Done Learning, Done Leading with Brian Hendricks

Steven Doyle [: 00:00:00

Welcome to Blue Collar B's, a podcast that busts the popular myth that we can't find good people, highlighting how the different generations of today, the boomers, Gen X, millennials and Gen Z, are redefining work so that the industrial revolution that started in the US stays in the US. The Blue Collar B's podcast helps blue collar business owners like you build a business that'll thrive for decades to come by turning that blue collar B's into some blue collar business solution solutions.

Brad Herda [: 00:00:32

In this episode, you're going to learn that context is the key to making connections. How to set agreeable expectations, dynamic communication, and the echo back methods. And when you're done learning, you're done leading.

Steven Doyle [: 00:00:45

Our guest today is Brian Hendricks, a loud millennial, happy to be part of this dynamic generation, taking over the family business and impacting the blue collar world by creating leaders who communicate. We hope you enjoy the show. Welcome back to the show. Brad Herder. How you doing, my friend?

Brad Herda [: 00:01:03

Things are fantastic, Mister Doyle. I'm sure you are happy and living the dream after watching Michigan crush the hopes of the roll tide families that are out there. All 30 seconds that you were able to watch.

Steven Doyle [: 00:01:18

Yes. As we talked about in the pre show. Yes, absolutely.

Brad Herda [: 00:01:22

You are excited to be proud of. What'd you say? A Walmart fan? Walmart Wolverine.

Steven Doyle [: 00:01:29

Walmart Wolverine. Yeah, I'm not a Walmart Wolverine. We're a graduate of U of M. Not a Walmart Wolverine.

Brad Herda [: 00:01:36

We're sorry. It's okay. It's fine. It'll be okay.

Steven Doyle [: 00:01:40

All right. Anyways, so let's, let's talk about the show today. Brad, who do we have on the show today?

Brad Herda [: 00:01:46

So today I have, we have a gentleman that I was able to meet through some mutual connections and networking and we were talking and I. Here's his bio. We're going to go. It's a very impressive bio. Brian Hendricks, CEO performance, best performance coach, bestselling author of the communicators playbook and professional speaker. He supports his clients in developing the better leaders and communicators, which is one of the things we talk about on the show, which is why he's here. He works with clients building organizations and teams focused. Client focused.

Brad Herda [: 00:02:17

Organization focused does this by training those leaders and teams on how to be more effective communicators develop teams to reach their full potential. All the lovely, you know, all the professional things that he puts in there. And at the end of the day, he's also a big basketball guy. He's married with three kids, a bachelor in communications and a master's in leadership and a master's in degree in counseling as well. So, Brian, thank you for being here. I cut your bio short because it's all that, you know, all that corporate stuff that people are important. We're not corporate.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:02:45

It's the stuff that goes. It's the stuff that goes on the back of the book that you write to make it look like, hey, I do all these things, but you don't need to hear all of it. You can figure it, right?

Brad Herda [: 00:02:53

We want the front of the book stuff. We want the, hey, what's going to make us buy Brian Hendricks part of the book?

Brian Hendricks [: 00:02:59

Yes.

Brad Herda [: 00:03:00

Awesome.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:03:00

That's awesome. Well, thanks for having me. You guys. Appreciate it.

Steven Doyle [: 00:03:04

Yeah. So before I forget, and Brad reminds me that I forget, which generation do you identify or fit in with?

Brian Hendricks [: 00:03:13

I am a loud millennial. I love being a millennial. I think we are awesome. In true millennial form.

Brad Herda [: 00:03:20

You and Steve will get along well.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:03:21

Oh, shit.

Brad Herda [: 00:03:24

Okay. He's loud.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:03:26

He's loud too.

Steven Doyle [: 00:03:28

I'm loud too. Yes.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:03:29

It's perfect. No, I born in 1987. I am that millennial. Like I. It's just me and I own it and I love it.

Brad Herda [: 00:03:40

We're just living in your world, Brian. It's okay.

Steven Doyle [: 00:03:45

Okay. So tell us about your journey on the leadership side.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:03:53

Yeah, I could. I think we could spend a whole podcast just talking about how I got imagined. But I'll give you the short condensed version of it all. Went to college at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Thought I was going to be a broadcaster. So my undergrad degree, as Brad mentioned, was communications. I'm from the Chicago area, so. Bears, bulls, cubs, Blackhawks.

Brad Herda [: 00:04:15

Scott.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:04:16

Sorry. I know. Yeah. Living in Wisconsin, it's not the best as a Chicago sports fan at all. But except for this week when you know and I know the Bears are playing the packers in weeks, I really.

Steven Doyle [: 00:04:31

Hope the Bears blow out.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:04:32

The packers would be awesome. It would be so great to send Green Bay not to the playoffs, right?

Brad Herda [: 00:04:37

Two years in a row.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:04:38

Perfect. Beautiful. So went to school with Marquette, thought I was going to be a broadcaster while I was up there. Wound up getting a job with the women's basketball team as a manager. So got to be a practice player. Got to travel around the country and really pick up from a really great head coach, Terry Mitchell, who has been one of my mentors and leaders in life.

Brad Herda [: 00:04:57

Fantastic.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:04:59

She's unbelievable. She's actually getting into. Inducted into the Marquette hall of Athletic hall of Fame this year. So just awesome person. And after graduation, she asked me to stay on as a graduate assistant coach. So I stayed on, and I want to get in a master's degree in leadership studies while I was a graduate assistant coach there. Then I coached at a d three school, Mount Marion University, which is here in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and realized coach college coaching wasn't the right fit for me at that time because there's a lot of travel. I mean, you're gone November through March, and then in April, May and July, you're out recruiting at this.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:05:34

At that point in my life, I knew where I wanted to be. I wanted to have a family, wanted to have kids, and it's just I didn't want to be gone that much. So I actually went back to school, got a second master degree in counseling, and was a school counselor and varsity high school basketball coach for five years. And all throughout this time, I had this nice little part time job of being a leadership facilitator for a company that was started by my dad back in 1997.

Brad Herda [: 00:05:58

I was hoping you were going to bring the started family member into the mix of that.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:06:02

Oh, yes, yes, yes. Talking about, you know, people that have had an impact on your life. My mom found a journal when they moved out of my childhood home a couple years ago, and in it said, what do you want to be when you get older and 8th grade? Brian said, I want to be the starting shortstop for the Chicago Cubs. Obviously, I'm not there, but underneath it, it said, hey, if that doesn't work out, I want to take over dad's company. And I always joke that I went to school for broadcasting. Well, that's communications. Then I went for leadership, which to me at the time was coaching. And then I went to counseling.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:06:34

I was a school counselor for eight years. If I had to sum up what I do with people now and my clients, it's all about communication, leadership, and then one on one coaching, counseling, and how do you coach and counsel your team? So it's this, like, kind of got here without ever actually thinking I was going to get here. One of those things. Yeah.

Brad Herda [: 00:06:52

Surprise. How did I get here?

Brian Hendricks [: 00:06:55

Correct. Yeah. And you look back on your life, you're like, oh, I know exactly how I got here. This makes total sense, but you got to take that bird's eye view because in the moment, you don't see it.

Steven Doyle [: 00:07:03

Right.

Brad Herda [: 00:07:04

So as part of the, you know, we're a multi generational show here, and as part of your journey with students through their, their influential years of parents don't know anything, but our coaches and our teachers and some of our other folks know much better than our parents. How have you seen the receptiveness of those younger individuals to critiquing and or support to move them forward? What, what do people need to do to connect with that younger audience today? What have you seen, Jim?

Brian Hendricks [: 00:07:38

Yeah, it's, to me it goes, it's with a younger audience, it's with any type of leadership at all. It's all about being versatile and realizing, hey, it's not up to my team, adjust to my style. I have to adjust to their style. And coaching, I think, is a great small microcosm of what we see in the manufacturing world, the corporate world, and any job function, really, when it comes to leaders and teams, you know, and it's that stereotype story which I actually had, I had a, one of my assistant coaches was what you would consider old school. Got after the girls would yell. Praise was very minimal. And when it was praise, you weren't sure if you were actually getting praise.

Brad Herda [: 00:08:17

Oh, yeah. Jumped higher.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:08:19

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I mean, fantastic, phenomenal coach, like, knew the game and had been coached for years and just, he was not connecting with the girls. And we had a conversation, hey, either you have to adjust, you can't yell as much. You have to adjust how you're communicating, you have to adjust how you're critiquing. Otherwise you can't be here anymore. And he said, look, I don't want to change who I am. This is who I am.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:08:39

And, okay, thanks for your time. We appreciate the couple years. Let me know if you need a reference somewhere else. Good luck and wind up having you replaced. And one of the things is, what I hear a lot is, oh, this next generation is soften. You can't yell at them like you used to. You can't do this like you used to. Okay, well, if that's the case, then stop doing that.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:09:01

What I see a lot of times with the leaders I work with, their coaches or supervisors is, well, oh, I can't be as hard as on, I can't be as hard as on them. I can't do this. I can't do this. Well, yes, you can. If you adjust how you do it. So can you stand there and say, hey, you have to do this because I said so? No, it's not going to work anymore. You have to say, hey, you have to do this. Here's for some people, here's the reasons why you have to do this.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:09:23

Here's why it's going to be what's best for our client. Here's why? It's going to be what's best for you. Hey, if you, if we all band together and we put in 3 hours of overtime, guess what? You're going to get paid extra. You know, in the long run, it's going to help you out and connecting to what's important to them. Instead of, hey, you have 3 hours of overtime, boom, and move on it. People will stay because they want the job, but they're not going to be happy. You're probably going to have a high turnover rate. You're not going to have employee satisfaction because you're not giving people what they actually need.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:09:53

And that's what's so interesting when it's, whether it's leadership or communication is to me, it's our job to know what each individual member of our team needs and then get that same message out, but change that message based on that individual person. It's why everyone says natural born leaders. I don't believe in that because leadership is hard. You got to keep working at it. You got to keep trying. You got to keep adjusted. A lot of times I wait, so I have to adjust to everyone. Like, if you want to be a good leader, you absolutely have to adjust to everyone, and you cannot expect them to adjust to you.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:10:22

That is not going to happen.

Steven Doyle [: 00:10:23

Right.

Brad Herda [: 00:10:24

Is it fair to say not expect, when you say not expect them to adjust to you, is it fair to set the expectation of there should be some adaptation on the employee side to understand your, as the leader, your preferences, like, hey, I, some leaders like to get in. You know, we do a lot of blue collar work. Some leaders like to get in at 530 in the morning, get to their office, do all that work, and get done for the day so they can be on the floor. But if Joe comes in at 545 every morning with his cup of coffee to shoot the shit, is that on the leader to adjust or is that on Joe to make the adjustment in your mind?

Brian Hendricks [: 00:11:01

In my mind, it's on the leader to adjust to them. Because if Joe's my employee and he wants to come in and, you know, talk a little bit before he gets started, I have to be open to, hey, Joe. All right, so how was your night? What's going on with you now? I think here's where the employee also has to adjust as well. Where it's like, hey, Joe, you and I, we can't sit and we can't have a 20 minutes conversation at 545 in the morning. I have a lot to get done. You need to get going at work. So you come at 545. I'll give you five minutes, and we'll go 545 to 550.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:11:27

It's me and you. We're not talking about work. We're talking about how the Bears beat Packers. We're talking about all this great fun stuff. We're talking about your kids hockey game, the play that your daughter's in, and then 550 hits. Hey, Joe, let's connect back over break, because right now, let's get back into.

Brad Herda [: 00:11:43

Okay.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:11:43

So to me, it's that point where the leader, it has to be the one to give the employee what they need, but at the same time, they have to let the employee know, look, I can't give you all of this because it's work. We have a job to do. We have to get things done. But I can give you two minutes, three minutes, ten minutes, whatever I can, and then, boom, let's get back to work. Right.

Steven Doyle [: 00:12:02

So it's really more about setting expectations that we both agree on.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:12:06

Yes, no. And what you see from, you know, whether you do, you know, disc styles or social styles or any of these things there, you're gonna see some people want, they're gonna work hard for you after they have that brief conversation. For a leader, we need to know who needs what and then say, well, if I. If Steve needs five minutes from me, and then he's going to perform great for seven and a half hours, I can give Steve five minutes to make sure he's there.

Brad Herda [: 00:12:33

You need to know Steve better than that. You need to really get to learn Steve better.

Steven Doyle [: 00:12:38

Yeah, yeah.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:12:40

So, okay, how the Steve, we'll give you five minutes now, then we'll get to work. Then I'll give you ten minutes later on and we'll get back to work.

Steven Doyle [: 00:12:45

Wow, that's a lot of time of silence.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:12:48

Yeah, but that's the thing is you're setting that expectation of, hey, I know what you need, so I'm going to give it to you. Where if you have someone who does, literally, they come in, hey, boss, I'm going to go to work. Cool. I'm not going to ask you what. Because you don't want that. You don't need that from me. What you need from me is, hey, what am I doing today? Here's the five things you got to get done. If you need me, I'll go help you with it.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:13:13

Let me know. I'll be around. Right. But it is, it's setting that expectations and, you know, Brad, to your point, I think what helps leaders is, you know, if I know how I communicate. If I know what makes me comfortable, I can show my team that, tell my team that and say, look, I'm going to do everything I can to adjust to you, but if you see me, I'm what's known as an expressive person. If you couldn't tell already, talk with my hands. Yeah, I know. Shocking.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:13:36

I come in with high energy. You know, if I'm dealing with somebody who is not as expressive as me, I usually I'll remember to tone it down. But my team knows, hey, if I come in and I'm a little over the top, it's not because I'm crazy or I'm angry or I'm stressed. It's like I just. I wasn't adjusting to you at that moment, so it's okay that, hey, Brian, can you just tone down a little bit? Yeah, sorry, Brett, totally forgot. My fault. Let's get back on track. But it's allowing them to kind of do those or have those conversations with you.

Brad Herda [: 00:14:06

Well, it's praying that open honesty as well to also accept the fact that you can't get called out on it and not take it as a well, now you're the asshole for calling out. For calling out the ball. No, that's the environment you want to create where you can have each team member call each other out and have that trust across the board that, hey, we're doing this to live to whatever the purpose is of the organization, not because we want to have a bitch fest over whether or not Brian's too loud today or he chooses food too loud. He's just pissing me off.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:14:43

Timeout. That goes back to something my dad has taught me forever. One of his favorite quotes that he always says is the behavior you exhibit as a leader becomes the acceptable behavior of your team. Repeat that.

Brad Herda [: 00:14:54

Repeat that again for everybody so they can hear that. It's a. Slow it down just a tad, mister energy. Just slow it down just a tad.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:15:01

Hey, I'm taking that critique and I'm going to listen to it here. Okay? I'm being versatile, but it's my favorite quote. My dad has said this for years. He ingrained it into me. But it's the behavior you exhibit as a leader becomes the acceptable behavior of your team.

Brad Herda [: 00:15:17

And it's 1000% accurate.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:15:19

It is. Think about it. If I'm the leader and I show up late to work every single day, how can I hold you accountable if you show up late to work every single day? If I'm saying, hey, you know, Steve, you know, you gotta adjust your communication.

Brad Herda [: 00:15:32

Hold on, Brian. Let's have that.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:15:33

So.

Brad Herda [: 00:15:33

So I'm the owner. I'm the leader. I'm showing up to work late every day. The perception might be, but we don't know what took place from seven to 930 ahead of time. Right. So. So there needs to be some other dynamics to support that. Whereas the individual contributor showing up 15 minutes late for shift work is a very different story than the leader showing up at 930.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:15:57

Without context, though, I think it's the same thing. Leaders showing up later if there's content. Hey, everybody, just so you know, I'm coming in late today. We're connected. This, this, this whatever. You got to give some context behind it because otherwise, I mean, I've worked with clients in the past where, you know, their owner comes in at 10:00 every single day. Now what they don't know is the owner's there till 10:00 at night every. So he should be able.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:16:20

His workday starts at ten. Absolutely. But what do those individual contributors see? Oh, mister C suite. Up top. Mister owner gets in at 10:00 but he expects me to get here at 05:00 a.m. every single day. And if I'm here at 05:05 I get written up and he can show up at 1030. Now without having that context.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:16:39

That's the key piece. And we have to be open and honest with our team.

Steven Doyle [: 00:16:43

Right?

Brad Herda [: 00:16:44

Yeah, but why should they care? I'm the owner. They just come and do the job. Why should I tell them? Come on.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:16:48

Because if you want to connect with this generation, Brad, you better tell them. Otherwise they're taking off and they're going to go find another place that will tell them.

Steven Doyle [: 00:16:56

Fair?

Brian Hendricks [: 00:16:56

Yeah, that's what I've seen a lot of. I would say within the last five years too, is kind of that mindset of, this is your job, do it. Why does it matter? This is your job, do it. And again, I think that works with an older type of generation that works with what I would call a driving style of behavior. Right. Or driving stock. It doesn't matter. You're right.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:17:18

It's my job. I'm doing it. But there's 50% of the population where if you tell me that my first gut reaction to you is you're a jerk, you don't care about me. You don't care about the work. All you care about is bottom line and profit. And why would I want to be, why do I want to be working for someone like that when, let's face it, that's not how most owners are, it's just that's how they see it. Get to work. You're here to do a job.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:17:41

Get to work where people, 50% of population needs to know you care about them. They need to know that their opinion matters whether you agree with it or not. They just want to be heard half the time and you don't have to agree, you don't have to go with their idea. But the fact that you listen, the fact that you have open and honest communication, wow, you're going to get such a more committed team where all of a sudden these ideas of employee engagement, turnover, which has been huge, especially in manufacturing, warehousing, any type of work really, turnover is huge nowadays. Well, some pieces of turnover we cant control when youre, hey, youre going to get paid 5000 more to go. Okay, I cant do that. I cant argue with that. Thats going to happen.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:18:24

But where its like a lot of times the next thing is people are leaving for leadership and it's because, well, this is who I am. You're here for a job, just do your job. Well, I need more than that. I need to know that by doing this job I'm helping somebody. And maybe by doing this job as a leader, you're like, well you're helping your family. Like now your kids can go play little league, now you can go take that vacation. But they need to have those dots connected for them sometimes.

Brad Herda [: 00:18:46

So I want to circle back for a second to something that you mentioned. It was the having to be heard. So in, in a lot of manufacturing environments or even some trades groups and things like that, are you got maybe five or ten people that are part of the company and we want to give everybody their voice. Right. And I used air quotes for voice because we want to all be heard and Johnny always has a voice, but the owner doesn't ever do anything Johnny talks about because he's way out in left field half the time, so to speak, right. Compared to everybody else in the organization and things like that. How do we get Johnny to become more, to not get pissed off, to not become disengaged because he's a really good employee, a really good worker, just doesn't see the maybe strategic side of things or some of those other opportunities. What types of tools or tricks or techniques do you have to keep that person engaged without having them go away? Because we don't want them to go away because they're really good at what they do.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:19:48

Yeah. So it's, I'll give you two things. That I, that I work with. And our main clientele for the last 20 years has been warehousing, manufacturing, distribution. So when you say that I'm like, Brad, like you are speaking to every single one of my clients of the last 20 years, I feel like, weird. Yeah, weird how that works out. But so two things. One is I always link it back to how does that person communicate? And it's, whether it's disc or social styles or whatever, some form of trying to figure out what their communication style is.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:20:18

And it goes back to. Simon Sinek has his popular book find the person's why. Yep.

Brad Herda [: 00:20:23

Yep.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:20:23

And it's for me, the person's why goes to what their style is. So if you have someone who's a driver, their why is. It's the bottom line. It's, it's what I'm supposed to do. It's a task. Get me, let me get the job done. That's why I do what I do. For an expressive, they like that fun, creative idea for someone who's more of an amiable person.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:20:42

They're, they're focused on why is this what's best for the team? So how we connect it to the team, for the analytical, it's why is this the best thing to do? Well, because it's the right thing to do. The research, the data, the facts tell me it's the right thing to do. So part one is trying to figure out what our team is and what do they actually need? What is their why? What is their piece that they need that I can frame the same message or this frame. This task is, hey, here's why this is important to you. The second piece is, a lot of times we don't know that what that person's style is, we don't know. We hope to learn it, but unless we've gone through some sort of training that it's hard for just to pick up on it. But I call it the, we call it our dynamic communication process. It's my cheat sheet for communication.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:21:24

And we say anytime you're talking to a person, a group, sending an email, you want to answer four main questions. The first question you want to answer is what? So what is the task you're doing? The second piece is how you're given the details on how you reach that task. Then you go the when and the when. We really focus on either. It's two parts. It's either the actual timing of it. So, hey, this week, next week you're doing all these things. And what you do there is you break up those details.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:21:54

Because for someone who likes the big idea, who's creative, if you just throw, you're doing this and here's how you're doing it. I mean, think about it. Some of our sops could be 50 steps long, right? That could really overwhelm people. So, hey, what you're going to do.

Brad Herda [: 00:22:07

Not read that email. Just so you know, 50 steps. Sorry.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:22:12

Right. So then I'm going to give you, here's what you're doing the short term. Here's what you're doing long term. And then lastly, is that who it's, hey, who does this? We do it this way. It's going to be the best for the team. We do it this way, it's best for our client. We do this way, it's best for the company. And what's amazing about this, you ever hear bring up email? Do you ever hear of the acronym TLDr?

Brad Herda [: 00:22:29

Yes, but I don't remember it. It's been a while.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:22:32

Too long. Didn't read. Too long, didn't read. If you can start putting things in what, how, when, who. It's bullet pointed, it's quick. And then you're connecting with everybody's different communication style. So you're talking about what's important to them. So for those, those one style, they're going to connect on the what.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:22:50

And that's great. You're going to get the people who want the when, the what, the how, the who. Um, you're really starting to connect with everybody at that time. The second tool, which is another communication tool, we call it echo back. And it's that idea of, hey, I'm training you to do something, or I'm teaching you to do something, or I'm really telling you why this change is happening. So I lay it out on you and then simply, hey, Brad, I want you to echo back to me your understanding of what we talked about because I want to make sure I communicated it right. Now, I say that and I get leaders all the time say, oh, I do that. I'm like, great, how do you say it? Well, I lay it out and they say, brad, repeat back to me what I just said.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:23:27

And I fringe. No, no, no. This is not about repeating back what this is about. It's echo back to me, your understanding.

Brad Herda [: 00:23:36

Help me understand what you heard right. And what you just heard. So I know that you heard right. Tell me in your words what you believe I said.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:23:44

Bingo. Yes. Because at the end of the day, it's that second part of Echo back. I harp on is I want to make sure I communicate it to you. Like, I can't tell you how many times I've had conversations. All right, we good? Any questions? And, you know, we're good. And they go out and you're like, what are you doing? We just talked about this, right? Or you have that conversation with someone and you're like, wow, that went really well. And then 45 minutes later, you get a call from HRDH.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:24:07

Brian, what did you say to George? You're like, I thought it went great.

Steven Doyle [: 00:24:13

But so spot on with that.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:24:18

Oh, yeah, absolutely. But that's why. Because I may think I'm communicating something out perfectly and what you're hearing is something totally different. So before we leave, I want you to echo back to me understanding, because I want to make sure I communicate right now the pressure's off you because if you didn't understand it, that means I didn't communicate it. Right. So I have to recommunicate you. It all comes back to us as the leaders, right?

Steven Doyle [: 00:24:40

So I'm really glad you actually broke down that echo back component of it. Just, just, I mean, it brings back so many memories of corporate life.

Brad Herda [: 00:24:53

What does that mean? Frame that wall. Tell me what that means.

Steven Doyle [: 00:24:57

What advice would you have for, let's call, you know, boomers like Brad, even though he's not. That's fun. This is fun for me. What advice would you give to those seasoned business owners that in their mind, they believe they're having the right communication style, but yet they're, they completely miss the mark. Consistently, every day. All day.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:25:24

Yeah. Yeah. That's such a great question. So I think in all honesty, it's. And I've seen both type of, like, I've had this conversation with business owners before and I've seen people where I give the advice is, well, how open and honest are you allowing feedback upwards? Like, are you connected with your managers, your supes, your leads, and getting honest feedback? Not the, oh, you're doing everything great, right? I mean, let's face it, I don't know any boss in America or in the world, for that matter, that does everything great. There's always area to improve. And what I say, if you're done learning, you're done leading, because you need to keep going and keep developing. So, one, what is the relationship with your team, especially your direct reports, where they can tell you, hey, I'm struggling with this.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:26:10

I struggle when you do this. The other piece of it is doing some sort of 360 degree survey, if it's available, to see and what's great about those is they are anonymous, but you get actual feedback and then what.

Brad Herda [: 00:26:25

I tell you, they can be anonymous. They're not always.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:26:27

They can be, yes. Not depending on which program you go with. Yes, I prefer the anonymous ones because you get actual feedback. And what I've seen is, and this is where it kind of branches. So people go through surveys and they get it and they go, well, that's not right. Well, that's wrong. Well, that's not actually true. And then that's the end of it.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:26:47

They don't do anything with it and they don't change. What the good leaders do is they get it and they say, wow, this is the good stuff they love, obviously. And the stuff, like, I don't, I don't think I do this. I'm not sure I do this. And that's where they go back to their team, they go back to people that do their surveys and they say, hey, look, I don't know who said this. I don't know what was said, but hey, it says, I'm not a good listener. Like, have you ever seen me do that? And can you show me an example of where I can learn? Now all of a sudden now the leader is bringing out their faults. They're bringing, it's not me having to tell the leader what they struggle with.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:27:16

Now the leader saying, hey, I've been told I need to be a listener. I've been told I make two quick decisions. So what do you see about that? And it's amazing because you'll get. Some people say no, because maybe for some people you make the right decisions. You're great, but you're going to get that feedback. It's like, well, sometimes you only talk to me about work. You just jump right in and I feel like you don't actually care about what's going on because I don't, because I. Then that's where we have the problem.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:27:48

You are.

Steven Doyle [: 00:27:50

Yeah, we're in it.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:27:52

We get it now. I remember I had, I did a survey on myself probably two years ago.

Brad Herda [: 00:28:00

And you 360 yourself. Perfect.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:28:02

Yeah, 360. I was perfect just for my ranking. My self score was through the roof. But one of the things it said I needed to work on was listening to others ideas. And to me, like, that hit me hard. I was like, whoa, that's wrong. I. I give credit where credit's due.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:28:19

I love hearing new people. I do. So I got my training team and talked to them and it was amazing because one of our head trainer, one of our trainers looks at me, she goes, well, you do a good job of listening at first. I go, okay. And then you kind of take it over. Like, you throw your ideas in, and then you jump on this, and then you jump on this, and you jump on this. And now all of a sudden, it's kind of the same idea, but a different idea. And, like, you just.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:28:42

You almost get too excited about it. And I'm like, for me, when I get excited about ideas and I start throwing things on top, that's me celebrating you. That's me telling you, this is awesome.

Brad Herda [: 00:28:53

That's just you being a kid. Let's just be honest.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:28:57

And that's how she took it. She goes, no, you can't take. I was like, wow, that's not what I wanted you to feel at all.

Brad Herda [: 00:29:06

You're taking my ideas. You're self promoting yourself. You're not listening to anything I say.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:29:11

You're just, there's me, and I'm thinking the exact opposite. I'm like, I'm giving you all this credit. This is such a great idea. We can even do this, and then it's gonna be this. And so it's one of those, like, it comes back to perception, where we may. We may be perceiving, we're doing everything right, but everyone else is seeing. Not seeing it that way.

Steven Doyle [: 00:29:28

Yeah, absolutely. Been there, done that too many times.

Brad Herda [: 00:29:33

We all have that sometimes on the show, Steve. But anyhow, that's.

Steven Doyle [: 00:29:38

Yeah. Eating a lot of humble pie. The whole pie at one time. No slice, no slices today.

Brad Herda [: 00:29:47

So, Brian, people want more of what you were talking about and opportunities, and they resonated with you or liked what you had to say. How do people find you? Where do they find you? Where do they get ahold of you?

Brian Hendricks [: 00:29:58

Yeah, so first they can get a copy of my book, my shameless plug right here. The communicators playbook. Awesome. Number one bestseller on Amazon in human resources, manufacturing and warehousing. So it was kind of cool to actually get, like, to see that on there, but that you can get on Amazon. Otherwise, email is honestly the best way. And my email address is Brian, b r I a N. Hendricks.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:30:22

Hendricks. Dynamicdevelopments.net. also, Instagram would be another great one.

Brad Herda [: 00:30:31

QR.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:30:32

It's just millennial. That's I my Instagram. You can get. Send me a DM and I will get back to you very quickly on Instagram. It's just develop with Brian.

Steven Doyle [: 00:30:42

Awesome.

Brad Herda [: 00:30:43

Yeah, this conversation can go on for hours more. We could probably do another twelve episodes.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:30:48

Can I go website can I get my website really quick?

Brad Herda [: 00:30:50

Yeah, do it.

Steven Doyle [: 00:30:50

Throw it down.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:30:51

Dynamicdevelopments.net nice and simple.

Brad Herda [: 00:30:56

Thank you so much for sharing and dropping so many golden nuggets on the communication front, leadership front today. I'm confident many of our listeners will find some value in those nuggets and be able to support their teams in a different way when they apply those practices. So thank you so much.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:31:13

Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for the opportunity. Like you said, I could talk about this stuff for hours, so just keep going.

Brad Herda [: 00:31:18

Absolutely.

Steven Doyle [: 00:31:19

Thanks, Brian.

Brian Hendricks [: 00:31:20

Thanks guys.

Brad Herda [: 00:31:21

Thank you for listening to blue collar B's brought to you by vision for business solutions and professional business Coaching Inc. If you'd like to learn more on today's topic, just reach out to Steve Doyle or myself, Brad hurta. Please like share rate and review this show as feedback is the only way we can get better. Let's keep blue collar businesses strong for generations to come.