pains.
- 15:26So, you know, why revenue was no longer all that important.
- 15:30That day, I said I decided you know, and I saw Eve's vision now.
- 15:36I saw Eve's vision.
- 15:37It wasn't any normal revenue.
- 15:39It was taking these people that work with us every day and allow them to just be, you know,
- 15:46we're all so much.
- 15:47You know, James Roe said that one time, we're also we're humans doing, and we forgot to be
- 15:53human beings.
- 15:55And we're also worried about the bottom line that we're not paying attention to really what
- 16:00needs to be served and what needs to be served as the people in house because they will make
- 16:05sure you have revenue when they're feeling great about themselves and great about their
- 16:10creativity, they will be the at the the most innovative they could possibly be.
- 16:14You cannot lose by making sure the people that surround you are at their very best.
- 16:24Oh, you had I mean, your leadership story started, you you just you had some natural
- 16:30ability, I would say, to begin with when you started with the hardware store.
- 16:35Because you you went in and you worked really hard, clearly, right, to move from to to help
- 16:40to build that business.
- 16:42And you said you had you single mom upbringing.
- 16:45Right?
- 16:47So I did like an 11.
- 16:49So what's what was there was there a value that you gained from that upbringing that somehow
- 16:55led your work ethic or leadership even before, kind of this epiphany with, with the titans.
- 17:05Yeah.
- 17:05I think it's integrity.
- 17:07Okay.
- 17:08And it really came into play.
- 17:10I always questioned that as well.
- 17:11You know, my mother was a strong woman.
- 17:13I saw that she was she was able to be that strong woman.
- 17:16My 2 sisters are very strong women as well.
- 17:21But, really, I think that when I had my own daughter, the first and foremost thing that I
- 17:28always seem to talk to her about, even at a very young age playing with others, is you're
- 17:32born with integrity and nobody can ever take it away from you.
- 17:35But make sure that you have the utmost of integrity and nobody will ever be able to say
- 17:42Yeah.
- 17:42But, you know, so always show your true authentic self.
- 17:46Don't be ashamed of of truly who you are.
- 17:50And to this day, you know, I think that I over over harped on that because to this day, the
- 17:58child, she's twenty four years old, she's school teacher.
- 18:00She's never put on a drop of makeup in her life.
- 18:04You know, she lives the most authentic life, ever.
- 18:08My daughter is is amazing.
- 18:11And, and she always is is truthful as the day is long.
- 18:16I mean, she's she takes that integrity with her wherever she goes.
- 18:21And I certainly, that is one of my big values, you know, 1st and foremost, one of my biggest
- 18:28values is love, integrity, and then health.
- 18:32If I were to have, you know, to to let you know of my my three values.
- 18:37I, I highly regard all three.
- 18:41A lot of people questioned my health integrity.
- 18:44But I know that I can't be at my best self, both mentally and physically.
- 18:49If I don't hurt myself in the gym every day.
- 18:53And and this is my gym, actually.
- 18:55I could see that.
- 18:56So you're that's your home gym, is it?
- 18:58That is my home.
- 18:59Awesome.
- 18:59Awesome.
- 19:00Now, so your your beginning point of leadership was you grew up.
- 19:03You, obviously, you had some trauma early.
- 19:06But you grew up with a mother that demonstrated hard work.
- 19:10Yep.
- 19:11And then you learn the element of integrity quite quite early.
- 19:15Quite right.
- 19:15And it became a living value for you that you you project it out once you kinda got out
- 19:20there.
- 19:21Absolutely.
- 19:22Okay.
- 19:23Now so when you got into leadership, Did you know that that's how you were leading that you
- 19:29were leading from Integrity?
- 19:30Cause I often say that a lot of leaders, they may not be able to define it until they get
- 19:37further along long in their career and their career on in their kind of leadership life
- 19:41cycle.
- 19:42You know, you start off You kinda have a sense that I wanna be a certain way, but you're
- 19:47younger to your point, and then you go into kind of the middle part of your leadership kind
- 19:52of journey.
- 19:53Where you're kind of learning the the brass tax of leadership, and then you're at a point now,
- 19:58which it sounds like they call it generative kind of stage of Ericsson's stage of
- 20:02leadership, where you're now starting to really give back because you've you've kind of, you
- 20:07know, you've you've been in the trenches, you've learned a lot of things And now you, you
- 20:12have this sense that, woah, I have this valuable message to give back And it sounds
- 20:21like you had Eve coming in along with the opportunity for the titans, but it was always
- 20:27there, but something unleashed you that really helped you may maybe made it clear maybe to be
- 20:34able to articulate it.
- 20:37That surrounding me before.
- 20:38We're kind of about power and dictatorship, setting the rules, setting the tone, setting
- 20:44the behavior stage, if you will.
- 20:48And all of a sudden, all of a sudden, I had this light bulb moment when we were in the
- 20:55trenches and we were crying telling everybody our truths that leadership was about service.
- 21:02Nothing else.
- 21:03Like, like, nothing else that blew my mind.
- 21:06I was like, oh my god.
- 21:08I didn't have to be powerful.
- 21:09I didn't feel good in being powerful.
- 21:11Right?
- 21:11It took me out of integrity.
- 21:13Right?
- 21:13I was a little bit I I didn't feel good about that.
- 21:17And I really questioned leadership at that point.
- 21:20And and, because having power and having having the need to have more power than that guy, was,
- 21:30felt really dirty for me.
- 21:31So it really just kind of compounded onto my dirty girl issues and my shame and my
- 21:38embarrassment and guilt because if I lost at being more powerful, right, I was really in the
- 21:44hole, really in the hole.
- 21:46I tried to fill other people in the hole with me.
- 21:48Did you see what he did?
- 21:50Did you right?
- 21:51And it really brought me out of integrity.
- 21:53But as soon as I found out that I didn't have to be a dictator, I could allow other people to
- 21:58make decisions and then deal with the wrong decision.
- 22:02If it was the wrong decision, I mean, how bad could it really be, right, and understanding
- 22:07that it was really about building other leaders.
- 22:10Building other leaders.
- 22:11And I swear to god, the man that I saw, oh my gosh, and I'm gonna lose his name.
- 22:17He was in the plane crash.
- 22:19In the 1972 plane crash, he was one of the rugby players, always my favorite person of all
- 22:24time.
- 22:25Oh, that awful.
- 22:27I will look him up.
- 22:28I know him.
- 22:30Isn't that awful?
- 22:31And and, you know, when they were on the where when they were in those Andes mountains, every
- 22:36time the leader died, a new leader emerged.
- 22:38Like, that was one of the biggest things that came out of that was every time a leader died,
- 22:45a new leader, like in the face of danger, in the face of of the worst case scenario, There
- 22:51was always another leader emerged.
- 22:54We will die.
- 22:55And if we don't make sure that there are leaders at Donoco, great leaders.
- 23:00Or if we were not if when we were we are to explode and become multimillionaires each and
- 23:07every one of us there at Domino's.
- 23:09If we don't have the people that are on the ground today, keeping that culture intact and
- 23:14keeping that leadership values that we've put in place at everybody is the owner, and
- 23:19everybody makes their own decisions.
- 23:21And you carry through your project as you see fit because we trust in you, and we believe
- 23:26that you can do the best.
- 23:28But if you fail, I got your back.
- 23:33Every time I got your back.
- 23:35And there's never a question.
- 23:37So that in servant leadership, truly, it's shoulder to shoulder.
- 23:41Truly in in in that space that you lead from because you're finding, I often say, so my my
- 23:46what I talk about is authenticity and leadership.
- 23:49Right?
- 23:49Like, that when you become authentically connected to your, space internally, what you
- 23:55do is you you ignite that light in the person on your team in in whatever level they're at,
- 24:02whether they're parallel to you or they're they're frontline.
- 24:05They're equally as important, which is what you're saying that Adovico, you you do very,
- 24:10very well.
- 24:11We lead without titles.
- 24:13Doesn't matter what our title is.
- 24:15We lead without titles.
- 24:17Like, like, lead.
- 24:18I, you know, make yourself the CEO.
- 24:20I remember one time, sales, my head of sales.
- 24:24You know, he takes care of the sales team came and he said, they won't talk to me.
- 24:28They will be able to talk to, like, a, c level executive, this particular company.
- 24:34Right?
- 24:34And I said, well, call me your off the sea.
- 24:38Oh, oh, then.
- 24:39You know?
- 24:39But but it's high level.
- 24:40Call yourself the vice president.
- 24:43It's ridiculous.
- 24:45Right.
- 24:45Right.
- 24:46You know, so for us, truly, well, for all of us there, really, it's not me.
- 24:51True leadership is about service.
- 24:52It's about giving back.
- 24:54It's about making sure that your current community, this is a community that we are in.
- 24:59We are living in.
- 25:00And, you know, it's so important.
- 25:03Like, in this time that we're going through right now with with COVID 19, I mean, We have a
- 25:09policy.
- 25:10Like, if you wanna work from home, work from home, you wanna work from Starbucks, work from
- 25:13Starbucks.
- 25:13Like, I don't really it doesn't really matter where you work.
- 25:16Right?
- 25:16You have deadlines.
- 25:17You gotta meet those deadlines, but today's day and age, if people don't work in bricks and
- 25:21mortar, and they work, you know, different hours.
- 25:23Right?
- 25:23So Right.
- 25:23We got in place years ago.
- 25:26So for us, with COVID 19, I mean, we never missed a beat.
- 25:30We're all set up.
- 25:31Everybody's got a computer at home.
- 25:32Everybody's got a great care.
- 25:34Everybody's gonna, you know, everything they need.
- 25:36You have a VPN already set up ages ago.
- 25:39Right.
- 25:39Right.
- 25:40Right.
- 25:40But we never miss a beat.
- 25:42We, you know, we now do our, we do Monday morning lives.
- 25:45Right?
- 25:46But now we do so we can see each other.
- 25:48We have a Zoom call going on in the back.
- 25:50Line.
- 25:51Right?
- 25:51Right?
- 25:52It's important for us.
- 25:53We're very, you know, we're a very huggy group.
- 25:57You know, we love to circulate good mornings and And, we do things like coffee trains, and
- 26:03we have a product called slack.
- 26:05And Right.
- 26:06Right.
- 26:06I use it too with my assistant.
- 26:07What's a coffee train?
- 26:08Tell me what you mean by coffee.
- 26:10Oh, somebody will say, hey.
- 26:11Coffee train.
- 26:12And before, we used to all go downstairs to Domo.
- 26:14We have a cafe at at Dobicoke provided, coffee free coffee for everybody, but instead of
- 26:20having a coffee machine in the office, we all decided, you know what, We need to go down two
- 26:25flights of stairs every now and again, and we just double co just pays for it.
- 26:30Right?
- 26:30So however many copies of staff once go down and we got you.
- 26:34But you walk downstairs.
- 26:35So then it started to be, like, on slack, somebody would say, coffee train.
- 26:38So it still happens, but they work space at home and they put themselves on
- 26:44I mean, they they do the coffee trade, but they're going to the kitchen to get their
- 26:47coffee.
- 26:48Oh, yeah.
- 26:49I'm going to do a coffee.
- 26:51Right.
- 26:51What a what an what a nice thing.
- 26:54So, you know, let me ask you a question because, I mean, you're a I I can just your
- 26:59energy is amazing, Shelley.
- 27:01Like, so I could just imagine I'm feeling it by video.
- 27:05I and you're resonating with me.
- 27:08And I'm sure that when you were a younger leader, like you said, you went from the
- 27:13dictatorial kind of, bureaucratic, kind of step down where it didn't feel right to you, and you
- 27:20knew you wanted to lead differently.
- 27:23So for leaders that are coming about and, you know, you know, we still I think we're we're
- 27:29shifting and especially in today, like, an environment that we are today where all of a
- 27:34sudden people are having to lead, virtually, like something you've done a long time.
- 27:39True leadership qualities come out now because people really need to feel connected.
- 27:45You know, the bottom line is the bottom line.
- 27:47We get that to your point.
- 27:48We have deadlines.
- 27:49We all that stuff that we have to be able to, you know, quarterly, and reports, all that
- 27:54stuff.
- 27:56So for leaders that are that struggle with that element of vulnerability.
- 28:01Because, judge, clearly, what I hear is I hear transparency.
- 28:04I hear relational transparency.
- 28:07I hear perspective.
- 28:09You know, I have moral moral perspective where your trying to live within your integrity.
- 28:13Don't these are all the authentic leadership principles that exist out there in the in in
- 28:18the literature.
- 28:20For a leader that's trying to make that shift, but they're they're kinda stuck in that all
- 28:25kind of, system, what kind of guidance would you kind of give someone like that to step into
- 28:33it?
- 28:33Because it's gonna be uncomfortable for someone like that, right, because they're a kind of a
- 28:37them to, you know, I I orate and dictate, and my guidance gets followed.
- 28:43And, yeah, there's productivity.
- 28:45But there's probably not the level of productivity, that they could create had had
- 28:50they create that synergy between between
- 28:53your TPA.
- 28:53So what kind of guidance would you give them to kind of get comfortable with this kind of
- 28:57different leadership?
- 28:59Well, 1st and foremost, you have to, in virtual org chart.
- 29:05You have to actually put your front line at the top and put yourself at the bottom.
- 29:09And actually do that.
- 29:11Flip your org chart upside down.
- 29:13And actually have them present that to the team.
- 29:16You are so important, but it has it can't come from a fake space.
- 29:19You know, they gotta feel it.
- 29:21But they have to get that mindset.
- 29:23On top of that, Jim Donald said it better.
- 29:25He was the X CEO of Starbucks.
- 29:27And what he said was you have to be a freshman.
- 29:30So as the CEO, as that leader, you must be a freshman.
- 29:33A freshman forever, you're constantly learning these young kids that these millennials that we
- 29:39have coming in or now Gen Z, right, who we all say, oh, they're so entitled.
- 29:43And there's a you know what?
- 29:44They have great, great information for you.
- 29:48Mhmm.
- 29:48Shut up and listen.
- 29:50Take a minute.
- 29:51You know what I mean?
- 29:51Because it's the new way.
- 29:53So if you know how to handle the new way, but, you know, there's there's so many people, that
- 30:00actually asked me the same question and ask eave the same question.
- 30:05How do you guys do it?
- 30:08We went as far as to build a product.
- 30:10Called Tuba, to tell you the honest truth.
- 30:12And it's just launched, to help to help the leaders within their organizations transition
- 30:21themselves.
- 30:22So they become one of the employees, if you will, within this part, just a community member
- 30:29within this product, and you are rated from your peers on how well you are trustworthy and
- 30:36how good you're social, security is and how great you do in in in, listening.
- 30:45What is your active listening skills like?
- 30:47And your peers will rate you.
- 30:49And you'll get a really good community sense of how you're doing, and you can kind of go from
- 30:55there.
- 30:56Now a lot of people have a really difficult time.
- 30:58Well, I don't that's that's your perspective.
- 31:00I think I'm good at this, but I don't know how my team would rate me.
- 31:03So in my book, I've done that is I have an assessment that the leader does on himself, him
- 31:08or herself, and then their teams does the same thing as the beginning of the training.
- 31:12Then they collate, both of the assessments to to me to really kind of look at the gap of what
- 31:19what, you know, how am I?
- 31:20I think I'm I think I'm pretty good at this.
- 31:22My team saying I'm not so good at this or whatever.
- 31:25So this, is it called tuba?
- 31:27Like like the
- 31:28so it's about, you know, you can toot your own horn if you wish.
- 31:31But or have somebody else to your horn.
- 31:34But, yeah, this would be a great product even for you because what it what it is, you could
- 31:38just put it in, and then you would be one of the people that follow it along.
- 31:42Oh, wow.
- 31:42What's really interesting is is you can actually see when alignment within your company
- 31:47goes down.
- 31:48Oh, why are we not aligned?
- 31:49Oh, a new product can introduce you know, I only told half the people.
- 31:53So, of course, the words are going around.
- 31:55Right?
- 31:55Right.
- 31:56Right.
- 31:56Right.
- 31:57Part of that is and it's I'm in a really kind way.
- 31:59Like, when they told me that I was a really crappy listener, and I mean, that was my lowest
- 32:04score.
- 32:05I was like, oh my god.
- 32:06So there was there's also training.
- 32:09There's little video training, but I went I went a little step further and I went on to
- 32:13YouTube and and, some TED Talks.
- 32:15And how can I be a better listener?
- 32:17So for me, I had notifications turned on in a lot of my devices, and people come in and talk
- 32:22to me all the time, but my device was always going off or my screen was always going off.
- 32:26So as I was looking at you, that device would go off and I'd be like, whoops.
- 32:31We're right.
- 32:32I'm taking my attention off of you.
- 32:34Right.
- 32:35Well, my my listening, when I paid attention to shoot, they really do think I'm a crappy
- 32:41listener, and that not does not make it for a good leader.
- 32:44How do I become better?
- 32:46But I also said on our Monday morning meeting, I said, oh my on you guys, see that I'm a
- 32:51really crappy eater, and I'm so sorry.
- 32:53And I'm gonna do everything there
- 32:55at that.
- 32:56Right.
- 32:57Everybody in the office did that at first.
- 32:59Some people were like, who put those algorithms together?
- 33:02I don't think that's that computer's right.
- 33:05I think somebody's after me.
- 33:07You need to get people doing that.
- 33:09And then all of a sudden, the light bulb goes off.
- 33:12Right?
- 33:12You go through your different stages and you kinda go, you know, much.
- 33:15Shoot.
- 33:15I'm really maybe not a great listener, and these things are happening.
- 33:19But it's it's, you know, it's amazing when you actually get the leaders to understand that
- 33:25they're just part of the community.
- 33:28And it's not about you having more power,
- 33:30but that is the biggest,
- 33:33That's the biggest defeatism, if you will.
- 33:36I find, like, there's sometimes when when, you know, leaders will come to me and they'll say,
- 33:42you know, so and so wants to be paid this, and that'll actually make them be, like, bill be
- 33:46paid more than me.
- 33:48Mhmm.
- 33:48And I'm like, well, then do that.
- 33:50Like, if you think that's beneficial, do it.
- 33:53She's oh, Shelley, I can't pay, you know, people more than I make.
- 33:56And I'm like, wow.
- 33:57I mean, I did that for years.
- 34:00I I did that for years.
- 34:03I mean, I think it's really important to not do this in a fake way because people are gonna see
- 34:09through that.
- 34:10You have to really feel that leadership is about service and about serving others and and
- 34:17making sure that your company is going to stay, in good standing because you've made these
- 34:25people feel like owners along with you, they know you have their back.
- 34:30Stop doing the work.
- 34:32Stop doing the work and build leaders, find what their talents are, and make sure that
- 34:39they're in that area.
- 34:40I get a guy who started with me.
- 34:42He was a programmer.
- 34:43Now he content writer.
- 34:44He started like, oh, I really like blogging, and he started blogging on his own, and he
- 34:48wrote a book, and and then he came to me.
- 34:50He's like, I really don't like coding.
- 34:52I'm not really sure I'm like, Hey, we need more content.
- 34:56Yeah.
- 34:56Yeah.
- 34:56You know?
- 34:57So put people in the right places just because you hired them for one thing.
- 35:02I mean, to take somebody from programming to marketing is really a big step.
- 35:07That's quite the swing.
- 35:08Yes.
- 35:09For sure.
- 35:12You know, it can be done.
- 35:13You know, promote your people from within.
- 35:15Find out what they're good at just because you might have hired them from one thing.
- 35:19Doesn't mean that they all of a sudden, haven't found a passion for something else.
- 35:24And, of course, we know if they find their joy in it, they will be the, at the most creative
- 35:29and the most innovative that they can possibly be, but win win.
- 35:34Absolutely.
- 35:34And and to your point, when you're invert that org chart, and people see that you're seeing
- 35:40their value, how powerful is that, right, and that you're looking to say, here, Roxanne,
- 35:46what's your what's your strength?
- 35:48And and I'm gonna talk about what I'm really good at, and what you're doing is you're you're
- 35:53elevating me feeling better about what I'm really, really good at.
- 35:56I mean, I'm not good at that, but it's part of my job, and I I have to do it.
- 36:00But if I feel like you're honoring who I am and what I value and what I'm good at or what I
- 36:06aspire to be, and you're continually, serving me in that way to bring that up.
- 36:12Help.
- 36:12I mean, I'm gonna shine.
- 36:14You will shine.
- 36:15You will shine each and every time.
- 36:18So so many of us can cash shadows, right, across our light.
- 36:23And at dovaco, not just at dovaco, anybody I meet along the way.
- 36:30I what gets me really going is when I can find that light, when I can see their eyes, all of a
- 36:36sudden sparkle for that amazing moment that they just had because they found a little spark
- 36:42of joy.
- 36:43They found little something.
- 36:45That's all we need to do with one another is really just stop tearing each other down and
- 36:51just really find a way to, oh, help them shine their light.
- 36:57Mhmm.
- 36:58And I'm I'm gonna assume that just from, again, just feeling what what you're talking about,
- 37:03that you live your life like that in alignment with what you value, whether it's at work, or
- 37:08outside of work or in your relationships or in your community or, you know, whatever kind of
- 37:14role you're playing.
- 37:15You're living within that value.
- 37:17So it's not like you hit Dovico and you're like, oh, I'm I'm putting the CEO hat on, and
- 37:21I've leave Dovico and I'm gonna be a different person.
- 37:24You're really congruent with really what you believe in value, and then you kind of promote
- 37:28that in whatever realm that you're in.
- 37:30Yeah.
- 37:31I don't believe in work, work what they call work home balance or work home.
- 37:36You got one life, man.
- 37:38You got one life, dude.
- 37:40Like, I don't know what when people talk to me all.
- 37:42I need to have a little bit of work home balance.
- 37:45Like, I don't you know, what does that mean?
- 37:47Like, what does that mean?
- 37:49Like, do what you gotta do, and I'm hoping after this pandemic that fathers will
- 37:55understand that taking off from work at 3 o'clock, because that's when their kid gets off
- 37:58school, and we're gonna go for a bike ride.
- 38:00Because we did it when the on the pandemic, and now we're gonna do it at work and leaders
- 38:04understand how important that is because that guy will end up getting some kind of revelation
- 38:09when he's open that bike ride with his kid, and he's going to apply that to something that is
- 38:14going to make you money if that's really what's important
- 38:17to you.
- 38:17Yeah.
- 38:19But you're also going to have so much more of a happy employee.
- 38:22So I'm really hoping employers are going to understand that some of these things that are
- 38:28happening during this pandemic are beautiful.
- 38:31People are becoming one with their family, I hope.
- 38:36You know, I'm
- 38:37seeing What what a what a nice, perspective, right, because you know, we hear about p
- 38:42everybody trying to talk about isolation and all those things, but really, it's like you're
- 38:47right.
- 38:47If people are we are you know, some people would say force, but I I think it's a privilege
- 38:51to be able to be around your family members and still what you're doing for living and be you
- 38:55know, enjoying what you do and getting to, you know, be with your family, what what a gift.
- 39:00So that shift might be something that will actually come to the workplace that you're
- 39:04right.
- 39:04Like, the father that is able to, you know, kind of spend more time with his children at
- 39:08home versus maybe if mom's the primary one that takes that lead.
- 39:12And that makes him just a more well rounded person, and then he brings that back to work.
- 39:17Absolutely.
- 39:18And then just people that have never been virtual like you have, that now has the element
- 39:23that I can still be or probably even more productive because I get to spend some time
- 39:30than I get to go out and go for a walk with my my wife or I get to be able to you know, put
- 39:36things on pause and read something that I want that's not related to work.
- 39:40Like, so it's that it's that window into that we can actually do both, and we can have a full
- 39:45life versus work means I work too much and then I come home and I barely got the energy to be
- 39:51able to kind of give back.
- 39:53I actually can I can do both?
- 39:55Right.
- 39:56I can do both.
- 39:57And and that is that is so important.
- 40:01And I'm I'm I'm hoping that that it won't go back.
- 40:04I'm hoping that we actually have a new normal, and that means that dads or moms are gonna say,
- 40:10you know what?
- 40:11I'm not gonna book any meetings after 3.
- 40:13If I have something to do later, I'll I'll do when the kids are down or I'll you know,
- 40:18whatever it may be, I don't think it's necessary.
- 40:23We know we know that people cannot think or do any their their best work comes in 50 minute
- 40:29chunks.
- 40:29Right?
- 40:3050 minute chunks.
- 40:31You know, take that 50 minutes.
- 40:32Set the alarm on your phone.
- 40:34In the next 10 minutes, get down and do some push ups, you know, meditate for a few minutes.
- 40:39Just be quiet for a moment.
- 40:41Grab a book and and, that's fiction
- 40:43and and not work related.
- 40:46You know, that's read something that's mindless.
- 40:48You know, you you screen does need 10 minutes.
- 40:50And I'm hoping that people actually see that because you know darn to what's happening and
- 40:54when we're not in our office, Yeah.
- 40:57You know, the dryer is going off.
- 40:58So I'm gonna run down and I'll grab the stuff out of the dryer, or I'm gonna get up and make
- 41:03myself a coffee, which takes a little bit longer than you know, putting the mesh thing
- 41:07under the courage.
- 41:07So interesting enough, I think that people are actually getting more breaks What we're seeing
- 41:14in our marketing meaning anyways is a lot more creativity.
- 41:18You know?
- 41:19So, I think that people that didn't work at home, even though they were allowed to at
- 41:24Dovaco, but for whatever reason, they had young kids or whatever reason it was, and some of
- 41:29them are actually finding their flow a lot better than they did at the office.
- 41:34You know, we we spend, a quarter of a $1,000,000 on rent at our office.
- 41:41And I'm thinking hard that maybe we don't need to.
- 41:44Right.
- 41:45Right.
- 41:45So you're gonna see a lot of I I think, you know, so much of the media has been focusing on
- 41:49the negative, but really I think, you know, to your point, It's the positive things that we
- 41:54can look, which is connection, going back to the basics, what's important, and that we can
- 41:58do both.
- 41:59We can we can work and and and love what we do, but also love love up on our families and have
- 42:04something left to be able to give, you know, give back, even though we're kind of maybe in
- 42:09the middle of our careers.
- 42:11Yeah.
- 42:12Absolutely.
- 42:13I mean, I don't I I I implore everybody to look at this as a collective sigh.
- 42:19The earth needed it.
- 42:21I think every one of us needed it.
- 42:23Let's take a collective side.
- 42:24You know, I teach yoga.
- 42:26And when we're really in that oh, that space where you don't think you can make that, like,
- 42:31you can't hold on another moment.
- 42:33Right?
- 42:33We do this side.
- 42:36Yep.
- 42:36I didn't mean to let that go, and we let it go because we can't actually take another step
- 42:44unless we do let that silo.
- 42:46We know we we can't.
- 42:48So the sigh happens We're able to actually think for a moment.
- 42:54We're able to actually just take a second so we know what that next step is.
- 43:01And we were in trouble.
- 43:02I think that we were in trouble as humankind And, I'm looking up this.
- 43:07Oh, this is a really good thing myself.
- 43:09You know?
- 43:10Am I afraid?
- 43:11I am.
- 43:12I'm afraid.
- 43:13You know, I I don't think that anybody in the right mind wouldn't say they're, not afraid.
- 43:19But you know what?
- 43:19I'm not afraid about money.
- 43:23Mhmm.
- 43:23Mhmm.
- 43:23Not
- 43:24what I'm afraid of.
- 43:25I'm afraid that my eighty five year old mother and my ninety three year old father might die
- 43:29alone in this.
- 43:30You know?
- 43:31Yes.
- 43:31Of course.
- 43:32Of course.
- 43:32Biggest fear to tell you the honest truth.
- 43:34I have a little vulnerability when I do go out groceries.
- 43:37I I'm I'm, you know, I'm gonna admit that.
- 43:41But, leaders right now and every one of us are leaders.
- 43:46Every human being on this planet is a leader, and it is so important that everybody
- 43:54understands that.
- 43:54I don't care if you're an extrovert or an introvert.
- 43:57You are a leader.
- 43:59And it's going to be so important that once this pandemic is done, that you lead and you
- 44:05lead with grace and you lead with love 1st and foremost.
- 44:09And I'm not talking about the desire love.
- 44:12I'm talking about with your heart wide open.
- 44:15With as much purity as you can possibly muster because what's going to happen is we get to
- 44:22start again looking to start again.
- 44:26And I don't it it hasn't been since 1918, really, that people got to start again.
- 44:32Hopefully, we won't have those kind of losses.
- 44:36I think this is just the tip of the iceberg for us.
- 44:38I think that we need to make sure that we understand what this collective size.
- 44:44And I, I implore those who can really find it within themselves to go one step further, and
- 44:50you are the hero.
- 44:52And the world is waiting for you.
- 44:54And we all need to be a hero through this and to learn from it.
- 44:58Now, Shelley, this has been amazing.
- 45:00And, you know, I have gained so much today and having you in my book will be an, a, like, a
- 45:07gift.
- 45:08I truly think that, not only teams, but leaders can learn from it.
- 45:12What am I taking away that we're all leaders.
- 45:15So, you know, give everybody, the space to to lead and to find their strength.
- 45:21So thanks for spending the time with us today.
- 45:23Thank you.
- 45:24Thank you.
- 45:26So this is Roxanne Derhodge.
- 45:27If you're needing anything, related to mental health and well-being, I also have a course on
- 45:32relationships.
- 45:32If you're wanting to learn more about how to enhance your relationships, you just go to
- 45:36Roxanne, and there's a link there.
- 45:39Thanks for tuning in to authentic living with Roxanne, creating the space for positive,
- 45:45healthy change.
- 45:46Roxanne is a keynote speaker psychotherapist, and coach to work with Roxanne, visit
- 45:52rocksandurhaj.com/blueprint we'll see you next time on authentic living with Roxanne.