Tag Archive for: performance expectations

Leadership Spotlight: Facilitating Empowered Teams

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In this episode, we chat with Dustin DeVries, the Co-Founder of Caffeine Interactive Technologies, about how leaders co-create success with their teams through EI-Q and strong communication.

Dustin is proud to work with some of the most talented business analysts and developers in the industry. He is a solopreneur and has grown his company based on a 100% remote team which has been thriving for the last eight years.

Communicating with Intention

Dustin DeVries: From a culture perspective, you know, I think we try to really over communicate on things to be very transparent. We have a lot of activities that go on, you know, on Slack, for example, it is our primary method of communication. We have, like, you know, photo Thursday. We all contribute and jump in and share photos of things we’re doing to learn more about each other, and like find out that we have team members who are big into hiking or running or whatever the case may be, and find out some things about their life that we wouldn’t otherwise just in a virtual workspace like Slack and just communicating about work all the time. So there are some things we do that I would say, try to be intentional about.

Leading with Transparency

Dustin DeVries: I’ll just be completely transparent on this. I’ve had some candid conversations with members of my team about the performance, about the expectations and we set up OKRs and things like that. This concern on their parts, like, well, I know I’m not hitting what I need to and I’m doing all these different things and I’m nervous for my job. And the fact that we have a culture that allows an employee to make those kinds of comments. It’s awesome. Right? Because I’m reassured, I’m like, here’s what I think we do need to improve this. I recognize it’s not all on you, it’s on me because I’m helping with a lot of strategy. You’re a marketing expert, but you don’t understand all the ins and outs of everything we do. You’re not a software developer. So I’ve got to draw that connection there so there’s a response on my side and also just reassuring them that we’re going to work through this, there’s a process and I’ll be transparent with you. If I feel like things are in jeopardy, I’m not going to blindside you with anything. Right. And I think that makes people feel that better.

Maintaining Self-awareness

Dustin DeVries: The things that I do well I always want to be checking myself to make sure I still do them well. We get over confident and we start making mistakes. We get sloppy. But on the flip side of the things we don’t do well, that doesn’t mean well, I can’t you know, like I used to say, I used to make this excuse all the time. I’m the primary person running sales within our company. So when it comes to sales calls and things like that, I thought to myself, I’m not good at sales. I’m a computer programmer by trade. I would use this as my cop out. I don’t have to do marketing sales well. I can’t do marketing sales. It’s just that it may not come naturally. So I have to train myself more. I have to be more intentional and empathetic about things. You find yourself constantly, like, thinking, wow, I completely ignore the fact that this team member had, like, a family crisis. I didn’t even really say anything to them other than, you improve your PTO and maybe I should have done more. Well, that’s when you start setting up systems and processes to try to account for those blind spots.

Identifying and Overcoming Blind Spots

Ange Maccabe: You know, we can’t utilize our blind spots as crutches or weaknesses as crutches. We need to put an SOP or system in place. Where my head goes is more to the human side of things and I like how you’re thinking about this but injecting also what resources are you utilizing to ensure that you’re understanding your blind spots and therefore being able to move to action? So things like different types of training that’s available online or in person or a coach specifically can help you go from that knowledge-to action place and can be kind of your champion when it comes to your blind spots. So I can really appreciate where you’re thinking from a place of a growth mindset. So everything is solvable especially when it comes to emotional intelligence pieces or our soft skills. And so what are we doing? A to understand them within ourselves and then b what are we going to do by way of actions to drive it?

If you’re interested in learning more from our Spotlight Leaders check Dianna Butler’s Leadership Spotlight on: Difficult Conversations

Make sure to follow/subscribe so you don’t miss an episode! New episodes of The Human Side of Business Podcast airs bi-weekly on Mondays at 1 pm ET.

Creating a Healthy and Consistent Company Culture

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Hi, and a warm welcome to The Human Side of Business Podcast. I’m your host Ange MacCabe. I have the pleasure of introducing you to Gabriel Cowan, Chief Executive Officer at Audio Design Desk.

Audio Design Desk, won 2022 NAB Product of the Year, CES Innovator and Fast Company’s “Next Big Thing In Tech” with its AI-assisted software suite that reinvents the process of creating audio for video. Used on Netflix, HBOMax, Amazon Prime, and others, ADD gives creatives the ability to perform sound design, sound effects, and music in real-time, turning hours of tedious work into minutes of immersive fun.

In this episode Gabriel and I dive into workplace culture and discuss the strategies behind maintaining a consistent and healthy work environment.

Developing Workplace Culture

Gabriel Cowan: So I think in terms of creating a positive culture, there will always be conflict, there will always be issues. If you can remove the assumptions, remove the gossip, the minute that you start hearing people chattering and go and step into whatever the issue is and leader through curiosity – my experience is that there’s a real reason for whatever the issue is, and the person on the other side of that issue is struggling with it, and they need resources. These are the three resources we have. We have time, money and creativity. And we don’t have any more time or any more money. So we have to get creative about solving this problem. And that’s where this trust can really help.

Open Communication in Leadership

Gabriel Cowan: I think what has been positive about our culture, even though it’s on Zoom, is just keeping really open with everybody. So in these morning meetings, I really share exactly what’s going on with a fundraising thing or with a business thing, or with our business, the good and the bad. But to have people share in the challenges as well as the opportunity really does create that environment where we’ve all experienced challenges. And somebody like, literally, sometimes an intern will have a voice in one of the challenges that I’m presenting in the morning, and that’ll be the spark of an idea that solves that challenge. Not to mention that just having a community to commiserate with makes you feel better.

Utilizing Employee Skill Sets

Gabriel Cowan: You’re always going to get 200% out of somebody when they’re doing something that they like. And so as much as I possibly, I find out where people are, what they like to do, and then try to lead them towards that. My partner in this business is a guy named Ryan Francesconi, he said a job is three things: It’s how much you learn, how much you make, and how much shit you take. That’s it. Ryan is a programmer, he could be making, like, ridiculous money. He’s like, I’m not making as much, but I take zero shit and I’m learning a ton. And it is true that not taking crap, that’s a huge pressure valve that can be released. So we try to lead with empathy and we try to make sure that they’re all learning.

Defining Expectations

Ange MacCabe: Right, so my definition of good performance from a consulting perspective is that people are industrious, they can have high levels of autonomy. There’s candor and transparency, and they’re huge problem solvers. And in the consulting world, problem solving is not as commonsensical as one would think it would be. So one of my jobs in creating Intuity Performance was to really kind of check my own expectations at the door, and I guess figure out what’s my 75%, versus me having the expectation that a consultant is going to be able to step in and meet my expectations out of the gate without me saying anything? So I guess my question has multiple parts in the sense of how are people showing up in your organization if they’re not meeting your expectations?

If you’re interested in learning more from our Spotlight Leaders check out Laura Meyer’s Leadership Spotlight on: Leading with Intention.

Make sure to follow/subscribe so you don’t miss an episode! New episodes of The Human Side of Business Podcast air bi-weekly on Mondays at 1 pm ET.