AARON & SCOTT EPISODE 2 (PART 2)

The Other P&L: Podcast Section (Scott and Aaron Episode 2 Part 2)

Aaron: (00:03): All right, Scott. So, so we have different structures across different companies. We have people that perform different roles and as the company gets a little bit bigger, a little bit bigger, we have staff-level manager, director, all these different hierarchies. You know, one thing that we do see is that there are stresses on employees as a whole, but managers have the need to manage up in terms of here’s what we’re doing. Here are expectations and responding to the executive call to action, or at least the next layer up as well as meeting the needs of our, of our staff, of our people, making sure the employees are happy as well as being on task. So, a challenge that we have a lot of times is there’s a lot of stress on, on that middle layer that middle management layer. Tell me a little bit of some of the things that you’ve been seeing or reading and things that are of interest to you on the squeeze of the middle management.

Scott: (01:02): Oh, I, you just said it right there. It’s a squeeze, right? Nobody likes to be in the middle. Our middle managers are incredibly stressed out right now. I mean, they were the brunt of when we went to COVID, a lot of companies want remote. They were right in the middle of that. They had to communicate with the employees you know, really help to guide them, that sort of thing right now with the great resignation, many, many, if not most middle managers have openings on their team. And what does that mean? It means that they are doing the work of their employees. They are being more of a player than they are in a coach. So, Erin, for example, in your own organization, you know, as we think about this sandbox, you’ve got 10 employees on your team, right? You have two or three openings right now. Do you have the time to spend with each person individually for maybe just no more than 15 minutes or 10 minutes a week, just to check in with them, see how they’re doing, encourage them, ask them what roadblocks you can remove finding out maybe a little personal fact about them? Are you doing that on your team?

Aaron: (02:22): Yeah. So as, as having people that I manage both now and in the past, um, being focused on, Hey, I’m working and, and I don’t have time for staff. It doesn’t really resonate with me as being a manager and same at the executive level, when you might be managing director level people or vice president level people, making sure that you’re spending time with people, you know, the whole idea of delegation and striking the right balance of saying. Okay. Hey, how, what are we doing? Make sure that we’re not micromanaging on level, but at least getting a point where how can I help? How can I support you? And having those conversations to say to even understand the basics, are you okay? Right. Are, do you feel like you’re able to be successful, right. That kind of basic common questions kind like of breathing in some respects, because if we can’t, if you’re not doing well in your, in your personal life, much less in the environment within work, how can I possibly have confidence that the work that you’re either doing or that you’re responsible for is, is well much less if you’re seeing roadblocks or barriers, right.

Aaron: (03:38): That that can come in and help, or that we can coordinate with others. You know, those are things that can make us slow down for that 15 minutes that you talk about, or even, you know, half-hour I kind of tend to like to invest more time, but if that can help us slow down to speed up. Amen to that.

Scott: (03:55): Yeah. And Aaron, I will tell you that a lot of managers aren’t doing that, a lot of the leaders are not meeting with their employees on a regular basis. So just connecting, right? It’s not the same. When you have a group of 10 people, when you’re on a zoom call, when you just kinda talk for five minutes, this is very intentional. Hey, Erin, how are you doing? You know, what are, what things are you working on? What are excited that you completed this week? What’s your challenge for next week? How can I help you remove any roadblocks that you’re facing right now that I might be able to help you remove? Or what advice could I give you? Or how can I help you? Those pieces are so critical to today’s workforce and all generations because employees think about their lead or as being their company.

Scott: (04:42): It’s not the CEO, it’s not your brand and what you sell, what you make, whatever it is, really your leader, you are more likely to stay with your leader because you work on a great team and you think your leader, your manager really cares for you. You are more likely to stay with that. Then take a 10 or 20% pay increase with another company where those are not the same. Think about that for a minute. So your investment in 10 minutes for each employee on your team, one on one individual, and yes, you have to be intentional about it and a remote workforce, right? Because you’re not gonna meet them at the water cooler or the coffee machine, you have to be intentional, right. But if you invested for 10 people a hundred minutes a week, is that a great investment to have better engagement, better productivity, and potentially not lose somebody and now have to wait three months to replace that person?

Aaron: (05:44): I, I think all the above, just it just applies as too common, a sense. And I think one point that you highlighted early on there is how does someone associate, the value of that brand? It is with that direct manager. That’s who ultimately says, Hey, here’s what you have to do. And, you know, did you do well, or did you not do well this year or somewhere in between? I think that really resonates. I think the thing that for me, I trust that you’re gonna go ahead and do this at the same time. I also believe that if I don’t know what’s going on and, and you know if it’s going well, great, it doesn’t cost me much to verify if it’s not going well, what’s the risk there. What’s the downside, right? And so if you spend three months, six months, or an extent in a period of time, not properly engaging with your team, then you can’t just simply shrug your shoulders and say, well, Bob, Sally, they didn’t do the job. Well, it comes back on you. You’re still accountable for that particular work.

Scott: (07:00): Absolutely. And you know what? I think it’s a great investment in folks. You, I’m just saying that even when you’re recruiting folks to come in on your team, they’re gonna ask other team members, you should actually have them meet with other team members on your team. They’re gonna ask about the culture. They’re gonna ask about how are you as a leader. And what’s it gonna mean to them when you are the employees that work for you that are part of this interviewing process are gonna say, you know what era and meets with us once a week, he’s really there to support us. He’s really there to help us be successful. There is no better accolade that you can get as a leader, and especially being able to recruit positions quickly than that piece of feedback in itself.