Episode Transcript

Hey what’s up? What’s up? What’s up, everybody? Hey guys, welcome back to THE a.m. Welcome back to five minute rants. I’m your host, Michael Abernathy. And welcome back to the show predicated on the journey of life and business. I hope you’re doing well guys hope life is treating you good. I’m better than I deserve. Hey, real quick, if you know somebody whose life would be changed by listening to the show, would you partner with me and share it with them? Or, if not, would you just rate or leave a review? Much appreciated, guys.

Anyways, today, I actually want to talk about team culture. And I want to talk about one of the most important aspects of team culture. And it’s honesty. If you’ve, if you if you read I recommend reading Patrick Lencioni’s book five dysfunctions of a team, it’s a phenomenal book, especially if you’re a leader or an in let me actually define this, everybody is a leader, whether you’re a leader or not, and you just want to better your life, read it. It’s a great book. And one of the things that he talks about is a principle called no politics. And essentially, What no politics is, is honesty, being honest with each other as a team, being honest with each other as peers, and then being able to be frank versus politics, which is I’m only saying things to keep everybody happy. And I think this is so important, because everybody would agree with me if I said, if you’re in a relationship that is built on lies, it’s a toxic relationship. If you’re dating somebody, and they are just lying to you left and right, it’d be toxic. I don’t understand why we don’t see that in the business world often, a lot of people do. But then there’s a lot of people who don’t. And there’s political relationships where everything is just said to keep people happy. There’s posturing and positioning and maneuvering.

And if you’re building a team or working with a team, and you’re a team leader, that is one of the most unhealthy things that you could ever do. And it creates such a culture of distrust, manipulation and backbiting, that it’s ridiculous. Honesty, in any form of any relationship is one of the most foundational principles to have in operation at all times. I am honest with myself when no one’s looking, I’m honest with myself without anybody else, being able to tell me and I’m honest with other people, why because I love myself, I actually care about myself, I will be honest with myself, the worst person to lie to is me. But if I’m going to lie to me, then I’m going to automatically lie to everybody else.

And so this is the thing about team culture, it is so important to be honest, Andrew and I and the teams that we work with really have a culture of being honest, like really telling each other no, I think that’s a stupid idea. Let’s not do that. And, and, and even saying, hey, like, Listen, you know, like, Andrew comes to me and be like, Hey, man, you’re just being a dick. And it’s like, man, that’s so true. Thank you very much. And that is so needed. And that is so needed one for me, and then one for our team health, if we’re running something, and then the leaders can’t be called out for being wrong by their teammates. What are we producing? Nobody else has a voice only leadership? Man, I think that’s pretty messed up. We say we’re a team, but nobody else is allowed to talk or their opinion doesn’t matter. When they say things are wrong, nobody agrees with them. They’re not even taking into consideration. That’s super, super unhealthy.

And if you think about it, that is why I talk a lot about humility, and the willingness to be wrong, like you’ve got to be willing to be wrong, if you are really going to be a good leader. If you’re going to be respected and honored by your peers, you’re going to be willing to be wrong. And if you really are a leader, right or wrong doesn’t matter to you, moving forward should matter to you. Moving forward faster should matter to you. One of my principles for getting faster and better in life is fail faster. How do I continue to recognize my failures and fail as fast as I possibly can? How can I get feedback faster? How can I see the end result of my decisions faster?

I have a vetting process for that to even pre think the failure and find where I’m going to fail if I make this decision before I get there. All of this is predicated on wanting to be wrong, because it doesn’t matter. What matters is the end goal. And What are part of the end goal is caring and loving for people. Right? The end goal of business isn’t just to make money. Yes, that’s a part of it. But why are we making money if it’s not to better people’s lives? If it’s not to give people an opportunity that chose to trust us with their paycheck and chose to trust us with their partnership and their teamwork If it’s not to help better their lives And if it’s not to help at our customers lives. Why are we doing it?

And then it becomes very apparent why things are cold in business and calculated in yes, there has to be hard decisions because businesses oftentimes like a budget, you can’t make emotional decisions. However, it doesn’t mean that you can’t have a greater good of caring for People and your heart behind it. So the point of What I’m saying is one of the most important aspects of team culture is simply honesty and having a door of honesty and humility so everybody has a voice and can talk.

Anyways guys, I’m out of time so I’ll catch you later. Peace.