lessons leading in a pandemic w/a vaco friend

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auto-generated from the audio, so expect a few typos. the audio is the source of truth.

I forgot to clear the guy who's cancer people now. We are joined today by my dear friend Taylor Roberts in Raleigh, Carolina. Robert, thanks for joining, buddy. So I want to go ahead and get started to T. Taylor. Go ahead and introduce yourself. Who are you? What do you do so the people know who the other Taylor is? Fantastic. My name is Taylor Roberts. I'm from Raleigh. I think over a number of years. And I had to privilege a working with Mr. Taylor Dustin years ago and ever since from different markets. I had up a group of folks that do sales stuff and folks that do client delivery for all things technology.

And it's a blast. Love company. I'm working for love the place where I do it's been home for a long time. That's awesome. That's awesome. Hey, a few people tuning in. How good morning. How's from Charlotte? Karen Dessin is watching. So my mother is watching. Hey, mom. Ellie, can you grab some new job, buddy? Karen, my other son. Yep. And then Scott, it's good to see you, buddy. So let's go ahead and jump right in. So Taylor and I have been talking and Taylor leads a phenomenal group here in Raleigh. And he and I got to chat about 2020 of what we've learned as a leader in leading teams.

And in Taylor, I had a good chat. But I wanted to share some of these nuggets with you. And so T, talk me through, I guess, the first thing. And I'll kind of a tee it up for you in regards to, and when you have meetings, what have you learned when you have meetings with individuals over 2020 and really what they need from you versus what you think they want from you? Yeah. I kind of have two gears. Let's go get stuff done here. And then let's not worry about a clock gear. There's not a great in between it too. So when I'm kind of on the clock and working, I just want to go get things done and focus on that.

And that's just been hard. It's not been great. I've found that there's like people need more than that, just because of what else going on outside of work-related stuff. But my biggest thing probably is to learn to use these more and use this a little bit less. And just pay attention to what people are actually saying, not only with their hands, but with their hearts. Yeah, that's so good. I mean, I think I think a joke has got to give you two years in the mouth so you can listen twice as much as you do twice when he talks. Unfortunately, I don't do that a lot.

So in Taylor, so as you've kind of gone through 2020, now a tail end of it, now in 2021, what are some really good things that you're going to bring into this year? Because let's face it, right? I mean, we're still remote. We're still in a remote culture. Who knows how long we're going to be in a remote culture? But what are some really key things? Because again, you lead a fantastic team. You lead a big team here in Raleigh. What are some one or two things that you're going to bring into this year that you learned from 2020? I'm going to try to control things a little bit less.

One of my biggest assets, I think, is just a high-core organization. We really organize that everything all the time. But the dark side to that is kind of control and the heck out of things. And I've kind of learned it over this past year. I've seen a lot more with the limits that are. And so for me, kind of letting go a little bit more, which means, doesn't mean being irresponsible, but it means trust in even more of the team that I didn't even deeper level. I think that's the biggest thing for me. But in order to do that, I've got to play the there strengths, which means I need to know them better, which means I need to use my ears more.

I love that. And my thing is, with you, is that I think, and what we've talked about this is that you and I kind of get in the zone of trying to get things done. And you and I are not really good. And as love you, feel, I mean, for those of you who know me through this live session, and I've joked about a lot of pride commercial, I give hugs, COVID's been a challenge. And Taylor is more or less a spending damage to me. He's like, my older brother when it comes to that. And what's been crazy to learn is that individuals on your team needs you more than ever.

And that sometimes you don't need to over strategize a meeting. Taylor and I got talking on this topic. And Taylor and I both agree, we come in. We want to knock out in the three minutes that we have to, what do you need? Let's get it done in three and a half minutes, and then we'll be wrong. And Taylor, I think you can agree that this year, it's been, you kind of have to start the first five, 10 minutes to just catch an up with the individual. And that's been hard for me. Yeah, I think to be a good leader and a good manager of people, I don't just need a vision for it, we're trying to go, but I need to know who my team is.

And I mean, there's an old saying, I don't the overflow of the heart, the mouth is going to speak. And so I'm trying to pay more attention to what is my team actually staying. And I'm finding it times, they're not just talking about work. I mean, sometimes they're talking about family, they're talking about home, they're talking about relationships, or there's something in their tone of their voice that just does it's off. And I want to plow through and kind of accomplish things, because that's my job. But sometimes I'm learning how to switch into that other gear or just pause them and listening to kind of what their heart is saying so that I'm leading, not just from a place that getting stuff done, but actually leading as a human.

And that's an area I'm trying to grow. And so let me ask you this, what is some, because I know I'm always interested in shooting on both of the people's papers. And so let me ask you what is one thing that you think your team does well or has done well or has implemented in regards to helping culture. In a more of a remote first culture. Yeah, check this out. And this one reasons I love it, because I didn't have anything to do with it. It's I think further evidence too, sometimes letting goes is the best thing for me to do. So some numbers on my team just started picking up reading cues from each other that I'm at, so and so might be struggling or hey, that's stuff that someone's working on and really fell through or hey, they mentioned a couple of weeks because stuff was going on with their parents, family and they started kind of calling each other to check on each other, but it doesn't mean it's not sort of hearing these little snippets of you're not gonna believe it.

So it's a call me just to check on me and see how it was doing. And this thing I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, that was so awesome. And then I started hearing more of that and more of that. And more of that. And so then as a leader, because I'm very processed or even very organized, then I was able to kind of step in and say, hey, well, that's awesome. But that felt so good, then why don't you do the same thing for someone else? And can you operationalize it somehow and have a reminder or something so that you don't forget to care about the other people on your team and how about I do the same thing?

And we proactively create a little healthy little system where we're looking out for each other with greater intent. Instead of just hoping I might do it, okay, let's keep going. But I had nothing to do with the outside of that. That's so good, that's so good. So what, and as we kind of wrap up here, again, the whole point of this live show is quick, kind of hang out sessions. And again, a few more people too. And Darrell, it's good to see you, buddy. I'll get back to a new LinkedIn message, Elliott. I was right, Taylor, you see you have to specify which Taylor now goes with us.

So Taylor, right, we're too right. So you don't know Elliott, but you were right. So what, so the final thing I wanna end on is, is what do you think companies and leaders and within organizations, need to be mindful of in 2021? And I'm gonna put you on the spot. Cause we didn't really talk about this, but I'm curious. Yeah. I think any leader needs to know where they're trying to take people. They need to have a vision for where they're going. You know, leadership and management are not always the same thing that they overlap. And as a leader, I need to think through where we're going.

And then at an individual level, I need to think through where is each person going and why? Where do they capable of? Where can they go? How can I help them get there? But rather than just the day I start question, more succinctly, I think the biggest thing is for me as a leader to not always be the one to dictate where we're going. I need to talk some to see where people are capable of going and where they want to go. Then align that with the business strategy that I'm responsible for. And then put those two pieces together. But if I just dictate it without listening to my team, I don't think that's the right thing for me right now.

It's so good. It's awesome catching up with you. And obviously, I love you dearly. And it's so cool because you and I are very similar. I think I try to over-engineer everything. Like, let's just, let's detail it all out. Let's have stretch sheets and flow charts and workflows and all the things. And then essentially, what those conversations and center-round is, forget that. Let's just put people first and listen to people and then make sure that they're taken care of and then the rest will follow. So it's literally a complete 180 going in, going in, going in. It has spreadsheets and processes to make a lot more sense if you got the right data.

So I'm just looking along and trying to get it from a team and then going back to those things that I love. I love that. That's so good. Well, T, thanks for hanging out with me, man. I really, really appreciate everybody's tuned in again. A few more individuals on the tune in. Thank you for tuning in. We really appreciate it. As always, if you need a resource, we shoot me DM. I would highly recommend to a Connect with Taylor Appach, especially if you're in the Raleigh Durham area. The key and his team are doing great things. They are growing like crazy. But Taylor, thanks for joining me, buddy.

And love you dearly. Okay. Thanks, buddy. Thank you. Have a good one. Bye.