Latest / Authentic Living / Motivating Teams with Authentic Leadership (Part I ) with Dr. David Miles
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.
- 0:35Hi, Ron.
- 0:35It's Roxanne Durgesh.
- 0:36Thanks for tuning in again this week.
- 0:38I have a special guest David Miles.
- 0:41David is a PhD in leadership development and he has come today to the podcast to share about
- 0:48how do you fit behavior with motivations?
- 0:52He does a lot of fascinating things when he works with organizations to help them adapt to
- 0:57meet the needs of what they're seeing organizationally when they wanna make change.
- 1:03His interview was so fascinating that we've decided to do part 1 and part 2.
- 1:07This week, you have part 1.
- 1:09So much amazing information.
- 1:11And again, next week, we'll share the second part of his interview.
- 1:14Hope you enjoy the first and please please please stay tuned for next week when you can
- 1:19join me again at authentic living with Roxanne.
- 1:23Everyone, it's Roxanne Dohach of authentically famous Roxanne.
- 1:26Thanks for tuning in again today.
- 1:28Today, I have, David Miles with us he's a PhD in organizational leadership, and he's here to
- 1:35talk a little bit about, I would say something that's on a lot of people's minds.
- 1:40You know, how are we going to reintegrate back into work?
- 1:43What how how is this all these moving parts gonna come together?
- 1:47You know, am I going to be is it gonna be seamless?
- 1:50Is it gonna be the seamless before I left?
- 1:52What am I gonna do with some of the fears that I'm having not just with as a employee, but
- 1:57also as a leader.
- 1:58So, David, thanks so much for coming on today.
- 2:00Oh, thanks again for having me.
- 2:03Most welcome.
- 2:04So let's let's talk a little bit about, you know, change because I think I don't even know
- 2:11we can we we, you know, that term, Vuka, which is kind of out there.
- 2:14I I don't even know.
- 2:15I think it's Vuka types 10 that, we've been living in, like, like, a This this concept of
- 2:21whom your static balance is something that I I, you know, I'm not sure that we'll ever get back
- 2:25to in the way we knew it.
- 2:27But that constants, you know, what we've been going through has been like ongoing, change.
- 2:33And now I would say, David's in, in the US, in Virginia that you're a little bit ahead of us
- 2:40in in kind of people going back to work.
- 2:43Here in Canada, we're we're a little bit behind you in in, things going back but let's talk a
- 2:48little bit about kind of your background and what kinda got you here to do the kind of work
- 2:54that you do working with leaders and team.
- 2:57Well, I like to tell a story when I'm, doing a keynote or breakout, and I it's hilarious
- 3:06because I'm flash up a picture of a chicken sandwich, and I will blame it all on And I do.
- 3:13It's all the fault of a chicken sandwich.
- 3:15Oh, okay.
- 3:16This one Yeah.
- 3:16I'm gonna
- 3:17say people look at me like, you know, you taking some illegal substances or maybe, you
- 3:23know, they look at me like, I'm, you know, a little bit crazy, which, you know, I may not
- 3:27deny him on that.
- 3:28When you hear me, the screw is here there on occasion.
- 3:31I feel like, but, I think sometimes to do the kind of work that you do, you may have to you
- 3:37know, have a little bit of leeway here and there.
- 3:39But the reason I say at Blakeman on the chicken sandwich is when I first started working, you
- 3:43know, as a kid, I'm doing odd jobs and in mowing grass and doing yard work and stuff back
- 3:49for money.
- 3:49And then you can get your quote first real job.
- 3:52Right?
- 3:52So 15 a half and go down to the courthouse, and I gotta work from it.
- 3:57And I go to a port for AAA at the mall.
- 3:59Now this is long before the cows and long before the my, you know, my pleasure and all
- 4:04this stuff.
- 4:04They were just in malls.
- 4:05Right?
- 4:05No free standings.
- 4:06Everything was just brown and grab, and they sold a lot of chicken.
- 4:10Now it's fast food.
- 4:11Right?
- 4:11So fast food's fast food.
- 4:12It doesn't matter what country you in.
- 4:14Doesn't matter whatever.
- 4:15It's not known for being the highest paid.
- 4:17It's not known for being the best work.
- 4:18Fairly high, fast paced.
- 4:20But what I liked what got me about it was this, and this is where years later, it really
- 4:27affected me and and got me kind of into doing this is that the gentleman that owned it was
- 4:33very deliberate and very intentional about building a culture in his store that you wanted
- 4:40to come to work.
- 4:41You enjoyed working.
- 4:42It didn't matter that the type of work wasn't necessarily the most glamorous.
- 4:46But he set expectations and he created basically a family environment that you really
- 4:52look forward to going to work.
- 4:53And his managers and supervisors underneath of him echo that same type of sentiment.
- 4:59So, you know, personalities aside, you still enjoy coming to work no matter who is running
- 5:04the show that and what I got with that was that he showed a lot of appreciation.
- 5:09He created this great environment and it really screwed me up.
- 5:15I'm not gonna lie to you because think about it.
- 5:17You're you're at 18.
- 5:18What do you know in 18?
- 5:19Right?
- 5:20You know, and at 18, let's just say you've been three and a half years.
- 5:24Right?
- 5:25Yeah.
- 5:26For 2 3 years, 3 out of 18, that's a pretty high percentage of your days on this earth.
- 5:31When you're only 18.
- 5:32Right?
- 5:32And you put 3 of those 18 years, you know, in a certain type of environment work because that's
- 5:38work.
- 5:38That's your first w two job.
- 5:39That's your first our job that you get the paycheck for.
- 5:42So you go out into the quote, unquote real world, right, after you leave there.
- 5:46And you remember the environment you left And you get in there and you're like, wow.
- 5:52That's a joke.
- 5:53How's the truth?
- 5:53What's going on with it?
- 5:54You start working for a bad series of bad bosses and you're like, It doesn't why is it
- 5:59like this?
- 5:59And people like, well, that's just the way it is.
- 6:01I'm like, no.
- 6:02No.
- 6:02No.
- 6:02It's not the way it is.
- 6:03I just came from an environment.
- 6:06Right.
- 6:06Blah blah blah and you list out the the features and I'm like, no, son.
- 6:11It's not like that.
- 6:12You know, it's kinda like they looked at when you had 18.
- 6:14You're like, look, boy.
- 6:15That ain't the real world.
- 6:16Like, that the world doesn't work like that.
- 6:18And I'm like, you understand, Sparky.
- 6:21I just left that.
- 6:22Right?
- 6:22I I that was my that was my lived experience the last 3 years.
- 6:26Right?
- 6:27You know, big percentage of your life at that point.
- 6:29You're like
- 6:30But you're locked out.
- 6:31You're locked out because most people have really horrific stories as their first, you
- 6:35know, your 1 or 2 jobs.
- 6:37Right?
- 6:37Exactly.
- 6:38But what it did, it created this cognitive dissonance to wear, wait a minute.
- 6:41It doesn't have to be like this.
- 6:44No one perfect.
- 6:45That place wasn't perfect.
- 6:47No no company no organization, no leader, no manager, no person is perfect.
- 6:52But it they did they were intentionally delivered about creating that environment to
- 6:56keep the people there.
- 6:58You know, there's some people that are gonna stay and some people just because of of things
- 7:00that are gonna go.
- 7:02And you have to create the environment because the people that are willing to stay and wanna
- 7:07move up and wanna do you gotta create that environment where they don't wanna go.
- 7:10And that's what reduces their turnover increases your engagement.
- 7:12That's what people want to come work there.
- 7:15And it will get me was always wanted to try to figure out to get back to that environment.
- 7:20How do you make the workplace like that?
- 7:25You know, it can be done.
- 7:26But how?
- 7:27You know, that's one of the reasons I went back to school is to how do I deconstruct the
- 7:31process?
- 7:31How do I, you know, figure out these ways to help, you know, increase engagement and, you
- 7:37know, reduce turnover and and make a workplace use a better place to go ahead and help leaders
- 7:43create amazing teams.
- 7:44I mean, how do you do that?
- 7:45I saw it done before, but I wanted to learn for myself.
- 7:48Okay.
- 7:49Let me peek under the hood.
- 7:50It's kinda like I know how to drive a car.
- 7:52It gets you where I need to go, and I'll enjoy the car, but maybe let me go to the mechanic
- 7:56school and figure out how this whole thing works.
- 7:58Right?
- 7:59So Do you remember the qualities of the of the first leader that you worked for.
- 8:03Do you remember some of the things that he, he or she, I'm assuming it's a man, did that makes
- 8:09you make you realize now?
- 8:10Wow.
- 8:12That these were significant things that companies, like you said, going forward, you
- 8:16needed to to see, but you weren't seeing.
- 8:18Yeah.
- 8:19I think he was well, one is very authentic.
- 8:21What you saw was what you got.
- 8:23It wasn't a lot of fake corporate speak.
- 8:25He was very He showed a lot of gratitude towards the employees.
- 8:28He thanked people for coming in to thank I mean, thank you for doing something you were
- 8:32supposed to do anyway, but still that little bit of gratitude that honest, the reason I said
- 8:37authentic at first is because when he did give you a compliment or I did thank you for coming
- 8:42in or thinking whatever that wasn't genuine heartfelt thing.
- 8:45It wasn't a tip trick or technique.
- 8:47It wasn't a hack.
- 8:48It wasn't a well, I can make people think that I appreciate them, and they're gonna like
- 8:52working for me more.
- 8:53No.
- 8:53He actually appreciated the people that were working for him.
- 8:56They will contribute to the success of the whole organization.
- 9:00And so
- 9:00Which seems really simple.
- 9:02Right, David?
- 9:02But
- 9:03Yes.
- 9:03It is so basic, but it's just about, you know, I often say that, unfortunately, I've had my
- 9:09fascure of not so good, leaders, and I've had, I would say a smaller percentage of really
- 9:14phenomenal leaders, and you know, those ones, the the the ones that are kind and authentic,
- 9:21they stick out.
- 9:22They're like a beaming light, you know,
- 9:24as you
- 9:24can see, Sometimes, and I I can think of myself in my tenure that I actually stayed behind
- 9:30longer potentially because I liked that leader that I was working for.
- 9:35And in retrospect, I was like, oh, you know, I really wanna stay because I like this person,
- 9:40but I know my trajectory in my career needs to go somewhere else.
- 9:44Those two people are credit to the organization that they work for.
- 9:47And because I mean, the the the old adages is true today as it was when they you know, when
- 9:52when it was coined is that, you know, people don't leave organizations for the most part.
- 9:55People leave people.
- 9:56Mhmm.
- 9:57And you could have the best job, the best organization to work for, and your direct
- 10:02manager can make it a great place of work or a horrible place and you just and you gotta get
- 10:09out of there.
- 10:10So I've myself, and I've also seen lots of people that I know leave good jobs, leave good
- 10:17environment, things that, you know, this would be a great place if and then, you know, but the
- 10:22people that they're working for make it a place that they just don't wanna go.
- 10:26So it's funny that you mentioned that is because I look at it as not a a a fad or a tip
- 10:34or a trick or some kind of, like I said, some kind of hack.
- 10:36I look at it as, you know, that's genuine authentic.
- 10:41I really do appreciate the people that are working with me.
- 10:43I really do have a sense of empathy.
- 10:46So there's no doubt in my mind.
- 10:47I didn't know the term before I didn't.
- 10:49That wasn't familiar with it, but I there's no doubt that he had a high very high level of
- 10:52emotional intelligence.
- 10:54I know that, like I said, he was just a a a good moral integrity.
- 10:59I guess it's a good way to put it.
- 11:00You know, he was he was gonna do the right thing even if it cost him.
- 11:03Even if it okay.
- 11:04Yes.
- 11:04You're right.
- 11:05Said I was gonna do that.
- 11:06And, okay, that's good.
- 11:08Yep.
- 11:08I'm sorry.
- 11:09I did tell you I was gonna give you the day off and, okay, it's gonna put a short hander, but I
- 11:13told you.
- 11:14And so have it.
- 11:15You're just doing the right thing because it's the right thing, not because it's
- 11:19And with authentic leadership, but you know, with a lot of the research that's done, moral
- 11:23integrity is in line.
- 11:25If even if it like you said, he might he may have said to you, hey.
- 11:28Sure.
- 11:28You'll have Friday off before the July 4th or whatever.
- 11:31And
- 11:31if he didn't think it through, and then all of a sudden, he short staffed, and he said he
- 11:34keeps his word to say because I've said you could.
- 11:37Even though it's gonna put them out.
- 11:39And and I think, you know, that those qualities sometimes, do you think it's qualities that
- 11:45are, you know, easier to teach.
- 11:47Some people seem to have, I would say intuitively a real deep sense of some core
- 11:54fundamental to be authentic.
- 11:56Meaning, I'm not saying, and some people just naturally
- 11:59Yeah.
- 12:00Seem to have it.
- 12:01Do you find that's, that that's something that you see a lot out there, or do you find that
- 12:05sometimes you actually see leadership teams where you have to teach some of the basic
- 12:10fundamentals to what we call in to emotional intelligence.
- 12:13It's a combination of both.
- 12:15You know, the the the best law I'm not a not a lawyer, but, my best lawyer answer would be it
- 12:20depends.
- 12:21I'll take enough law classes to figure out.
- 12:22That's the best.
- 12:23It really does depend.
- 12:24Some people, like you said, they've grown up around the environment and look at it as nature
- 12:29nurture type of thing.
- 12:30If you grow up in an environment or you work in an environment where you see good leadership
- 12:34models, you might not understand the component pieces of it, but you just know that's what a I
- 12:40that was great for me.
- 12:42So I'm gonna model what I saw because it was a great place to work, and I would like to
- 12:47produce that same type of result.
- 12:49I'm gonna do the same thing.
- 12:51Consequently, if you've never seen that modeled, you may not and it's not your fault.
- 12:55You may not necessarily know how.
- 12:57You might not know punter pieces of a good leader because you've never worked for 1.
- 13:01Now saying that, I always had this philosophy in my head, about 2 different clipboards.
- 13:08Oh, I when I first started, career after that, I ended up joining the the emergency medical
- 13:15services for years and I was in the fire department, municipal fire department doing
- 13:19both.
- 13:19And I laughed because in my mind, the way I pictured it with good bosses, bad bosses, is is
- 13:25who's at this old worn down rickety fire station and had all these pieces of apparatus.
- 13:29And and years ago, every single one of them had a little clipboard on it with the little cup
- 13:33hook, and that was the check off sheet.
- 13:35You go down for the day.
- 13:36Well, I'm the 2 clipboards always just kind of stuck in my head on 1, when I become the boss
- 13:44type of thing, what to do, because I've seen good leadership model, what to do, And then on
- 13:49the other clipboard, the what not to do.
- 13:52Now I might only have maybe a quarter page, half page on the what to do.
- 13:56Right.
- 13:57Clipboard.
- 13:57But I felt like depending on a few people that I had worked with and worked for, I felt like
- 14:02that the what not to do was almost like that green striped dot matrix print stuff at tax
- 14:08time.
- 14:09It just kept coming and coming and coming and just went on forever.
- 14:12You know?
- 14:12And I'm like, well, Not the brightest moment of Marquis, but if I can just and I might not have
- 14:17a lot of examples of what to do, but if I can actively avoid the what not to do, just by
- 14:23default, I'm gonna stumble on.
- 14:24You're gonna you're gonna shot.
- 14:25You're gonna shine.
- 14:26You're gonna stumble on the good stuff.
- 14:28So, I mean, I would take people that, you know, if you work for bad leaders, What are some of
- 14:32the things you hated about it?
- 14:34I mean, and then just this guy was a jerk.
- 14:36He was a bully.
- 14:37He was what?
- 14:37Well, then don't be a jerk.
- 14:38Don't be a bully.
- 14:39You know, don't just he was mean to me.
- 14:41Well, then they'll be mean to people.
- 14:42Be nice.
- 14:43Okay.
- 14:43Oh my god.
- 14:44What a concept.
- 14:45You know, it's just do me.
- 14:46But, you know, I I gotta play devil's advocate with because I've been in corp I've been in
- 14:49corporate environments, and I've been an executive in environments.
- 14:53And I remember I always joke around and say it's it's because of my Caribbean heritage.
- 14:57Right?
- 14:57Small, connected, and I would like to be open and, you know, and I remember, you know, being,
- 15:03you know, knocked back because I was so connected because I was looking for
- 15:07connections.
- 15:08So with the other executives on the team, or I'd be, you know, sharing things about my
- 15:12portfolio, and I'd be told why you need to open the that shouldn't you shouldn't be at that
- 15:18room.
- 15:19And I'm like, I'm working as an executive in health and wellness, And, you know, but but
- 15:24you're asking me to be in congruent with what I am supposed to be supporting.
- 15:29And it was a given, and there were so many examples that I saw over my years over and over
- 15:35again that, you know, every level you went up, like, so the level above me was even that much
- 15:40more disconnected than my level.
- 15:43And, like you said, about that implicit normative behavior, you know, you got told one
- 15:50thing and, you know, the vision mission, you know, you know, all those things.
- 15:55And then the reality is behind the house.
- 15:59Yes.
- 15:59It's been.
- 16:00Good point on that because there is a lot of That that's why I just really banned the Gong
- 16:06on the authenticity end of it because a lot of it is incongruent.
- 16:09It just to really build an amazing workplace culture, you have to be selling the vision
- 16:17mission values all the time.
- 16:18You cannot just come together once every 3 to 5 years in the executive boardroom and it's only
- 16:24the folks, you know, at the 15th floor and above that come together in this boardroom,
- 16:30create this strategic plan, vision, mission values, high fiber, everybody, you know, hey,
- 16:35we've, you know, got another 5 year plan going.
- 16:37Stick that stuff on the wall.
- 16:39Yeah.
- 16:40Yeah.
- 16:40And then that's all it is.
- 16:42There's something on the wall because if you're not constantly out there selling it and it
- 16:47people have different contexts and definitions of what I mean, you know, what they think I
- 16:50wanna hear is selling it, but you gotta constantly be casting that vision.
- 16:54You gotta constantly be this is where we're going and this is how we're gonna get there to
- 16:58everybody.
- 16:59You know, the leadership, the staff, and everybody has to be on the same page as they
- 17:02are as the senior leader you that's the way you can just kinda shape that culture is because
- 17:08you're constantly selling it.
- 17:10Look at some of the best performing organizations in the world, you know, I don't
- 17:14think that, I don't think that somebody ever goes to work at Apple thinking to themselves,
- 17:20you know, especially when Steve Jobs was there, He talks a good game on stage about having nice
- 17:25design and products at work, but, you know, That's not what I'm seeing.
- 17:30Well, we're here trying to build the p you know, that just simplistic, easy to use design,
- 17:35the philosophy that you know, they they had behind their products.
- 17:39I think that just resonated throughout, and it would just ended up being something unconscious
- 17:43at some point, which when cultures really work because now all of a sudden, it just seems to
- 17:47be an unconscious part of the organization.
- 17:49That's just the way we do it.
- 17:51It's excellent.
- 17:52It's you know, it's simple.
- 17:53Yeah.
- 17:53Because, like, the thing is, and I I I think of, like, us in the last 18 months or so,
- 17:59really, any mission vision and value had to be, you know, you you have your finger had to be on
- 18:05the pulse day by day week by week about what was happening, you know, like, you know, for
- 18:11instance, I was talking to a lot of CEOs in IT and when the pandemic, you know, was like, you
- 18:18know, and was heightened there, they had people, you know, continuing to work at the
- 18:25level they did because of their culture, Mhmm.
- 18:28Not saying.
- 18:29I got my mother and father that are both have COVID and I have the word to go.
- 18:34So they keep, you know, kind of working, and then in turn they're burning out or people are
- 18:38dying around them, but culturally, they always follow through with expectations.
- 18:42So, you know, the CEO on that on that level, how to know, you know, what every line and
- 18:50every multinational location or international location is happening because it's not on a
- 18:57static kind of vision or mission anymore.
- 19:00Really difficult.
- 19:01And I think at those upper levels, especially the bigger the organization gets, the more you
- 19:07have to be very, very deliberate about being able to have channels of communication that
- 19:14kind of go around the traditional or chart because I think if you're not getting what the
- 19:22real story is from the mid level and from the ground and you're just getting what's filtered
- 19:26up, I mean, middle management's a hard place to be.
- 19:29I mean, you're catching up on both ends.
- 19:31So I am not trying to don't get me wrong with what I'm gonna say, but I do have a joke about
- 19:36middle management being as the most efficient filtration system in the world.
- 19:40Like, reverse osmosis and desalination has nothing on middle management.
- 19:43Right?
- 19:44I mean, what are you gonna do if the people underneath you and not be?
- 19:48You're gonna, hey, boss.
- 19:49All my people, like, hate this place and aren't happy.
- 19:51They're gonna leave.
- 19:52You're gonna go really gonna go tell him unless you've really truly built that relationship.
- 19:56Of course.
- 19:57And it's a safe psychological space and they're like, no.
- 19:59I I want the truth because a lot of times just shoot the messenger.
- 20:03And of course, you're gonna, you know, it's just gonna get happier and happier as it goes
- 20:07on.
- 20:07And if you're CEO or you're one of the VPs and by the time it gets to you, it's really good.
- 20:13It's the news is
- 20:14fine.
- 20:15They're so thin up there.
- 20:16They're nothing everything.
- 20:17They're they're like, everything's good because everybody's generally afraid organization when
- 20:22you talk about psychological safety that they're afraid to go up to, you know, the ones
- 20:26that are CEO a lot of times, they're telling him or her if they're not feeling
- 20:31psychologically safe, what they wanna hear, which is oftentimes a disconnect from like you
- 20:37said, the frontline and the middle managers.
- 20:39Right?
- 20:39And then people wonder, why are we why is my short term going through the roof?
- 20:42Why is my long term going through the roof?
- 20:44My incidental absences our arbitrations, but everybody's happy happy happy.
- 20:48If my employee engagement is is in the toilet and while my employee engagement is down, Well,
- 20:54maybe I need to get a new consultant.
- 20:56I don't like the questions they're asking.
- 20:58I'll get a new consultant in to ask different questions on the employee engagement survey,
- 21:01and that'll help.
- 21:03And if they if they still come back bad, then we'll fire him and we'll or her will get
- 21:06another assessment company, and it will do another set of organizational assessments
- 21:11Sure to tune in next week for the 2nd part of Doctor.
- 21:14David Smiles interview.
- 21:17Thanks for tuning in to authentic living with Roxanne.
- 21:20Create the space for positive, healthy change.
- 21:23Roxanne is a keynote speaker, psychotherapist, and coach to work with Roxanne, visit
- 21:30roxannederhaj.com/blueprint.
- 21:34We'll see you next time on authentic living with Roxanne.