Latest / The Confident Entrepreneur With Jennifer Ann Johnson / Leading with Trust: Building a Culture of Autonomy with Melissa Severance
Transcript
- 0:36Jennifer Johnson: In today's fast-paced business world, the old command and control leadership style is absolutely obsolete.
- 0:42Jennifer Johnson: More and more successful companies are discovering the power of employee autonomy.
- 0:47Jennifer Johnson: But what does autonomy really mean in the workplace, and how can we foster it without losing sight of our business goals?
- 0:55Jennifer Johnson: Well, today we're diving deep into the world of team autonomy with our special guest, melissa Severance.
- 1:01Jennifer Johnson: She's an executive leadership coach and an HR consultant and training specialist.
- 1:07Jennifer Johnson: We'll explore how giving your team more freedom can lead to increased creativity, productivity and job satisfaction.
- 1:19Jennifer Johnson: Whether you're a startup founder or leading an established company, this episode is going to give you practical insights on how to build a culture of autonomy.
- 1:23Jennifer Johnson: We'll discuss everything from trust-building strategies to performance evaluation in an autonomous environment.
- 1:29Jennifer Johnson: Get ready to transform your leadership approach and unleash your team's full potential.
- 1:34Jennifer Johnson: Your journey to creating a more empowered and engaged workforce starts now.
- 1:39Jennifer Johnson: Let's dive in.
- 1:40Jennifer Johnson: Welcome, Melissa.
- 1:43Jennifer Johnson: Hi Jen, how are you?
- 1:44Jennifer Johnson: I'm good.
- 1:44Jennifer Johnson: We've had you on the last two seasons.
- 1:46Jennifer Johnson: We've talked a lot about HR and empowering teams and just all around teams, because that's what you do, yeah.
- 1:55Melissa Severance: I enjoy really bringing team success to the next level and really excited about this topic today because I do think every leader needs to really think about how they're empowering and giving their employees decision-making capabilities.
- 2:13Jennifer Johnson: So I was reading somewhere it's about the new.
- 2:17Jennifer Johnson: I don't know.
- 2:17Jennifer Johnson: Is it Generation Z, is that?
- 2:20Melissa Severance: Z, and there's also another.
- 2:22Jennifer Johnson: There's going to be six in the workforce soon, which is crazy, unprecedented no, never happened before, but that you know what they're really looking for right now isn't necessarily always the money you know that's nice, but they're looking for what impact am I going to make and how can I be the one to do that impacting?
- 2:38Jennifer Johnson: And that goes along with this autonomy, because you have to give them that or they're like peace out.
- 2:44Melissa Severance: Yeah, they want growth, they want to get to the next level, they want to show they're having purpose and making an impact.
- 2:51Jennifer Johnson: So we need to help them do that.
- 2:52Jennifer Johnson: So what does, at the core, providing that autonomy look like?
- 2:58Jennifer Johnson: What does it look like if a leader says you know what?
- 3:01Jennifer Johnson: I'm an autonomous leader, I'm going to let you here you go.
- 3:03Jennifer Johnson: What does that?
- 3:04Melissa Severance: look like.
- 3:04Melissa Severance: I think there's clear goals.
- 3:05Melissa Severance: Everybody knows what they can do, what they should do, and there might be thresholds, but there is a lot of openness for them to try things, think outside the box, make decisions and take things to another level.
- 3:19Melissa Severance: Do things a little differently, and they're not going to get scolded for it.
- 3:22Melissa Severance: They're not going to say, no, you have to do it this way, the way we've always done it.
- 3:25Melissa Severance: They could be creative.
- 3:26Melissa Severance: They can be innovative.
- 3:27Melissa Severance: They're going to transform.
- 3:29Melissa Severance: And that's what we really need our people to feel when they're at work.
- 3:32Melissa Severance: They can have open communication, raise their hand, say, hey, I have an idea, let's give it a shot, be okay to fail.
- 3:38Melissa Severance: And if they do fail, let's learn from it and do better the next time.
- 3:42Jennifer Johnson: What do you think are some barriers and why leaders may not want to step into?
- 3:48Jennifer Johnson: You know, leading their teams with autonomy.
- 3:51Jennifer Johnson: Why, what would that be?
- 3:56Melissa Severance: Great leaders develop great team members.
- 3:57Melissa Severance: So it really starts at the top, with the leader and how they have been trained and developed as a leader.
- 4:02Melissa Severance: Unfortunately, a lot of them are just doing the same that has been done to them, which is insanity, right, but we continue to do that and we think we need to micromanage.
- 4:11Melissa Severance: We don't know how to lead, so they do activities or try to be part of things too much and not give people that string to let them go and be them and take control and do great things their way, and you know I can see from being a leader myself how I'm telling everybody that I have been in my own way right and I've been in my leader's way.
- 4:38Jennifer Johnson: And when you step into somebody's way then they're going to take a step back because they see you as the leader and then if you're not leading by allowing them to lead I know this sounds like an old John Madden oh, absolutely.
- 4:54Jennifer Johnson: You know, if you don't have good leaders, then leaders aren't going to hear.
- 4:57Jennifer Johnson: But once I stepped away and allowed them to do their job, things changed.
- 5:06Jennifer Johnson: Yeah, but people I think leaders are scared.
- 5:09Jennifer Johnson: They are scared to do that.
- 5:12Melissa Severance: They've only known one way and it's scary.
- 5:15Melissa Severance: There's fear, yeah, the unknown, but you know, being an entrepreneur and being a leader, we have to embrace it and know that great things can come from it.
- 5:24Jennifer Johnson: So what's a first step to overcoming that mentality of okay?
- 5:28Jennifer Johnson: I mean, I know, for me it was just one day the light bulb went off and I went.
- 5:32Jennifer Johnson: What am I doing?
- 5:34Jennifer Johnson: I need to back away and let them do their job.
- 5:37Jennifer Johnson: Yeah.
- 5:38Melissa Severance: I think it comes from developing you know, developing trust on a team, and I think sometimes leaders don't trust their people and they have to figure out how to and know the different strengths of their people, what they bring to the table, what their knowledge is, what they could excel in, and do it in baby steps.
- 5:53Melissa Severance: I think everybody, you can't do all or nothing, can't be 100%.
- 5:57Melissa Severance: So give them a project, give them, you know, certain parts of their job that they can make decisions, or a threshold of a certain amount of money that you can make decisions with, to see where they go with it, and maybe you can keep bringing it higher and higher and then at one point they're totally empowered.
- 6:12Jennifer Johnson: So is that how you would suggest starting it, going in gradually, by just dipping?
- 6:18Melissa Severance: their toe in.
- 6:19Melissa Severance: Definitely, you know you got to make sure you're the right person doing the right things.
- 6:23Melissa Severance: So sometimes it's looking at the whole team, evaluating their strengths, making sure people are doing the right thing.
- 6:28Melissa Severance: Everybody needs different empowerment or accountability.
- 6:33Melissa Severance: Everybody's different, so what you might do for one employee will be totally different for another employee, Sometimes the whole team.
- 6:38Melissa Severance: Everything works.
- 6:40Jennifer Johnson: but usually it doesn't.
- 6:41Jennifer Johnson: I'm sure you know that as well.
- 6:43Melissa Severance: It would be that it would be so easy right.
- 6:45Melissa Severance: They want it to be easy, but it's really not.
- 6:46Melissa Severance: We have to really like dig deep on each person and, yeah, I do think it's like giving them a project, giving them something to show what they can do, and then continue and give them opportunities, make sure they see you in action doing certain things that you're going to want them to do before.
- 7:01Melissa Severance: It doesn't really cost any money to have them in a meeting or to try something.
- 7:04Melissa Severance: You know.
- 7:05Melissa Severance: Hey, try this project, let me know.
- 7:07Melissa Severance: You know, try to get it 60% for me, or you know, the 80-20 rule Try to get to there.
- 7:11Melissa Severance: If they can do the 80%, there's no harm and you're getting them motivated.
- 7:16Melissa Severance: They're excited to do something new and different.
- 7:17Melissa Severance: You're showing trust.
- 7:26Jennifer Johnson: Right, yeah, and I think that you know the trust component of it is pretty huge, because you know, whether you're a business owner or you're a team lead or whatever you are in leadership, that has to come first.
- 7:34Jennifer Johnson: You have to build up that level of trust with your team to know that, okay, if I give them this and back away, yeah, maybe they're not going to do it to my level, which is 90%, but am I okay with 70%?
- 7:49Jennifer Johnson: It doesn't always have to be 100% if it can get close.
- 7:55Melissa Severance: Yeah, we have to let go of process and just know the outcomes are there.
- 7:59Melissa Severance: Because our process, we think it's the best.
- 8:02Jennifer Johnson: It might not be.
- 8:03Melissa Severance: I learned so much from all these millennials, people younger than me that can do all these amazing things on apps with technology that I do not know about.
- 8:12Melissa Severance: I want to learn from them, like the reverse mentorship we can learn from our employees.
- 8:17Melissa Severance: We have to let it happen and we don't need to know everything.
- 8:21Melissa Severance: We can say I don't know to our team.
- 8:22Melissa Severance: Showing that really will start building that trust.
- 8:26Jennifer Johnson: I agree, because if we're a know-it-all, where is there to go from there?
- 8:29Jennifer Johnson: Nowhere, right.
- 8:30Jennifer Johnson: And I want to touch on something that you said about roles.
- 8:34Jennifer Johnson: Yeah, and finding I have a saying that somebody it was handed down to me, it's not my idea, but the right souls for the right roles, oh, I love it.
- 8:45Jennifer Johnson: And you find through this, probably through this process of maybe that's not the right soul for that role, yeah, I think you really have to evaluate your team.
- 8:57Melissa Severance: You know I think I told you this in another podcast that they used to put me in process and creating process process and my assessment said I was horrible at it, but I mastered it from so many years of doing it and got thrown into it and I was the only one that could do it.
- 9:09Melissa Severance: So, yeah, I'm great with process, I'm great with implementing things, but that probably wasn't my strength.
- 9:14Melissa Severance: I had other strengths.
- 9:15Melissa Severance: So we maybe push people in other directions because we need them there and then they become a master at it, but is that really where they should be, where they're really loving their job and giving the most impact to the firm?
- 9:28Melissa Severance: So we need to, you know.
- 9:28Melissa Severance: That's why I love assessments seeing where people lie.
- 9:30Melissa Severance: Are they in the right seats for success?
- 9:32Jennifer Johnson: You know.
- 9:33Jennifer Johnson: And then you have the other end of the continuum, where you throw somebody into the role and maybe they don't master it and they're miserable, they hate their job and then, you wonder why they quit or why you can't keep somebody in that role and you're pushing them the square peg into the round hole, kind of analogy.
- 9:51Melissa Severance: I had this one person who reported to me.
- 9:54Melissa Severance: She never wanted people to report into her.
- 9:56Melissa Severance: She was an individual contributor.
- 9:58Melissa Severance: She knew what she wanted, but she was a rock star did amazing work and when she did coach and guide, it was amazing as well too.
- 10:04Melissa Severance: But she just didn't want that.
- 10:05Melissa Severance: And so many years I actually, you know my leadership was in question because I didn't keep pushing her.
- 10:11Melissa Severance: But she did it naturally and she was happy with the way she did it.
- 10:15Melissa Severance: You know and I laughed that she had more and more people report to her and she wound up leaving because she felt so like pushed into something that she knew wasn't naturally what she wanted to do or what she enjoyed doing, even though she's really good at it.
- 10:28Melissa Severance: It doesn't mean you need to do it, so on that note.
- 10:32Jennifer Johnson: What advice would you give to somebody who is in that position, who's being pushed and they're like no wait a second.
- 10:39Jennifer Johnson: This is not where I see myself, or not where I feel like I excel.
- 10:42Jennifer Johnson: What would you suggest?
- 10:44Melissa Severance: I've had a lot of coaching clients where we had to discuss this.
- 10:47Melissa Severance: And it's really open communication and going to your leader and saying, hey, I know you need me for this, but this is not really where I want to be.
- 10:54Melissa Severance: How can we get somebody else to backfill me eventually?
- 10:56Melissa Severance: It doesn't have to be today, tomorrow, the next month, but like.
- 10:59Melissa Severance: It doesn't have to be today, tomorrow, the next month, but like how do we figure out some other solutions or parts of this job to go to somebody else that's more in tune with it?
- 11:06Melissa Severance: And I like to do more of this and seeing how we can change roles within the team or to bring a new, fresh perspective in from somebody else that has that exposure and experience.
- 11:15Melissa Severance: It's really all about the discussions and having them come to you and feel like they can See.
- 11:21Jennifer Johnson: That's the thing right, because a lot of people may be scared and go.
- 11:28Jennifer Johnson: You know what I could get fired over this.
- 11:29Jennifer Johnson: What if I say you know I don't want this role.
- 11:30Jennifer Johnson: You know that's always a scary part.
- 11:31Melissa Severance: Hey, is it more scary to go to work every day and hate it and not know that you're not contributing?
- 14:04Melissa Severance: I think bad work comes from that.
- 14:06Melissa Severance: Not on purpose, it just does.
- 14:09Melissa Severance: You have no passion.
- 14:10Melissa Severance: You don't love what you're doing.
- 14:11Melissa Severance: It gives you anxiety.
- 14:13Melissa Severance: Are you really performing to your top of your ability?
- 14:16Jennifer Johnson: Probably not Right Exactly, you know.
- 14:18Jennifer Johnson: Another idea that I have here is I'm actually working on something that marries innovation with core values and that whole topic, but how do you feel that providing your team with autonomy, what does that do for innovation within your company?
- 14:37Melissa Severance: I think it just allows it to thrive.
- 14:39Melissa Severance: I do love group things and group brainstorming.
- 14:45Melissa Severance: All of that together, I think, helps as well too for creativity and innovation.
- 14:48Melissa Severance: But sometimes on your own you can figure things out in another way because, you're not, like, brought into another form of thinking.
- 14:56Melissa Severance: When you're right here, you can go where you need to go to try to figure things out and you're trying things by yourself.
- 15:02Melissa Severance: Hey, you need to ask for coaching and guidance.
- 15:05Melissa Severance: Or go to a peer and say what do you think?
- 15:06Melissa Severance: Of course you need to ask for coaching and guidance.
- 15:07Melissa Severance: Or go to appear and say what do you think?
- 15:08Melissa Severance: Right, of course you need to do that.
- 15:10Melissa Severance: I'm not saying be so siloed, because sometimes when we talk about this subject, people think you're not working with people.
- 15:15Melissa Severance: You still need to collaborate.
- 15:17Melissa Severance: You still need to work with everyone.
- 15:18Melissa Severance: You still have some oversight from your manager, check-ins and making sure you don't have any questions, but you got to come in with solutions, right?
- 15:25Melissa Severance: Um, that's what the leader should really have their people do.
- 15:28Melissa Severance: Hey, you have this, but come to me and if you have any questions, come with a couple solutions.
- 15:34Melissa Severance: Let's talk through them together and figure out about the path.
- 15:36Jennifer Johnson: But do you think it's a good idea to maybe bring Sally from accounting and Jimmy from marketing and everyone kind of together as?
- 15:46Melissa Severance: well, I think it's a combination.
- 15:48Melissa Severance: So I think you need to have some group collaboration, brainstorming, you know, determining next steps, implementation together, and there will be different perspectives that will come out and I think it makes it even stronger when you do figure out the path forward.
- 16:03Melissa Severance: So I think you need a little bit of each, but at the same time, know that your employees can do a certain path forward by themselves.
- 16:10Jennifer Johnson: Do you have for our listeners a great example of a company perhaps that has done something like?
- 16:17Jennifer Johnson: This and have given great autonomy to their employees, and maybe what that result was versus what it was before they did that it's.
- 16:26Melissa Severance: it's funny, it's different times.
- 16:28Melissa Severance: There's companies that are really great at it, and there's other times that they aren't, and it can change over time, because as you grow from a 50 to 100 person, there's times where I've seen it thrive and then it go backwards Because one other leader comes in from somewhere else and they have a different course of action.
- 16:44Melissa Severance: Sometimes it's great when you have somebody there for a while that's leading that team, because then everybody feels so comfortable.
- 16:51Melissa Severance: But it's also good to switch it up as well too, and have different people.
- 16:55Melissa Severance: In my last firm I was at I was there 16 years.
- 16:58Melissa Severance: I've seen it.
- 16:59Melissa Severance: I saw it go up and down so many different times Because it's a leader yeah, I do think it's a leader.
- 17:04Melissa Severance: And then the other top.
- 17:05Melissa Severance: You know as well, too, how they want to change things up and do things differently.
- 17:12Melissa Severance: So my advice is that, even if you think you have it figured out, it won't always be figured out, it's always changing there's ups and downs with it.
- 17:25Melissa Severance: Just like your success with your business, there's ups and downs.
- 17:28Melissa Severance: Well, it's living and breathing yeah.
- 17:29Melissa Severance: Oh, absolutely.
- 17:31Jennifer Johnson: So you move one chess piece and then you're like, oh, this chess piece, yeah, now I have to move that one because it's not working.
- 17:39Melissa Severance: Exactly, and there's nothing wrong with it.
- 17:42Melissa Severance: We have these growing pains as we continue to grow as companies and we need to address it and do different things.
- 17:48Melissa Severance: You know there's.
- 17:49Melissa Severance: You know I, I love going into companies that have strong coaching cultures because you see a lot of empowerment there and some of them you would be surprised.
- 17:57Melissa Severance: I was doing a conference or speaking at a conference national SHRM conference in Vegas and a government institution from one of the states said we have a coaching culture, everybody's coached in the whole firm and one day a set aside for just coaching for our leaders to our employees every week.
- 18:16Melissa Severance: Wow, and I was in shock.
- 18:17Jennifer Johnson: One day.
- 18:18Melissa Severance: Yes, and it's governmental.
- 18:20Jennifer Johnson: And you said, wow, governmental organization.
- 18:22Melissa Severance: I know I was like unbelievable because I was like giving all the different characteristics of a coaching culture and she's like unbelievable Because I was like giving all the different characteristics of a coaching culture and she's like we do all of these and that was the only person in the room out of 250 that raised her hand.
- 18:32Melissa Severance: And it was shocking that it was a governmental.
- 18:34Melissa Severance: You know just depends on she goes.
- 18:36Melissa Severance: It's our leader, Of course.
- 18:37Melissa Severance: You know he brought it in and we instituted it.
- 18:41Melissa Severance: We're doing so much amazing, more work than we've ever done before.
- 18:43Melissa Severance: I've seen a total change in my company and I know when you do coaching, you're having them come with their own solutions, they're figuring it out.
- 18:54Melissa Severance: There's two people in the conversation and I'm sure they're going asking for help and doing other things as well too, because they're getting coached and guided to do that.
- 18:59Melissa Severance: So it's not a vacuum, it's not one person.
- 19:01Melissa Severance: That's true.
- 19:01Melissa Severance: Coaching encourages conversations.
- 19:05Jennifer Johnson: And the coaching component goes deeper than even providing autonomy, because it's providing development for your team members, because there's value in that too, especially for our new workforce, the six generations we talked about, and for those that are younger.
- 19:26Jennifer Johnson: I mean older as well, everyone really, but you know, like my generation and older, we weren't accustomed to having that in any business.
- 19:35Jennifer Johnson: Yeah, you know, nobody provided that?
- 19:38Melissa Severance: Yeah, you know, sometimes we just worry about our leaders getting trained, and sometimes leaders aren't trained at all, so we're at a point where they've been leading for a while, then we know we have to correct their leadership.
- 19:48Melissa Severance: You know skills, ability to try to get them to be the leader they should be at this point which they never got training for, because I come in for that a lot.
- 19:55Melissa Severance: But we have to also train our employees too.
- 19:57Melissa Severance: Sure, we can't just do one, not the other, because sometimes that leader will never be able to change and we need to make sure we have succession planning and it's just in the culture of this learning and this empowerment and if they know they should be empowered, these new professionals in the workforce will say, hey, I know I can do this.
- 20:15Jennifer Johnson: Right Exactly Now on the topic and I know we're talking about autonomy, but it just kind of opened up a question talking about training and development for leaders and employees.
- 20:26Jennifer Johnson: You know what are a few different kinds of things that companies should look at to train their leaders and to train their employees on.
- 20:36Jennifer Johnson: Are they the same thing?
- 20:38Jennifer Johnson: Are they different?
- 20:39Melissa Severance: I think they can be the same thing.
- 20:40Melissa Severance: So I do trainings with a lot of managers but we also put some other, we sprinkle in some other people so they can learn and have their perspective and you know, probably people that go to the next level.
- 20:50Melissa Severance: But I also have done for my trainings where everybody is in there learning the components.
- 20:57Melissa Severance: I do still think it's effective to everyone in the room, but just in a different way.
- 21:00Melissa Severance: You know, you might have to change up some of the conversation, you might have to do something a little different, but they all are hungry for learning in these areas and they all want to do their best work and they all have passion for their jobs.
- 21:13Melissa Severance: They're coming in every day and they need this, so all of them need to be together on this and really learn together.
- 21:20Melissa Severance: It'll be even better.
- 21:21Jennifer Johnson: Right.
- 21:22Jennifer Johnson: Well, if you don't know, you don't know.
- 21:24Jennifer Johnson: And to have somebody guide you and say, hey, we've got this training in this area, is that something you're interested in?
- 21:31Melissa Severance: And there are some topics like critical thinking, problem solving.
- 21:34Melissa Severance: I can do that for anybody in the firm.
- 21:36Melissa Severance: And sometimes the problem solving.
- 21:38Melissa Severance: We bring in true things that are going on in the firm and try to figure it out together.
- 21:42Melissa Severance: That I think is priceless.
- 21:43Melissa Severance: When you were doing that Real world?
- 21:44Jennifer Johnson: Yeah, because that I think is priceless when you were doing that Real world.
- 21:46Jennifer Johnson: Yeah, because there's one thing you're doing a case study and it doesn't even pertain to your industry.
- 21:50Jennifer Johnson: It would be like coming into my retail store and doing something that happens at a law firm.
- 21:53Jennifer Johnson: We would all be like and this affects us, how Like.
- 21:57Jennifer Johnson: How are we supposed to take that and apply it to what we're doing here?
- 22:02Melissa Severance: Yeah, and sometimes the leader is so high up they can't figure out solutions so you need to have your employees have these skill sets because other ones coming with the outside the box ideas, the new, fresh ideas that we, you know what we did before.
- 22:14Melissa Severance: It doesn't always work anymore.
- 22:17Jennifer Johnson: So you know how?
- 22:18Jennifer Johnson: Okay.
- 22:19Jennifer Johnson: So we, we all agree autonomy is is really what we should be having with our company.
- 22:24Jennifer Johnson: We should allow our employees to be able to make decisions, whether they're big, they're small, whatever it is that they're defined as.
- 22:31Jennifer Johnson: But how do you actually measure that this stuff is working?
- 22:38Jennifer Johnson: You know, it's just like the developmental training.
- 22:41Jennifer Johnson: You know, going from that to the autonomy, how do you even measure that any of it's working?
- 22:46Melissa Severance: Yeah, you know some things that I always point out is are people happy at work?
- 22:51Melissa Severance: You?
- 22:52Melissa Severance: know, how is your culture, is it, you know, increased?
- 22:56Melissa Severance: Do you see people raising their hands for things that are even not something like a promotion?
- 23:01Melissa Severance: Are you promoting more people in-house, you know?
- 23:04Melissa Severance: Are they ready for the next step?
- 23:05Melissa Severance: That is definitely something.
- 23:07Melissa Severance: Retention rate, of course, is an.
- 23:09Melissa Severance: Engagement rate is the highest.
- 23:11Melissa Severance: You'll see it in engagement surveys.
- 23:15Melissa Severance: You'll see different kind of responses than you ever had before.
- 23:17Melissa Severance: All of that is important to do and I think during your one-on-one conversations with your employees, they'll be totally different.
- 23:22Melissa Severance: They're not check-ins like tell me about this, tell me about that.
- 23:29Melissa Severance: It'll be about hey, I really need to advance in this.
- 23:30Melissa Severance: How can I do this?
- 23:31Jennifer Johnson: How can you help me with this, or you?
- 23:32Melissa Severance: know this is a.
- 23:32Melissa Severance: This is something we never looked into.
- 23:33Melissa Severance: Let's can we talk about this.
- 23:35Melissa Severance: It'll be different conversations will be happening with your team.
- 23:38Jennifer Johnson: Yeah, then you would normally have at a normal.
- 23:41Melissa Severance: You mentioned surveys.
- 23:43Jennifer Johnson: Yeah.
- 23:44Melissa Severance: You know, yeah, there's engagement surveys.
- 23:47Melissa Severance: That I do think is great to pulse your employees.
- 23:50Melissa Severance: Now you have to have the right culture and the right trust and the right open communication for it to really work.
- 23:55Melissa Severance: So I do think you should do it to get a baseline always Anonymous, anonymous is actually better, but a lot of companies and you know, even if you do an anonymous, everybody feels it's really not anonymous.
- 24:06Jennifer Johnson: There's a way you can find out.
- 24:11Melissa Severance: So I do say, try to go third parties or different things along those lines.
- 24:12Melissa Severance: But if you do get results, the big thing is doing something about it.
- 24:15Melissa Severance: And a lot of times they do and they're like why am I even going to write this and put myself in jeopardy of anything if no change is going to happen?
- 24:25Melissa Severance: So we got to make sure we're making changes from what we hear from our employees, really listening to them, what they really want and need, and doing as best we can for what works for the firm.
- 24:35Melissa Severance: It's not always we can't do everything the employees want, of course, but if there's small changes that we can do, that's going to be so impactful to everyone why not do it Right.
- 24:44Jennifer Johnson: And you know, that's the funny thing that you say it's like somebody makes a change, it's like can you move the bathroom closer to my cubicle?
- 24:53Melissa Severance: You know that's like no, sorry, I can't do that.
- 24:55Jennifer Johnson: But there are some things, whether they may be really small or or minute to one person, to somebody else it's a huge deal breaker, yeah.
- 25:09Melissa Severance: And the surveys are good because people want to be heard.
- 25:10Melissa Severance: So there's a lot of people that want to be heard.
- 25:12Melissa Severance: I like more of a smaller group and individual, because people open up more.
- 25:16Melissa Severance: Of course, in a big group, as you know, not many people raise their hands.
- 25:19Melissa Severance: When you're in a big conference, you're trying to get people to speak up and you might have to call on somebody and just go walk over.
- 25:26Melissa Severance: They're not going to be saying possibly exactly what they want to say in front of a huge room or in a survey.
- 25:32Melissa Severance: They think that all the leadership's going to see.
- 25:35Jennifer Johnson: Right, it's scary.
- 25:36Jennifer Johnson: Again, it goes back to if I stand up and make it known what I think, am I in jeopardy?
- 25:42Jennifer Johnson: Are they going to think something less of me, or are?
- 25:46Jennifer Johnson: They going to look over me for the next promotion, because the squeaky wheel gets the oil kind of thing?
- 25:55Melissa Severance: Absolutely.
- 25:56Melissa Severance: The squeaky wheels are tough, but they make change and they make you better, so I would like more squeaky wheels.
- 26:03Jennifer Johnson: It's funny, I was just talking to my daughter about this, about something with her sorority, and I'm like, well, it's in your control, right?
- 26:11Jennifer Johnson: You could say, hey, I want to be on this committee or I want to make this change.
- 26:15Jennifer Johnson: And then I said, you know what about your friend?
- 26:18Jennifer Johnson: And she's like, oh, I doubt that you know that person will want to do that.
- 26:21Jennifer Johnson: And I'm like, well, then, it's up to you.
- 26:23Jennifer Johnson: But so many people back down, I think, fear of rejection, fear of just voicing it and getting it out there.
- 26:32Jennifer Johnson: But imagine what it's going to feel like on the other end if you actually were the person that made the catalyst, that were the catalyst to make that change.
- 26:41Melissa Severance: Yeah, and one question I ask in coaching all the time is what's the harm?
- 26:46Melissa Severance: What do you think is going to happen when you do this?
- 26:47Melissa Severance: And usually, when you think through it and you say them out loud, they're not as scary anymore, right, and they're like you know what I can do, that that's not going to be something that I'm really nervous about or it's going to be really hurting my career.
- 27:01Melissa Severance: It might just open communication and things might get better.
- 27:05Jennifer Johnson: Yeah, Most of the time, if we say it, we verbalize it, you look at it and you go oh well, that's.
- 27:12Jennifer Johnson: You know what is the worst thing that can happen?
- 27:14Jennifer Johnson: Oh well, this, well, that's it.
- 27:16Jennifer Johnson: But in our heads it's this mountain.
- 27:21Melissa Severance: But when we say it, it's a molehill and sometimes people need other people to feel it and think it too, before they say it.
- 27:28Melissa Severance: They can't be the only one, but usually people have a lot of the same thoughts and feelings about a firm or a process or something like that.
- 27:37Melissa Severance: They're just too scared to say it.
- 27:38Melissa Severance: You need to be you know, have the confidence to really bring it up.
- 27:42Jennifer Johnson: Right, yeah, absolutely.
- 27:43Jennifer Johnson: Well, I feel like we were kind of all over the place today.
- 27:45Jennifer Johnson: That's okay, but it all related back to creating autonomy with your team and really what it does.
- 27:52Jennifer Johnson: Is there anything else you'd like to share with our audience that we really didn't touch on today with regard to autonomy?
- 27:58Melissa Severance: Ooh, let's see so much fun stuff.
- 27:59Melissa Severance: You know, I think it's.
- 28:02Melissa Severance: You know, start small, pilot different empowerment to your team, it all will help you.
- 28:11Melissa Severance: Gradually let it go, and you know it's funny.
- 28:14Melissa Severance: Joe, yes, joe the home, pro Joe the home pro.
- 28:18Jennifer Johnson: We're giving you a shout out.
- 28:19Jennifer Johnson: Just shout out, joe.
- 28:20Jennifer Johnson: Maybe you want to sponsor the confident entrepreneur.
- 28:24Melissa Severance: Just throwing that out, there, he'd be a great sponsor, but he, you know, if you look back at his podcast with you such great information and you know, I remember when he you know we went to Hawaii two plus years ago now and his company worked without him for the time we were there and that story always is great for me to highlight because until we're out of the picture, we don't know that it could work without us.
- 28:48Melissa Severance: We can make money, revenue.
- 28:49Melissa Severance: We don't have to be in every decision, we don't have to be at the table.
- 28:53Melissa Severance: We can empower people to get it done for us.
- 28:56Jennifer Johnson: You're right, it can break while you're gone.
- 28:58Jennifer Johnson: Yeah, they can figure out how to fix it.
- 29:00Jennifer Johnson: If they can't figure out how to fix it, you fix it when you get back Exactly, but you know, it's been nice seeing his journey and his ups and downs, and he'll be on again.
- 29:10Jennifer Johnson: Oh great, he'll be on again this season.
- 29:13Melissa Severance: You're going to learn a lot of great stuff from him.
- 29:15Melissa Severance: You know, coming up, he's in his own and trying all these different things, you know, exciting.
- 29:20Melissa Severance: He's really empowering people around him Because he has to Right.
- 29:24Jennifer Johnson: That's our job as leaders.
- 29:25Jennifer Johnson: Yeah Well, wonderful.
- 29:27Jennifer Johnson: Well, if our listeners would like to get in touch with you, Melissa, how do they do so?
- 29:31Melissa Severance: So you can go to inspirebigdreamscom, melissa Severance, and Inspire Big Dreams on all the social channels LinkedIn, facebook, instagram, all the other so DM me, reach out, melissa at inspirebigdreamscom.
- 29:46Melissa Severance: Love to chat with you about teams, leadership, hr, anything that you might need Wonderful.
- 29:52Melissa Severance: Thank you so much, melissa.
- 29:53Melissa Severance: Thanks, jen, always great being here.