Hello, everyone, and happy New Year. Thank you very much for joining us for the first practise management webinar of 2018. The webinars in this series are kindly sponsored by Simply Health Professionals, Saint Francis Group, and Eight Legal.
My name is Stacey Glees, and I'll be chairing the webinar today. Rory is very happy to remain online for questions. So if you do have any questions, please could you type them into the Q&A box during the webinar and I'll save any questions until the end of the presentation.
If you have any technical difficulties, hopefully you won't, but if you do, please let us know again using the Q&A box, and either myself or Catherine will do our best to assist you. If you can't see the Q&A box currently on your screen, just give your mouse a little wiggle and the taskbar should become visible. So it's my pleasure to introduce Rory Barry, who has been training and mentoring people for the last 10 years.
His experience across multiple industries that include veterinary, IT and construction means that he is uniquely positioned to understand the real life factors that impacts those who have recently or not so recently been promoted. Rory is a trained actor and TEDx speaker coach. He was born in South Africa and is now residing in West Sussex with his wife and 4 fur kids.
He is a life coach that adds practical tips and tricks to all his workshops. So I'll now hand over to Rory so that he can start his presentation. Good evening, everyone.
It's lovely to have you all with me. What I am gonna ask, just as we sort of start get going with the grand adventure this evening is if those that are with us today could just pop through into your comment boxes what you are. In the grander world of the industry.
So are you vets? Are you head vets, owner, managers, nurses, head nurses, practise managers, or additional people that don't have a title I've already mentioned, but are lovingly excited about coming to visit us this evening as part of our grand show. The only thing to mention is, at some point, if I need to briefly sneak away for a quick cough, I'm just currently recovering from a little bit of the old flu that's been running around.
But I should be live and willing and wonderfully excited and all the way through with us to the very end. So as was previously mentioned, we do have a couple of sponsors that are kindly putting their, their weight behind this series. So there they are, a little bit of the other housekeeping that's part of the process.
And obviously, we're all grown-ups here. So if you need to sneak away to have a quick bathroom break, don't ask permission, just disappear and then return. But make sure you wash those hands before touching your keyboard.
So, who is this person that's chatting to you today? So, I have got over 2 years' experience, having worked in the veterinary industry in this country. I've worked both in South Africa and in the UK now.
I'm a life coach, mentor, TEDx speaker coach, corporate trainer, and I have various other titles that I've had along the way. So at times, I suppose I have been chief cook, bottle washer, all things to all people. A operations manager and various other things.
But for now, I'm doing my best to help those in this industry process various things around the emotions of leadership and others. So our plan for the session for today is quite simple. What I want to do out of this is provide you guys with the ability to build some confidence as leaders, new leaders and old leaders.
I want to equip and empower you with some tricks, tips, and a little bit of cheeky Roryisms. And most importantly, I want us to have some fun. So, some of the slides may not be what you're potentially expecting, but all of which I promise have a definitive and defined plan as to where I want to take you, take you guys on the journey this evening.
So there it is. You've arrived, you've gone through the process, the HR job's done, you've started the new role, and you walk in, and this is probably what the staff's thinking. I just can't keep calm.
We've got a new team leader. It's very exciting for them and they want to tell you everything about everyone, about every scenario, including that random thing about Mrs. Meggins, who's got that really obscure condition with the toe on the back left foot of her dog, which you don't need to know about in the first day, but they're very excited to tell you about.
What you're probably thinking it's me against the world. Now, this is a completely normal emotion to run into early in the game. And it may be a strange thing to be talking about on sort of day one, as it all seems a little overwhelming.
But it's something that's important to acknowledge as we're going forward with this because If you don't take time to look at some of the inverted commas sucky stuff, then you can't process it properly and you can't be best placed to rampage forward and really get stuff going and take the bull by the horns. So, you're in a leadership position, and you're thinking to yourself, well, what type of leader am I? Well, I've got a couple of my personal favourites that I like to reference along the way.
So, are you like Yoda? Are you wise? Are you calm?
Do you occasionally like to be piggybacked around the surgery so that they can learn as you shout in their ear? Are you like King Leonidas? Do you charge to the front, slaying all battles in front of you, leading by a pure example, taking bullets, taking wounds, but never ever giving up until possibly you're defeated because you've taken just a little bit too much damage because you took on just a little bit too much.
Or are you like Cartman? In a more dictatorial. It's my way or the highway.
If you don't do what I say, then there may be an issue kind of approach. Now, in my experience. This is probably the one that's gonna win you the least friends.
But sometimes it's the one that you have to be. And. In the biggest picture of it all, I would say that you need to have a little bit of all three of those people and personality types to be able to be the most effective type of leader possible.
Because then you are able to tap into the various parts of you and speak to different people in different ways. And we'll reference different types of languages. A little bit later on this evening.
I've got two really, really, really lovely quotes that I love and I found along the way, nicely set out in, in images. The first one is this one. Obviously, I'm not gonna read these things to you because you can all read.
But I love the fact that it's always about the goal in, in this quote. It's never about me, the leader. It's about where we're going with this.
And then Tying into that. What we want to be doing as leaders and what you want to be doing as a leader in your building, in your practise, in your practises for as, as you're going forward is you wanna be almost getting to the point of redundancy. Where if you're not there.
It carries on going with limited impact with you not being there. Now, that's not to say that you're not all incredibly important, wonderful, awesome, legendary people. But if it's just you all the time, doing everything and You leave Then it's gonna fall apart.
And then you're gonna be up the proverbial creek without any paddles. And that's not gonna help anyone. You really, really, really want to be making everyone else operate at the most optimal.
Part of who they are in their roles in the moment. So that when you're not there, it just carries on and carries on and absolutely crushes things. So, I referenced the, the Voltaire quote, which was obviously then in Spider-Man, with great power comes great responsibility as part of my title for this.
And the reason I picked that is because When you're a leader, You have A massive opportunity to make an incredible impact, not just in a business, but in people's lives. And That has a massive amount of responsibility attached to it. And obviously, you have the power of the title now.
So, as we're going through this evening, my big goal here is to help you guys with the harnessing of the power that you have and really amping up that responsibility and getting you to the point where you are equipped with phrases. Conversations and various other things that you can have in the tank. So when you're talking to people tomorrow in the next couple of weeks, whenever you've listened to this webinar and are now implementing it in the future, You've got stuff in the arsenal that you can really go forward.
Also, just a quick note at this point. At the end of the session, when we have the little Q and A bit, there is a feedback box. I would love to know where people want any additional information if we don't get a chance to go through it this evening, or if something triggers a question and we don't get to it, or you just want more information about that thing at the end, because we, we will be putting together some notes, and some takeaway notes for want of a better description, which will largely be based around the slides that I've, that I've done this evening.
But as you've obviously seen with my slides, it's not a tonne of writing and it's images and things so that we can then trigger what we've had a conversation about. So if you want me to flesh out stuff specifically on a slide, just note it along the way and then I can flesh that out when we're doing the notes at the end. There's a phrase that is an old phrase, and it's a good phrase, and it's the old keep it simple stupid.
We don't have to, as leaders, overcomplicate everything and try and reinvent the wheel. In order to be the best that we can be. There's a pretty good reason that the wheel's not really been reinvented in a major way since it was invented.
Yeah, sure, we figured out how to pimp it, how to bling it, how to make it different colours, how to make it lighter, darker, and more resilient to fire and whatever else. But the bottom line is, it's still pretty much a round thing that gets us from A to B. It works A lot of stuff we're gonna talk about this evening potentially may seem too simple.
I promise you. It works when we keep it simple. So let's start at the beginning.
You're a newly promoted person and 2 weeks ago you were out on the razzle with your colleagues. Getting up to mischief, maybe dancing on a table, having a couple of tequilas. And now, a couple of weeks later, you have to discipline one of them because they are doing the same miscreant behaviour that possibly you were involved with a little while ago.
Hopefully not, and that's why you were promoted. But they were, first and foremost, your buddy and your friend, and now there's somebody that has to be reporting to you. When I worked at summer camp in the United States, we were taught pretty early on that it's much easier to lower a boundary or lower a fence than it is to try and raise it, once you've set stuff out a little too simple.
Don't Compromise when it comes to defining your fences and your boundaries early on. Yes, it's gonna feel a bit awkward. It's gonna feel probably a bite, I don't, oh, this is a bit sucky.
Yes, yes, it is. But in the biggest picture, in the longest term, In order for you to be happy. As a leader, you need to have defined boundaries.
And then you can literally use the phrase, it's all fun and games until someone climbs the wall. Because If everybody knows what the rules are, then everybody should also know what the consequences are for breaking the rules. If it's 6 months in, 6 years in, everybody's getting on well, everybody's towing the line, and things have got a little more relaxed, great.
That's an absolute win for you because that means your leadership style has worked. There's respect and everything else is needed in order for you to be able to lower the fences. But if you start out lax, Let stuff go, let stuff slide.
Too much. And then you need to try and tighten things up from a discipline perspective. It is like trying to get blood out of a stone in order to get that stuff to the next level.
So it's mission, mission critical as we're going through this for you guys to think about if there are any fences that are maybe just a little bit too low already, how we can raise them up, and I'm happy to answer questions about that a little bit later on. So, Within that, you've got to pick your battles. Now, I have cats and dogs and I can pretty much tell you that this is what it looks like in my house occasionally and The cat knows when it's won, and the dog knows when to not pick the battle.
I love this. I love this with every bit of who I am in terms of trainer, leader, person that's had to experience this in the past. Pick battles big enough to matter but small enough to win.
You're never gonna be able to win every single battle. So, I'm telling you now, as much as you probably want to and you feel like you have to, you can't. And trying on a quest that is going to kill you to win every battle, is just gonna make you exhausted, miserable, disinterested and probably want to resign in 6 months.
Pick your battles, pick them early, pick them intentionally, because if you pick the right battles, you win the war, you pick the wrong ones, you get beaten. So really, really focus on which battles to pick to make sure that your fences remain high in the beginning. And understand.
That The promotion is exciting, is epic, and it's wonderful. But it will at times mean you have to pick. The business, you have to pick the rules, potentially over the friends.
And that's the thankless task of management, as they say. But you do it properly, you gain the respect, people will start pushing the boundaries, and there'll be less battles that you have to pick. Now, One of the things that I've done in my time is the performing arts.
I was an actor. And as part of our training, especially when doing film work, is we always had to remember our eyes. No.
People talk about, oh, that person looks, they look dead in, in, in, in that film, or they look dead in that photo. And it's because their eyes aren't engaged. Now, the exact same thing is in play when you're talking to your staff.
You can be saying something, but conveying something completely different with your eyes, but more importantly, they could be saying something with a body language or words, but their eyes will tell you a different story. They say in the classic phrase, the eyes are the windows to our soul, and it's completely true. It's hugely important that You learn to use your eyes to both both see things and communicate things.
In a more efficient and effective way. And if anybody has questions about that, I can, I can chat with them about that, separately after this if they want. But it's important, it's so important when you're looking at things, especially when you're disciplining people.
That you don't just listen to what they're saying and look at their body language. Make eye contact. And you'll really get a sense of where they're at, what's going on, and what they're doing.
Internally, as you're talking to them. Now, It's worth noting, obviously. There are actors in the world and some people will put on a great show of being able to say, no, I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine.
In my experience, do you know what to look for? The eyes will never lie. So Rarely, really learn to use yours intentionally.
And for want of a better word, aggressively. To be able to. Glean knowledge from the experiences around you as a result of what's going on.
Now, as a result of shared experiences, sometimes, You may feel like the world has literally beaten you up and tossed you aside. And it may feel like there's no one else to help you pick yourself up and carry on, but there's always someone. Find a person that you can speak to.
Find someone higher up in the proverbial food chain that you can talk to. Make sure there's someone that you can be accountable to if you're having a rough day, because If you can't, then Your experiences have the potential and can run the risk of, for want of a better word, overwhelming you. Now, you never want to get to a point where you're so busy, so stressed, so crazy that it's just too much.
I can't I can't take it anymore. I'm done, I'm done, I'm done, I'm done. Make sure.
That you've got someone that you can talk to, someone that can give you a hand. To pick yourself up. Someone that can encourage you to carry on.
I cannot stress enough the importance of an accountability person or a, or a mentor or a, or a colleague or a buddy. And it doesn't even have to be somebody at work. It could be someone in your, in your, in your private life that you can just offload to.
Partners are wonderful things. My. Amazing wife sometimes has to help me when I'm just needing to like blah, and I do the same for her.
You just have to sometimes offload stuff that's going on. And then you need to be able to put it aside and move on, because. You can't keep carrying stuff because otherwise you end up carrying more and more and more and more and more.
And all of a sudden, You're gonna be overwhelmed and then you're gonna have to be picking yourself up daily and that's not a place to be working from because you're not an effective leader at that point, you're just someone that's being put upon by tonnes and tonnes of people. Don't worry, if you're thinking, wow, this is all rather doom and gloom, it does get much more exciting, but we wanted to set the stage. I love this.
I love this, I love this, I love this. If you're having a bad day, It's OK. If you're having a great day and everyone else is having a bad day around you, it's also OK.
You don't make yourself feel bad because everyone else is feeling bad and you don't fake it if everyone else is feeling great. Be honest and be true. Because otherwise you just end up living in a world of misdirection and intrigue.
That's not exciting for anyone around you, because they never know what the hell you're thinking or who you are. If you're not being true and real and honest. Then what else are you lying to them about is what they're gonna think.
I know that person is miserable, why they keep telling me they're fine. Then the next time they come and tell me something that's important, I'm gonna go, but is it? Are you sure?
I don't believe you. The transparency of honesty is one of the most powerful currencies when it comes to Earning respect. Be honest with people, be truthful with people, and I guarantee you that you'll get more on side quicker than you could probably ever imagine.
One of the things that is the hardest to understand when you're a new leader, or even as an old leader, cause it still confuses me at times. When people don't talk to you. And then whinge that nothing changes.
It grates me. It, it really does. It bugs me quite a lot.
And I've learned that it's not me. And if you can take a point at this point and just, if any of you are writing things down. Just write the phrase, it's not me.
Down because There's gonna be times when you're gonna be sitting thinking to yourself, is it me? Is it, is it me? Do they just hate me?
Am I basically the person that everyone hates? No. It's not you.
It's a system that they don't understand, or it's a system that they don't trust. Or they just Don't understand how to express themselves. And as such, they'd rather grumble to someone on the shop floor that can't make a change, as opposed to come to you to ask you to help them make a change.
So, When it comes to this, and the reason I use this, this, this quote and this image is because Regret is a two-way street in some cases with leadership. Other people will regret not coming to talk to you. When they should have 6 months ago, 6 weeks ago, 6 days ago.
And you will regret not knowing so that you could fix it sooner. And it's a weird little circle. Once again, it's not you.
People don't always want to talk to people further up the food chain, despite the fact that 99% of the time, we can help fix it and we can make it go away. People still Unless the right environment is there, or possibly struggle. So the way to beat this regret and the way to beat the it's not you problem.
It's to really work on culture and to really work on the environment that you create. And that all comes down to integrity and respect. And that's why that the, the previous slide was so important for me.
It's, it's about being honest and transparent with people and saying, look, I've screwed this up. It's all me. Honesty wins you more friends, even if the circle is slightly smaller.
Sorry, give me half a second guys. I'm just gonna have a quick cough. And the back.
Yeah, honest, honesty will win you the right friends, will win you the right team, and we have people coming to you in the right way. The other thing is, when everyone is coming to you, and this comes back to the pick your battles, but in a different way. Make sure that you manage expectations properly and we'll talk about that a little bit later on.
So People always talk about fair. Oh, that's not fair. Oh, it's not fair that so and so got extra of blah.
Well, it's not fair that so and so got the cool shift again. When people use the fair, fair, fair thing. I love to use this as a slide and as a, as a quote that I tell people.
What I need And what Stacey needs and what Bob needs and what Mike needs. Are all different things. Now, if we all got the exact same thing, one of us will probably be successful, and the other 3 of us may be OK.
But if we all got exactly what we need to be successful, then. Absolute slam dunks all over, and we're in a position where more and more people are now geared up, coordinated and really moving forward to be that bottom word, successful. And that's really what we want.
We want people to be successful that we are leading. And The, the, the, the feeling of personal achievements, seeing people underneath you succeed is really what you want to be hunting. That you don't wanna, you don't want fame, fortune, and brilliance.
Yeah. It would be lovely But for me, Seeing somebody successful. That's money in the bank all day.
So let's get practical. How am I gonna help you guys as As new leaders, as old leaders, as people that want to tweak their leadership. As people want to learn how to be better followers because To be a great leader, you have to be a great follower.
One of my favourite phrases that we were taught during staff training at summer camp, when dealing with discipline. Was this one. Help me to understand.
Now, It is a coverall. 1st 4 words to pretty much any situation that you find yourself in when having a disciplinary conversation with someone. Help me to understand why you felt it was OK to scream at the customer in reception.
Help me to understand. Why you felt it was OK to throw the sharps in the normal bin. Etc.
Etc. Etc. It is a question that is not ever.
A yes or no answer. It's a help me to understand. And when you use it powerfully, accurately and efficiently.
It will always generate a conversation. Now, As part of the answer. Listen to both the words of what people are saying, but also.
Watch how they behave. If people are kind of going, yeah, well, just because I felt it was OK, and you know what. There's obviously something else going on.
But using this phrase as an opening salvo to any of these conversations, just absolutely. Disarms any accusatory tone. It disarms any Possible confrontational phrasing.
All you're saying is, I don't understand. Can you get me to understand why this happened in the way that it did? And some of, some of my best inverted commas disciplinary meetings involved this phrase with great outcomes if I'm honest.
And I would highly recommend that you put that into the arsenal of things that you use. So Public praise, private discipline. If somebody has done epic work.
Make sure that they know about it. And give them the win of letting others around them know about it too. So, Suzie's done an epic job with the new board at reception.
And there's 2 other people in reception. They may even be clients walking past. A throwaway comment of Suzie, you know what that new board looks majestic, well done, awesome stuff.
Can be the most powerful thing that you can ever do for some people. Because you've just showed them and other people that A, you've noticed, B, you appreciate it, and C, that they are valued. In the exact same scenario, if you hate it, you don't walk through reception and go, Hey, Suzie, you know that new board?
Yeah, it looks like, well, you can see what it looks like, can't you? It just looks absolutely terrible. And I think you should take it down because it's the worst thing I've ever seen in my life.
I've got a 4 year old cousin that could probably put in a better effort. Now, That's not helping. That's not helping her, that's not helping the situation.
That's not helping the entire environment. If you have a conversation with Suzie behind the proverbial closed doors or just out of the way of everyone to hear, and just go, look, I appreciate the effort. It's not the way I would have liked to have it done.
And if we could possibly take it down or tweak it in so and so way, I would greatly appreciate it. You have a better chance of that person staying on board. And better compliance in future, because otherwise what you do is you just breed rebellion, and, well, that's not fun, is it?
Rebellion doesn't help anyone. So There's a book called The Five Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace. It's by two guys called Gary Chapman and Paul White.
It's honestly one of the best books that you can ever read if you wanna be a great leader, in my opinion. What it does is it takes the five languages of love from relationships and it translates it into a work context. So, the languages that they talk about are words of affirmation, quality time, acts of service, tangible gifts, and appropriate physical touch, because obviously it is the workplace.
Now, what they talk about in this book, amongst other things, is Everyone has got 1 or 2, which are their strongest two languages. And everyone has their one weak language. And very often there is somebody in your organisation, in your team.
That needs that language, which is your weakest one. As the thing that they are spoken to him. So Have a read of the book if you get a chance.
I do a bit of Google search, and I'll put it into the notes a little bit more. I'll put the name of the guy that wrote it and stuff. If you can get a copy of the book, I would highly, highly recommend getting it for yourself, but Have a look at it.
Figure out which are your, which are your phrase, which is your language. What are the things that you love to do? I love, what is it?
You know what? I love quality time. I love it when my boss is just around, hangs out, spends some time with me, has a chat with things.
Like that makes me feel amazing. I feel, feel engaged, gee'd up, ready to go. You know what?
I couldn't be tossed about getting random chocolates delivered to my desk. No, that's a lie because in this industry, obviously everybody knows everybody loves chocolate because it runs on sugar. But, In this example.
So, if my boss is constantly bringing me chocolates, and all I want is for my boss to hang out and, and, and take half an hour to have a meeting with me and really validate my ideas and appreciate me, he can bring me 10 million chocolates in the year. And yes, I might have great gifts to give away for the rest of time. But I'm still gonna feel disengaged.
But he could come and spend half an hour with me. Listen to me, talk about some stuff and make things happen, and I will feel more empowered and more engaged than if you'd spent 2000 pounds buying me chocolate. So Get a hold of those lists of of of languages.
Figure out what you are good at and what you're bad at. And then have a look at your team and see if there's somebody in your team that needs that thing that you're bad at. And if there is, see if there's a way to find a, find a middle ground for you guys to be able to play together inverted commas.
Now, if you look at the geography of your face, if we've all taken a selfie at some point, you'll notice that You've got 2 eyes, 2 years. And one mouth. And yet, The trap we fall into.
Is we do twice the amount of speaking. As we do anything else, listening, observing, engaging. Because sometimes we find it easier to talk at people.
And then leave. And then we feel like we've done what we needed to do. But we've forgotten how to listen.
So, for me, Think about challenges that you're facing. In your teens. In your, in your departments?
And then ask the question, How much speaking am I doing? And how much listening am I doing? No.
5 minutes. It's this mystical thing that we have created as an accepted time frame to give people. That something can get done in.
No. A good cup of tea takes 5 minutes to brew. So, I mean, that's borderline.
How on earth am I supposed to solve a massive crisis that reception just brought to me because someone's having a freak out because some vet threw them under the bus and didn't tell them properly about what cost was incurred with something. On what planet does the, yeah, yeah, I'll sort this in 5 minutes, actually make sense? Also, Half the time it takes us 5 minutes to walk and find the person that we need to deal with this with.
And then another 5 minutes to have a conversation to try and interrogate what the issue is. 10 minutes to brainstorm an answer. And then we're gonna go back to clients.
And that's in magical Christmas Land where nobody's busy, no emergencies are happening and no animals are trying to animal in the kennels at the back because they don't feel like they like the sutures that are in them after the surgery from this morning. Stop promising that you'll be back with someone in 5 minutes, unless you are literally bringing them a cup of tea. Be honest And just manage those expectations and say, look, this could take an hour, but in that time, I'm gonna be able to get you the answer that you need.
And then start working on it and make damn sure that you get hold of those people in an hour. Because the minute you say, oh, it'll be 5 minutes and it takes 7, you are the enemy. If you say take an hour and you get back to them in 57 minutes.
You are 3 minutes to the good and you have won. You have won that game and you've bought credit for weeks. You do it again, you bought credit for months.
You do it again and you can probably do it. Oh, I'll be back in 5 minutes and bring them back in 7 and get away with it once. Guys, please train your teams and train yourselves.
Kill the 5 minutes thing, just kill it. Learn to be OK with losing. Now, what if I put this in for?
As we spoke about in the very beginning, picking battles. If you do not accept the fact that you're not going to win every battle. You're going to become a nervous wreck.
You have to accept the fact that sometimes you're not gonna win, and it's OK. Once you've ticked that box in your head, It is a very empowering moment, by the way, that does also not mean that you can just randomly run around picking battles that you're gonna lose because you know it's OK. Be practical, be realistic and be focused.
But Accept it, acknowledge it, process the feelings around, but I wanna win, I wanna win. We all wanna win. We all want to win all the time.
But we don't, we don't always win. And that's OK. Once we accept it, we're sitting in a powerful, powerful position.
That enables us to be able to. Move forward with intensity. Now, what is an active listener versus a passive listener?
An active listener engages even though they are just listening. So when somebody's talking to you, Are you looking at them? Are you listening to the words, or are you hearing noise and making an assumption based on the first three words that they've said?
If you cannot. Be part of a conversation that somebody's trying to give you information. Be honest and just go, I'm really sorry.
Right now, my brain is melting. There's too much stuff going on. Can you give me 20 minutes to go sort this out and I'll be right back.
99% of the time people are gonna go, oh well that was a refreshing bit of honesty. Sure, that's not a worry. Yes, people, people, and occasionally somebody will go, no, I need you now.
It's now or never. Doom is occurring everywhere. And then it's just, you know, they didn't order the right kind of bucket or something.
But in their world, the doom is important, and if you can give them the capacity to help out, then help them out. And get stuff done. If you can't, Do your damnedest to try and write a note, to try and understand well enough so that you can be in a position of.
Absolutely being able to. Really, rarely. Get it And then process it and then active act on it appropriately when you're able to.
I think that's active listening. It's a bloody hard skill. And it's something that you have to train yourself to do.
And I know that sounds really strange to say because we listen to stuff all the time. Yeah, we listen to stuff all the time. There is so much being flung at us between mobile phones and email, and phone call, and TV and billboard, and, and, and wherever we are, there's stuff being flung at us.
So there's constantly noise around us. But have we forgotten how to listen, or have we chosen to stop listening? That is the question that a lot of people are sort of pondering in the grander circles of things, but In my opinion, There's too much, so it's easy to not listen, but just sort of nod, smile, noise occurs, leave.
But that doesn't help you. Because it just undermines your own authority within your team. So Really, if you guys have questions about active listening, we can chat a bit more about that a bit later on, .
Shortly, actually, as we're close to wrapping up. But, really, really, I cannot stress the importance of, of active listening enough. I said it earlier, I'm gonna say it again.
It really is as simple as you make it. Leadership is It's easy, it's fun. It's not as scary as people make it out to be.
And honestly, if you put the right things in place, and you've got the right systems in place, and you're honest with your team, and you're, you're leading from the front, but not doing everything, you're making it so that if you're away, it can carry on, but they miss you because you're a legend. Then You're doing your job well. It really can be super simple to run a team really, really efficiently, neatly.
And in the most fun and enjoyable kind of way possible. Guys, We've got to that point in the show where, We're gonna be wrapping up, we're gonna do some Q&A. I really hope that you've enjoyed the time.
I've really enjoyed my time, being with you guys this evening, sharing some of the stuff that's in my head, . So yeah, let's, let's spend some time now doing some Q&A. I just, as we leave, this is what I want you to think about.
If you seek respect not attention. It lasts Longer. Respect is doing the things behind the scenes that you know are boring, but get the stuff done.
Respect and integrity for me are two of the most powerful things that you can have as, as a leader, and Integrity is doing the right thing when no one else is around. Last quick story from summer camp. We used to talk about paper grenades, which was litter, because they were like little grenades that could kill the small animals that if they ate them, sad times.
And we always used to tell the kids, integrity is picking up paper grenades when no one else is around to give you a high five for doing it. If you think about that kind of stuff. You're doing leadership right.
And you're gonna be leading your teams in a way that they will notice in a way that they will appreciate, and in a way that will ultimately make you a better person, them a better team, and everything will run supremely swiftly. Supremely accurately and most importantly, seamlessly when you have to take a break because being awesome takes it out of you and you need to recharge. Thanks again to the sponsors, who, who are part of this process.
That's me. That's my email address. If you want to drop me a line at any point, always happy to chat.
So, yeah, thanks so much. And I'm gonna pass over to the, the lovely team at Webinar for us to do some Q&A. Brilliant.
Thank you so much, Rory, for your webinar and sharing some amazing quotes with us. That have definitely stuck in my mind. And, I'm sure people will keep them in mind for their roles as well in practise.
And so I'm sure people at home as well found it very useful. Just before we go to questions, the webinar vet team really appreciate your feedback. So if you could spare 30 seconds to complete the feedback survey that should have popped up in a new tab in your browser, that would be fantastic.
And the feedback survey is anonymous unless you provide your contact details. So if you would like a response to your feedback, please make sure that you include your name and email address. And I know that depending on which device you're using to watch the webinar.
The survey doesn't always pop up. Or if you're listening to the recording of this webinar, I like to provide feedback, please feel free to email the team using office at the webinart.com.
Or alternatively, you can add your feedback into the comment section on the website. And as Rory mentioned at the start of his webinar, if you have any comments for Rory that you'd like to see in the written notes that he will prepare for this webinar, then please give your suggestions and we can pass them on to him. So, in terms of questions, we've had a few that have come in, the first one was, in terms of team building exercises, I think, these are important.
I think that team building exercises, when done correctly, can be some of the most powerful things that you can do with a team. It's gotta be Inclusive and voluntary, and I know that the second bit's the hardest because often, the point of trying to do a team building exercise is because grumpy level in the corners being grumpy, and you want him to be involved. But, Figure out What makes people tick?
And look, food generally brings us together and a team-building exercise can be a meal. Because then people can have a conversation over a food stuff. It can be a.
Exercise where we're painting a room as a mural for blah charity. And we're doing it as a team. I think that as long as the intention is there, and you can get buy-in for the most part.
People will in their own strange peer pressure way join in. So if you can get 80 to 90% of the people to the first one. And then you come back and make sure everybody's raving about it and having the greatest experience from it and yeah, it was the best thing ever, we must definitely do that again.
Then plan it again And if you build it as a social, not as a team building, you'll probably generally have a better uptake. Because social is teambuilding as well. OK, great, and we've got some more questions coming in now as well, Rory.
Do you have any tips for systemizing the business for a team? Yes. Wow, that's a big question.
And, and it can be a very big answer. So, The, the biggest tip is don't overcomplicate. If it needs 2 steps, don't put in 5.
A lot of people when they're trying to systemize or, or, or put in processes will overcomplicate and that's where you can end up with analysis paralysis because of all of the data that it's brought back to you. Really, rarely get super intentional about what you want the outcome to be of any system or process that you're putting in. If you don't know the answer to that question, don't put the process in.
Don't put the system in. If you know the answer, make damn sure that whatever you're putting in. Is gonna give you the outcome that you want and it's not just gonna be boring busyness and busy work, busy fool work for people that you're trying to help, cause that'll just end up causing friction.
OK, thank you. Going back to something that I think you mentioned towards the start of your presentation, what do you, what are the subtle signs of those people who say, I'm fine, I'm fine, but the reality is very different. So, my experience, I Silence is.
Sometimes a big indicator of Problem Especially if it's somebody that's normally bubbly. Now, it may not be a work thing that's getting to them. And that sometimes is the biggest trick, because we can have concern for our colleagues and we can want them to be good and happy, etc.
But at the same time, we can't always get into their personal lives if they don't want us there. So if somebody, so we'll take a bubbly person first. If a bubbly person is suddenly withdrawn, there's a problem.
You, you, you will notice that. You know, Sally, that always smiles and his bubbly is suddenly cagey and quiet and withdrawn. That's a problem.
But That person might also fake it, and that's where I was talking about the eyes thing along the way. You can't fake happy. In your eyes.
It's, it's just, it's one of those things that, I mean, you can tell when an actor's trying to act and they're a professional trying to do this full time, and they're not doing it properly. As a, as an everyday person on the streets. It's It is impossible to hide, so look at the eyes when you're talking to them, and you will see what's going on.
OK, so it's all about the eyes. All the eyes. All the eyes.
The next question, do you have any mentors that you would recommend? Any personal recommendations? I, look, cheeky self-promotion.
Me, I'm available to help out and have those conversations. People are more than welcome to email me. In terms of that.
It's a tricky answer because obviously I don't know where people are in the country. So if people are wanting mentors or have questions around that, they're more than welcome to drop me a mail. And I can, if I can help them because they're local to me, or they want to chat with me, happy to do.
Know, otherwise, I can, I can point them in the direction of some people that I know in different parts of the country. A lot of this cool stuff can also be done via sort of FaceTime and Skype and things. I've actually done some mentoring for someone in South Africa via FaceTime and Skype.
So technology does make these things easy, and I do have some people that I can chat to, but obviously very situational specific. So if people want to have those conversations, I'm more than happy to have them by email. OK, that's fantastic.
Thank you very much for that, Rory. I actually have a question if that's OK. If people don't speak up but continue to be frustrated about something in the practise, how do you, how would you start, how would you go about changing the culture of the practise?
Do you have some practical tips for that? Yes. So, If somebody doesn't want to engage, There's two things in play.
Either they're just that person that is choosing to not ever engage and it doesn't matter how much change, etc. That you put in place. They're just never going to play.
And. Those unfortunately are the ones that we just, we just don't win, but we try our damnedest to. But for the most part, It comes down to transparency, accountability, and honesty.
So If you're worried that people aren't talking to you or an individual is worried that people aren't talking to them. You need to understand why not. So, it starts with you.
What are you doing, what are you saying, how are you behaving? And is that directly affecting whether or not people will come and talk to you? Once you've done a self audit, which is one of the hardest things to do in the world, because, unfortunately, sometimes we need to realise that it, it is us.
I had a colleague once, who was just I knew that there was a problem and they weren't talking to me. So I confronted him in a mildly South African sort of blunt way. And He just turned around and he said, well, dude, you're the problem, why would I come and talk to you?
And it honestly felt like I've been punched in the face. So I had to have a bit of a a, a self-check moment and figure out it was me. I'm not saying that anyone who's having issues with the team, like it's all your fault.
It's not necessarily that. And it was entirely a communication error and a misunderstanding, which caused the whole problem. Let's start with you Figure out if there's anything that you're doing that could potentially hinder people coming to you.
Once you've figured that out, Look at the team and see if there are people around them that are saying things in their ear and maybe Guiding them down the wrong path. Because Sometimes the individual that's disgruntled is not always the ringleader. And sometimes there are other people playing puppet master.
So, it's, it's really a case of, start with me. Is there anything that I could have done that could have caused them to not want to talk to me? Is there anything that I could have done that could have made them not want to engage in this process?
No, I'm pretty sure I'm good. OK. Now let's look at the environment.
Now let's look at the bodies. And then sometimes, give people an opportunity to talk to you anonymously. SurveyMonkey is a beautiful tool that is entirely anonymous, and people quite like an anonymity.
And give people the opportunity to share how they feel in a completely anonymous way. You're probably surprised how much stuff will come out. OK.
So, yeah, I think it's good, yeah, I think starting with yourself is good, and I think Sometimes, if you give people the opportunity to, like you say, anonymously feed back about yourself, because you, you know, because you try your best, you might think that everything is hunky dory and you're doing everything by the book. But I guess unless you get that feedback or invite feedback from people that you're working with, it could open your eyes. Yes.
And also, the big trick, especially with that, and, and, and from an anonymous perspective. It's not personal. It's not personal.
What, what they're saying is they don't hate you. They hate a situation, they hate a process, they hate a procedure, they hate a rule. They don't necessarily hate you.
And that's an important thing, especially when asking for anonymous feedback or criticism about yourself. Like, it's big girl or big boy pants on and, and let's just sit down and be humble and maybe have some chocolate to cope. And then it's not personal.
Yeah. Actually, I'm really glad that you raised that point, because sometimes it can be quite difficult to take feedback about yourself. And like you say, it's about the situation, not necessarily, you know, about you as an individual.
So thank you very much for flagging that up. So we're, we've finished the questions, and we're almost up to time. Perfectly.
So, I'd just like to say thank you again to Rory for joining us for the webinar. And thank you again to our sponsors of the practise management webinars who are Saint Francis Group, Simply Health Professionals, and 8 Legal. Thank you to everyone who joined us for the live webinar.
It's always really nice to have your company and for providing vital feedback, as we've discussed. And last but not least, thank you very much to Katherine and Lewis for co-hosting with me on this webinar. I hope you enjoy the rest of your day and perhaps we'll see you very soon, for the practise management session at the virtual congress next weekend.
Catherine has included the link for the annual virtual congress in the chat box, which runs for 3 days. So you can have a look at the programme to see how you and your team would benefit from this amazing online CPD event. Friday the 19th is the BVA and RCVS Association Day.
Saturday the 20th is the 24 hour small animal day with practise management session, and Sunday is the large animal day. And as I mentioned, Saturday has a practise management session which is focused on Further improving your practise website and social media content, and that session is running from 11 a.m.
To 10 p.m. London time.
But if this time isn't convenient for you, the webinars will be recorded and you'll have a whole year to access these recordings. And this session is kindly sponsored by Saint Francis Group. So hopefully you can join us for that and as I said, you could have a look on the website for ticket options.
There are team tickets available, and individual tickets as well. So hopefully you can join us then. The next webinar in the practise management series is on the 6th of February.
And that will be with that dynamics on the topic of an update on the profession and corporate ownership and exit strategies. So hopefully we shall see you again very soon and thanks again, Rory and good night everyone. Thanks.
Bye. Bye.
