Creating a Joyful Work Culture for Everyone with Marriot Winquist

Creating a Joyful Work Culture for Everyone with Marriot Winquist

Leading to Fulfillment
Leading to Fulfillment
Creating a Joyful Work Culture for Everyone with Marriot Winquist
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Can we cultivate work environments where people are able to thrive and be their best? Today’s guest says yes, but it takes intentionality. Listen in as Marriot Winquist shares how you can create more joyful and productive teams at your company today.

In my conversation with Marriot Winquist we discuss…

  • The idea of leading with joy and why it’s important for leaders
  • The importance of the practice of listening to your team
  • How to create a culture of listening through 1 on 1s
  • Creating space in our schedules for the things that bring us joy
  • Developing resilient teams during uncertain times

About Our Guest

Marriot Winquist is a seasoned technology executive and currently CEO, Certified Executive Coach and Consultant at BrightTree Consulting. She partners with executives and rising stars in fast-growing organizations to become strategic high-impact business leaders.

Marriot brings a powerful blend of proven results and executive experience along with outstanding coaching and consulting skills to help her clients achieve extraordinary results, enabling them to level up their strategic leadership, take on complex business challenges, and scale sustainable teams.

Her mission is to serve and inspire leaders to unlock the joy in leadership and create the best impact in their lives and others.

Resources Mentioned on the Show

Transcript

Marriot Winquist But a lot of it gets lost in the day to day. When? When the day, like I said, the day ends and you ask yourself, did I do this? That and Joy, did I do things that matter a lot times were like, I’m so frazzled. I don’t I just don’t know what’s going on. So I always go to work with them on.

All right. You have kind of that bigger, bigger picture but let’s look at your next 24 hours. What does that look for you, even if you just look at your calendar, right. And and if you look at all the slots in there and you’re suddenly going, oh, my God, that’s giving. You know, it’s absolutely stressing me out and exhausting me.

That’s an indication Right. And and that’s when I asked them. Yeah, look at that. 24 hours. Think about now. Okay. The stuff that you have determined in terms of what matters to you, how are you going to incorporate even maybe one of those into that next 24 hours…

James Laws Welcome to another episode of the Leading the Fulfillment podcast, where everything we talk about is meant to encourage people-first leaders, empower individuals to achieve fulfillment, and to help your organizations become places people love to work.

I’m your host, James Laws, and I have a great show in store for you. My guest for this episode is Marriott Winquist. Marriott Winquist is a seasoned technology executive and currently CEO, certified executive coach and consultant at Bright Tree Consulting, she partners with executives and rising stars and fast growing organizations to become strategic high impact business leaders.

In my conversation with Marriot we discuss…

  • the idea of leading with joy and why it’s important for leaders the importance of the practice of listening to your team
  • how to create a culture of listening through one on ones
  • creating a space in your schedule for things that bring us joy
  • developing resilient teams during uncertain times.

Before we dive into my conversation with Marriot, I’d like to invite you to subscribe to the Leading to Fulfillment podcast in your favorite podcast tool.

We’re on Apple and Google Play and Spotify as well as YouTube. You can also always head on over to Ciircles.com, that’s ciircles with two i’s, and subscribe to our newsletter where we’ll let you know when those new episodes become available, as well as send your original and curated content, leadership, managing teams and finding fulfillment.

Now I know my conversation with Marriot Winquist.

Marriot, thank you so much for being on the Leading to Fulfillment podcast. I really appreciate you joining me today.

Marriot Winquist Thank you so much, James. Thank you for having me.

James Laws Absolutely. You know, as I was reading over your content on your website, which I’ll be posting a link to in our show notes, I see a lot of commonality. Much of the content that we’ve been producing over on our Ciircle’s website, which is where this podcast lives and I’ve been on this kind of mission to help leaders become people-first in their leadership practices.

And also you talk about this topic a lot, but you use a term that I don’t see a lot of people talking about in this conversation? And it’s a term you call leading with joy. And I was just wondering, just as we dive right into this conversation, could you share a little bit what you mean when you talk about leading with joy?

Marriot Winquist Yeah. Absolutely. First of all, thank you for having me on this show. I have been working in corporate for several years, over 20 years, and, you know, achieving, you know, what I see as s great success and also having enjoyment and fulfillment during the time as well. But what I’ve also come to realize through those years is that not only is success and yes, performance and, you know, having the titles having that is great, but there’s that underlying side of probably all of us, the human side of all of us, which really stems from am I doing what I am placed here to do?

Am I doing the best of my potential? Am I making the impact that I really want and wish to do? And for me and Joy really comes from that. It’s that alignment of that internal values that you hold true and what matters most to you and the outside behaviors and exhibition that you act out on. And then further on, the people that you actually impact and influence and also the businesses and the work that you do.

And I, I came to kind of this, this idea of the joy really is because you hear a lot of leading with high performance with edge with all these things that are very, very performance based and which is great. But at the heart of it, it’s still the human side of what makes you the most fulfilled and most full.

And that actually and lots of studies have done this in terms of positive psychology the starting with the joy and happiness is actually what creates success and not the other way around. And that’s why I really want to continue and share this idea, because there’s so much of the other idea of the performance and the excellence which the people that I work with already come with that that’s already the basis of what they do.

But often we just forget the. Well, how does that align with with me?

James Laws Yeah. And I you know, it’s really interesting to hear, you know, you don’t like I said before, you don’t hear this in the conversation of leadership often is this idea of leading with joy And so many times I think people get caught up into leadership roles or management roles for all of the wrong reasons.

Instead of like I am pursuing leadership because it’s a calling. It’s a thing that I, I believe is integral into my own fulfillment, my own happiness. Is helping other people achieve their goals to accomplish what’s what’s next in their life. So this idea of leading with joy is really interesting to me. And I I’m surprised I’ve not used the term myself to be completely honest.

Like, one of my core values is being a cheerleader. And part of my that core value is not the idea of just cheering people on. It’s the idea of that positive energy that the world has enough negative energy and enough people trying to strive for status and all of these things. Like, I just want to be a positive force in the world and I want to kind of combat the negative.

That’s always seems to be everywhere you turn. I just want to I want to change the story. I want to change the conversation. In a little bit. So I love I love the term leading with joy, but it’s not one that I’ve used. Why why do you think coming from the perspective of Leading With Joy is such an important trait for leaders? Like why do you think that’s an important perspective that perhaps isn’t being talked about nearly enough

Marriot Winquist Yeah. Yeah. And and for that, I would also in a pullback in terms of the the landscape of leadership, I think the what I would say maybe traditional leadership has been the get results, get things done, you know, and that equals great, great leadership.

And we already see this shifting, right? Especially in the last couple of years where so much empathy is is really needed in the last couple of years for all of us. To get through the crazy challenges. We already see that that’s shifting. But I think the real main thing with the landscape of leadership is that we are solving different problems now than we were 50 years ago and 100 years ago.

We are not putting people in boxes to create widgets anymore. So we actually need people now to think creatively. They need to collaborate in a different ways. We need to solve problems that are now global and just across different everything different cultures, different spaces, different different experts and so so we need a different type of leadership than maybe 50 years ago when we were running factories and, you know, and just more.

And we still need those. We still need those to maintain and create certain things. But the world is changing that we need a lot more creative solutions and creative people to come together. And so I do feel like the shift really is the fact that we need different types of leaders and different types of leadership. And what is needed is to cultivate a culture where the individuals within these groups can prosper and thrive.

And and that’s where kind of that leading with that joy and intention comes in because people can thrive when I think you there’s the Daniel Pink book on drive which actually talks about three factors of the of the conditions. Right the mastery and and purpose and autonomy. And so all this really is that underlying what actually is true in myself that I can and I create for myself the autonomy the autonomy, the mastery that I can actually grow in myself.

And then also purpose that that why in terms of why we’re doing it. And so leaders now need to actually create conditions for that. We’re not creating conditions for, okay, you’re doing one thing really fantastically, and that’s all you do, right? So it’s the landscape of leadership that is now changing, therefore requiring different types of leaders, which now then require different ways for us to exhibit as leaders And and so I really enjoyed this part of leadership and really sharing this part of leadership because it gives way for almost and other bar of success and other bar of what makes someone a leader and someone can actually approach with joy and intention in addition to, of course, the aim of whatever the results and impact that you need to do. But you’re always starting with that true place within you and for your team.

James Laws As I hear you say that, it kind of comes back to kind of what led us into that, too, is this idea that, yeah, there is performance, right? Leaders have to perform, they have to achieve certain results.

They have objectives, they have goals that we have to accomplish. And and leaders have to figure out how to help their teams get to those to those points. But there’s something about the motive of why you’re doing it, like the why you found that your mission to help teams achieve objectives and achieve those goals. Patrick Lencioni has a great book called The Motive, where he talks about what is the motive of a leader, like what is your intention?

And I think Joy being a I think an element of what we’re trying to strive for is it leaders if you if you can’t lead with joy, you have to have to question like are you in the right role? Like if leadership is sucking that joy out of you, like it’s having the negative impact., that’s problematic. We need to figure this out.

Marriot Winquist Yeah. And that’s exactly I think I think a lot of times people people do feel that opposite, right? It’s the oh, my God, I am so exhausted. By this act, whatever this action is, right? I mean, so exhausted by leading this team. I’m so exhausted by maybe touting the company mission. I’m so exhausted by certain things that that’s when you almost know, okay, something something is not in alignment.

And and a lot of what actually I work with clients on is the alignment. It is about alignment. Alignment of what your values are, alignment of what you’re thinking and how you’re acting, and then alignment to where you, you know, where you’re working, right? If you’re not aligned with your organization, then there’s absolutely you you’ll feel the friction.

James Laws One of the things that started me on this journey was, you know, when I started my business, I was looking for certain things. I was looking for joy, right? I was looking for fulfillment. I was looking I wasn’t about necessarily being my own boss or having someone limited amount of money. It was really was about, you know, at the end of the day, when I when I look at the get to the end of my day that I love what I did did I believe what I did matters and could I see the impact that my work had on that thing that matter.

And through that, I started it to kind of create this theory of fulfillment for my own life. And I started to realize, man, you know, when every time I interview a person just to join my team, I start looking through their eyes and I realize they want the same thing that I wanted when I started my business. So isn’t it as a leader my responsibility to help them find fulfillment, to give them a job and help them create a job that they love, give them and help them create a job that they believe matters and help them see and be able to measure the impact that they have on that thing that matters.

And so when I hear this lead with joy, it almost it connects so, so wholly to what I think about when I think about fulfillment I would wonder, what would you say is that intersection between finding joy and finding fulfillment? Because they don’t necessarily feel like they’re the exact same thing, but they feel like they are the opposite sides of the exact same coin. And I wonder, what is your take on that, that intersection between joy and fulfillment

Marriot Winquist Yeah, and you’re right. I do feel like there’s a big overlap on that. And and I would say, you know, this would be one of those It depends. It depends on answer because. Yeah, and you’re right, there is that overlap before. For some, there might be a lot of joy in different things that they do, but they’re like, oh, okay, that’s that’s just enjoyable.

But maybe it’s not a you know, when you feel fulfilled, there are some additional meaning and additional impact that you are experiencing as well. But but I’d say fall intents and purposes when usually when I’m working with the leader, those are almost you’re right, same sides of the of the those are almost always overlap because when they are feeling that deep seated joy, that is how they’re feeling feeling the fulfillment as well.

So it at that point it really could be just semantics as opposed to a true differentiation. But I could understand that some people could have kind of different actual very different slices of it. But I think a lot of the leaders that I work with, it’s almost kind of one on top of the other.

James Laws Let me ask you this from as a leader and as a leader listening to this, and they’re thinking, you know, I, I want to create a culture that is fulfilling and joyful in my business, in my organization. I want to create an environment where people are excited to come to work and that when they get to their end of their day, they don’t leave the day depleted, but they leave it full and energized and ready to face the next day. If a leader, you know, could could wave a wand and change one thing in their organization to foster kind of a joyful and fulfilling culture, what would your advice be to that leader to kind of create that culture of joy?

James Laws Yeah, if there’s only one thing they can do, I would say the one thing and I know there’s a lot of levers, right? It’s many things. Yes, I’m sure there’s many things. If there is only one thing they can do, I would say is listen. And I mean listen in terms of listening to what their employees want listening to.

Of course, the business side would be what the customers want and all that. But I think if you think about the culture, it’s absolutely about listening to what your team members care about and what’s important for them, because that is the core of what kind of drives your employees, whether it’s whether it’s that bit of discretionary effort, whether it’s going that bit of extra mile, whether it’s taking on that bit more of ownership.

It is what’s important for them first. And so if there’s one thing that a leader can do is really make the intention and commitment to actually listen more I think we as leaders, we tend to direct a lot and talk a lot. And that is and that’s fine because that’s that’s what we’re trained to do. That’s what you are also put in the role to do.

But at the same time, like we say, a new kind of leadership and the new kind of culture requires that you actually start listening to your employees a lot more so that you can actually harness a lot more of the talents and strengths and I think that’s the that’s the unlocking that really is the most exciting for for leaders who are really willing to take this on.

James Laws I 100% agree I love that advice of of listening and like not you know, of course take the pulse of your team but actually get down to what matters to them. What are they striving for? Help them define fulfillment, what is their fulfillment and then work with them to create an environment to do that. My question is to the leader who says, you know what, yeah, I could be a better listener. I could I could take a step back and listen to my team members. What are some tools or ways that leaders can become better listeners? What are some of the mechanisms or ways within their organization that they can get that feedback from their team in a safe and trusting environment and create a way where where the team members are willing to kind of share and kind of bear a little bit of their heart and what their goals are?

What would you say are some of those ways that leaders can become better listeners?

Marriot Winquist Yeah, I think that’s a great question, and I would kind of go on the continuum of, you know, the intimate one on ones to the broad, you know, annual survey, anonymous poll type of thing. And then maybe I’ll start with the, the, the more intimate ones, which really is having a cultivating that trust with your team members so that you can have productive one on ones.

And and I would say one key thing is to make sure that you’re asking the right questions as well. So I think part of the listening is not just, hey, how’s it going It really is, you know. Yeah. What similar to what you’re saying. What, what, what are your goals? What what’s important for you? What actually are your concerns?

Right. What happened what happened in that last meeting that went this way or that way? Right. So really making sure that you are asking the right questions in order to get in order to get kind of open answers from your from your team members. And again, that does that intimate one on one, that does require a trusted relationship to have to have been fostered.

Right. And and then I would say the other end of the spectrum is, of course, making sure that you also have kind of that broad, really broad base. Okay. The whole organization, it’s all anonymous. You could put the rating and and do that. And that’s where you can get kind of the did I move the needle on the longer term, you know, from the four to a five? From a five to a six. So that’s where you can get the more quantitative, longer term pulse. And I would say in between would be having the either informal or still regular, you know, for example, one on ones or team stand ups or any situation where you can still have a semi semi I would take out like a group, either group or one on one setting, but still having that relationship of discussing.

Yeah, how’s it going? What’s the, you know, what’s going on and ensuring that it’s a learning environment and not a not a put someone up and pointing fingers at environment. All right. So I would I would advise people to think through that spectrum and see what fits in both their culture and and also their time as well. I mean, I hear a lot of leaders saying that I don’t have time and and I would challenge them to say, you know, if building the right culture is part of your your job and your role, then, you know, it requires you to actually make time for that type of of work to be done with your team.

James Laws I absolutely love that you started with one on ones. It’s one of the things that I would say, if you think you’re too busy for one on ones, I would argue you’re too busy not to have one on ones with your team members. So that is the most critical moment for you to build trust and really get to know your team members and for them to get to know you.

And so that goes back to work. I love that you started with the one on ones. I would you know, just to kind of piggyback on what you said, is asking those right questions. And I would also say and you’re one on ones, you don’t have to have an answer like you don’t have to immediately have to get that feedback and go, okay, I’m going to solve the problem right now.

You can let it simmer and sit with it. And actually, I think your team will respect you more for you taking the time to really weigh it and contemplate it before you just try to create solutions and try to just jump right into that. Like really listening sometimes requires the pause that that’s the time to breathe and just listen and not respond.

I’ll be honest. I mean, like I’ve gone through it I have I’ve gone through the phase where I had to have an answer for everything right in the very moment that it was happening. And, and all that does is kind of tell your team that you’re not really listening to them. You were just thinking about your response to the whole time, just waiting for them to stop so that you could solve their problem.

My wife also yells at me for trying to do that.

Marriot Winquist So yeah. And I’m actually really glad that carries over. Yeah. And I’m so glad you actually brought up the pause, because like I mentioned before, we a lot of leaders are trained to give answers, right? That’s that’s what they’re put there to do. And it’s fantastic that they can do it.

But but it also, at the same time, like you say, it gives the the both the impression and the structure that you’re coming to me for a solution and that’s it. The meanwhile, what you do want to start creating is, all right, you’re coming to me almost as a thought partner. And so at the same time, you’re absolutely empowering them.

If you do take a pause, if you do make sure that you are asking the right question, it’s like, okay, that’s interesting. What is what is your thought on how to approach this right how would you actually look at this differently? Right. So I’m really holding holding a lot of restraint to before you go, I would solve it this late because again, I think as much as any of the leaders think they they can solve and know all the stuff, there is a lot of value in the new perspective as well.

And I think it’s it’s the it’s actually marrying those strengths. You know, somebody might come with something that is oh needs a little bit more more idea and then it needs a bit more and so it it’s actually building on it that would make it stronger and and yeah I would say that taking that pause is so critical and often forgotten by by a lot of leaders.

James Laws I yeah. And you did something there that I think is also a part of that pause. Right is a lot of times when we ask questions and you know, and amidst the pause, it’s just asking more questions. This is a discovery process like we are we’re getting to know each other. And so when I ask a question and you, you respond that should inspire more questions, that shouldn’t inspire answers, it should.

I want to go deeper. It’s not like that first question. You’re only scratching the surface and you want to dig deep into your team and really try to figure out. And the goal as a leader is not just to define fulfillment for your team members. It’s to help them define fulfillment for themselves and then create the role and the culture and the structure for them to to really live out that fulfillment.

So I love that you just kind of keep in that pause. Even after that pause. You’re coming back with more questions to dig deeper. And I think that’s that’s solid. Let me ask you this, because we are obviously with we’re in a world where there’s a lot of talk around the great resignation. And, you know, people are leaving jobs in droves.

Looking for new opportunities, looking for joy, looking for fulfillment, realizing that they don’t necessarily have to live with the status quo. But they’re also doing it in the midst of really an uncertain time. We’re in the midst of this pandemic that doesn’t seem to have an end. It’s like we know where it began but it just never seems to be never ending. Nobody would have predicted four months into the pandemic that in 2022 we would still be having these conversations and trying to figure out how do we survive, how do you maintain your joy, how do you hold on to your joy when the world looks like it looks today and in all of its uncertainty?

Marriot Winquist Yeah, I think that’s that’s so great, especially during our time right now, you know, and still, still going through the pandemic. I, I would say again, going back to what matters most to you and, and really center on that. And I think that is, you’re right. I think that is what a lot of people have been I have actually had a chance to, to think through.

Right. What matters most to them is that their family is that even extended family that kids going to school, is it is it their parents now getting getting older? Right. And is it different? Travel is a different thing. So I think the the time in the last couple of years, it did give an unintended pause for a lot of people where they had the chance to now look at what what is important for me.

And and I would say even with all the uncertainty, I always tell people you know, yes, it’ll be it’s it’s very good to have that. I always saw that it’s the northstar. You always have something you’re shooting for. You always have things that you’re, you know, moving towards. And and of course, with joy, you’re really leaning into your strengths, leaning into things that bring you that happiness and fulfillment.

But a lot of it gets lost in the day to day, right? When when the day, like I said, the day ends and you ask yourself, did I do this, that and joy, did I do things that matter? A lot times were like, I’m still frazzled. I don’t I just don’t know what’s going on. So I always go to work with them on all right.

You have kind of that bigger, bigger picture. But let’s look at your next 24 hours. What does that look for you? Even if you just look at your calendar year, right? And and if you look at all the slots in there and you’re suddenly going, Oh, my God, that’s giving, you know, it’s absolutely stressing me out an exhausting me.

That’s an indication. Right. And and that’s when I asked them. Yeah, look at that. 24 hours. Think about now. Okay. The stuff that you have determined in terms of what matters to you, how are you going to incorporate even maybe one of those into that next 24 hours? Right. What would make this 24 hours where you just leave, just suddenly go, oh, it’s too crazy is too packed.

How can you incorporate one thing into that next 24 hours and so really just break it down so that you’re actually seeing that in first of all in really real time and, and not in just abstract. I wish I could run a marathon. That would be great. It’s like, well, can you go for a walk tomorrow night? Right. Do you have time to even do that?

Right. So, so yeah, looking at it in that chunk and something that is actually visible for them, you know, sometimes even people planning out, you know, the next week or next month seems very, you know, like their meetings are already planned out. It’s all stuck. It’s it’s all crazy. People are busy. It’s like, well, okay, let’s, let’s just look at next 24 hours.

What can you squeeze in that’s like 20 minutes that would literally bring you some joy. Is it reading a couple of pages of the book? Is it singing a new song that you just learn, you know, whatever it is that you’re like, wow, okay, just, just think about that.

James Laws And I can hear as… I can hear really anyone, but especially leaders… I can hear them hearing that advice and saying, like, I just don’t have any time in my schedule.

I just don’t have any time to fit in the things that I that actually bring me joy. And I just want to encourage if that if your schedule is so packed that you can’t fit in the items that bring you joy, then it’s time to evaluate what is on that list and determine what needs to change. You know, what, what in that list can be automated. It’s busy work that that you’re doing and it could be automated and you could take it steal that time back from your schedule. What are those things that you can delegate that maybe there’s somebody who’s better at it and you can hand that off and they will do it better than you would ever do it and it gets off your plate or what? What just needs to be eliminated, right? What is stuff you’ve been doing that’s become a part of your schedule that honestly doesn’t need to be there? And you, you know, some of those things you can just experiment with by just stop doing them and see who asks about it. Exactly. You know, see who, who, who checks up and goes, Hey, where is that thing?

Well, okay, maybe that was important to somebody.

Marriot Winquist I, you know. Yeah. And even just going to say, even at that time when someone’s asking you for, for whatever that you’ve, you’ve said, you know, no, I’m not going to do, that’s a great time to reevaluate how important that is. Right. That’s when you discuss what that person is, that’s still important.

And, you know, how do we actually make it so that it is still doable and sustainable? For the long term?

James Laws Absolutely. Yeah. It’s a it’s a great opportunity to say like, all right, you missed this. This was the thing. Now let’s talk about how important it is to the grand scheme of everything that we’re working on. And again, coming back to you know, it’s this report I put together what can it be automated? Can it be delegated? It’s this thing, you know, how do we look at our schedule with critical eyes? The say, I’m doing things that don’t bring me joy and honestly, I don’t need to be doing them. I should be putting more things into my schedule that bring me joy, that energize me, that fill me up so that I can get the important work done with energy and not, again, getting to the end of the day, fully depleted.

And while there are all these, there are certainly droves of people leaving their jobs. There are also a bunch of teams who are sticking together. I think of my own team right now. None of my team has left during this period of time. They they love what they do. They love the people that they work with. And yet that doesn’t make it easy. Like they they have real situations. They’ve had kids that were not in school that they’ve had to homeschool. While they’re also trying to juggle their work responsibilities, they have loved ones who have gotten sick that they’ve had to taking care of, take care of, and having to juggle this world. You wrote in one of your blog posts, you talk about building resilient teams like who who can face challenging situations.

And that’s something obviously that I think is extremely important. We’ve survived through this pandemic and actually grown through this pandemic because I think we have found some resilience through that. But would you mind unpacking what you mean in by resilient in this in that context? What are some of the the high points of creating a resilient team?

Marriot Winquist Yeah, absolutely. And and one of the main foundations that I’ve called out when when building resilient teams we’ve already talked about, which absolutely is trust. And yeah. And I you know, I don’t think you can ever have a resilient team without having that trust because everything else built on top of it right? Even even the thing which I talked about was, was empathy.

Well, actually, if you so try to show empathy and someone is not trusting of you that also could be taken a different way as well. So that trust and empathy for me is really the cornerstone of of building any team and frankly, any relationship. And the the reason for that and you probably appreciate it as well when building a team is because it actually creates that psychological safety, right?

That’s when a team can tell you, you know what, I got a goal. I, I know this meeting is one, but something else happened with family and I have to go, right? The team is able to actually flex because they have that background because they know so and so it’s gone not because he’s slacking off, it’s because there’s something else that needs to be taken care of.

And we trust his, we trust his or her judgment. Right. And, and the the outcome would not be it would not be, you know, any, any worse just because of that one particular incident. So really I think a lot of it is that core foundation. And I feel like anything that builds on top of it, it has to have that.

And I also talk about really the communication and and the main part of communication that I talk about is the engagement part. And I already mentioned it earlier in this in this chat that it really is about listening, not only the broadcasting part of communication. There’s the, of course, the clarity in in the communication, you know, what you want to say.

But so much more important is the engagement side is what you are trying to learn and and glean from it so that you can support your team. Your team’s better and the the other two areas that I talk about in terms of building teams is the connecting to the why. And this really is so important because we get swept up with the work, right?

Everyone gets swept up with the work. I call it the vortex of work because we go and do one thing and then suddenly zoom like you really get get pulled into the work and and you know, two days later you suddenly come back up. But for team members, you have to continuously connect all your decisions and all your reasoning to the why, because that’s where you can help your team members understand the meaning of their of their work.

Right. So if you’re you know, let’s say you’re a gaming developer and really your your is I want to put smiles on kids faces. Think about every decision that you’re making, right? Whether you’re choosing this vendor versus another vendor, whether you’re choosing this character versus another character or this action versus another action. Everything is driven by that Y.

But again, a lot of times we get swept up by the work and we don’t realize it. So a leader has to have that intentionality to keep connecting the dots so that your team members can really understand it and and be able to really keep knowing that, oh, this this I’m doing, I’m doing meaning I’m doing work that I actually believe in.

I’m doing work that is meaningful for me. And I think all that building together, that’s what I see as as people building resilient teams because they have all these elements together when something different happens, when something when the pandemic happens, for example, they actually have this really firm basis to know that. Yep, I have a great team and I have a great partner and great bosses that I can actually share my concerns with.

And yes, I know what we’re about. So I’m still believing in my core values. And yes, I have a way to communicate and to to really engage with my teams and that is how your routine really evolves, to keep building, to become more and more resilient. And and one thing I want to say with the leader is that it does take intentionality, like it doesn’t happen by accident.

It really is something the leader has to intentionally build and want to create and also attracting members that really want to create that culture.

James Laws So much wisdom in that whole section that I hope people will take away and listen to. Marriott, thank you so much for taking the time to be on the show. And I want to let you have the last word.

If people want to get in touch with you, learn more about you, get connected to your resources. Where can they do that?

Marriot Winquist Yeah, they can come to my website at www.brighttreeleaders.com and they can also find me on LinkedIn.

James Laws Awesome. Well, I will make sure that we link that all to the show notes. Thank you again so much for being on the show and sharing all of your insights with us.

Hopefully we can have you back on the show again in the future and discuss so much more stuff that we didn’t even get to talk about. Thank you. I appreciate it.

Marriot Winquist Thank you so much for having me.

James Laws I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Marriott and I want to thank her for taking the time to join me on the show today.

Everything we mentioned, including a full transcript of the show, is available over on our website and you can access it any time by visiting LeadingToFulfillment.com/006.

Joy is not something that we talk about often in the context of leadership or business culture, and maybe that needs a change.

Our companies and teams are are not just about making and selling widgets. We are people serving people. The idea of being a human business is not something only for a specific type of organization. Every business is made of people looking for joy in their own lives. As leaders, we have the opportunity to help our teams in their pursuit of joy.

But that does mean we have to be in pursuit of it ourselves as well. Joyful teams don’t naturally come from leaders who lack it. Try this out for one week schedule your day with a focus towards joy. Do you feel better after getting in a good workout? Maybe lunch with a friend gives you a burst of energy? Maybe it’s going on your kid’s field trip one morning?

Still schedule in the most important work, but schedule it around the things that bring you joy and energy. What you will find is that not only do you still get the important stuff done, but you also aren’t running on empty at the end of the day.

Want to get really radical?

Do all of this with every single person on your team?

You’ll be amazed at how all the work still gets done. But the energy in the whole company is no longer frantic or stressed.

Who knows? Everyone might just discover there’s joy in the work as well.

Thank you for listening and I hope you’ll join me on the next episode of Leading to Fulfillment.