Polly Merens: 0:22

Hey, superstars! l Welcome back Polly here and Samantha Pruitt. What’s up beautifu h umans?!

Samantha Pruitt: 0:28

Another episode, another episode. What are we talking about today, my dear?

Polly Merens: 0:31

First of all, I’m excited to be back in studio with you. Yeah, same, we’ve both been a little busy on projects we’ve been taping, but online is not the same as being in this shared space together, so welcome back, glad to be here.

Samantha Pruitt: 0:44

Yeah, be in the, the Cove back in La Quinta. good, yes, yeah. So today, today’s episode. We’re excited, so, like we have been bubbling up, this actually started, you know, a couple of conversations that we’ve been having, so I’ll just drop the. The topic and you probably saw it in the the title of the episode, but it’s high performance teams- I just love even thinking about that, being on them, playing in them, dreaming about them.

Samantha Pruitt: 1:09

So, one of our previous show guests if you haven’t listened to the episode where I spoke with Becca Shea with Magnetic Consulting, go have a listen to that. Becca’s awesome, doing great work in the world of culture and hiring and helping people. But I got an email from her and it sparked us talking. One of her emails says, and I quote big growth is massively compounded by great leadership, not great doership Boom.

Polly Merens: 1:39

I think that’s the end of the show. I’m going to say it again. That’s all I need to say’m going to say it again no, that’s all I wanted you to say Okay, say it again, say it again.

Samantha Pruitt: 1:44

So big growth is massively compounded by great leadership, not great doership Right, and Becca goes on in that. In her what’s doership Right I was just going to say she talks about like doership right. It’s so where Bus busy, busy, busy, grinding, grinding, grinding and and I love when you and I were talking about this, you told the story of you and kelly working together and you’re like, yeah, you know, I found myself kind of like jumping in and wanting to do you want to tell that story real quickly.

Polly Merens: 2:14

I have so many stories but yeah, in um speaking of high performance teams, you’re also producing level.

Polly Merens: 2:21

Uh, big, massive sporting events at a high level and I myself, as the leader of a particular team, was getting in the business of one of my fellow leaders just because, out of whatever you know, and she schooled me, she put me back in my place. I just appreciated that so much. Right, because I have a certain style of leadership and I’m very much into empowering humans. Once you’ve clearly identified their skill sets and all of these things, just let them get on with doing the work.

Polly Merens: 2:48

I have a certain style of leadership and I’m very much into empowering humans, yeah, once you’ve clearly identified their skill sets and all of these things.

Samantha Pruitt: 2:53

Just let them get on with doing the work. Trust, you know, trust, but I stepped out of line for a hot minute. Well, tell us how it happened, because I love, even like your back and forth, so you jump in to, like you know, do, yeah, do something.

Polly Merens: 3:00

I was attempting to be a doer in an arena that I shouldn’t have been in because I have my own work to be doing that day, and I can’t even remember how it went now but it was just hilarious Basically. Yeah, she just told me.

Samantha Pruitt: 3:15

She’s like do you want me to do this, or are?

Polly Merens: 3:17

you doing that or something like that is what you told me. Yeah, so a doer, and we’ve all been doers at some point and we’re all doers, right. But the difference in being a doer versus a leader is that if I believe things need to be done a certain way and it’s my way I’m going to continue to jump in and on top of my team and try and do things for them, because I have control, power, lack of trust, lack of communication, et cetera, et cetera. There’s all these things that break down and we’ll talk about that in a later episode. But or I can believe that I have not only chosen the right people, sufficiently trained, educated and empowered them, but I have given them all the resources they need to be successful and therefore I don’t need to jump in, micromanage, undermine or even be in the space. Frankly, I can have trust and feel good about what’s happening there. So that’s the difference in being a true leader versus a doer.

Samantha Pruitt: 4:17

Yeah, and I think there must be, and I don’t know what the threshold is. But you know, when you go from that, uh, either employee mindset to, let’s say, solopreneur mindset, you know you start up something where, um, you, you’re the only one, you know, and then you have to do everything.

Polly Merens: 4:32

You have to do everything right.

Samantha Pruitt: 4:33

So it’s like, oh okay, if it’s going to get done, it’s, it’s me right, you know. And then you start growing that team, whether it’s outside vendors, or you bring staff in or whatever, or even volunteers. You know you’ve managed both people that weren’t being paid and weren’t under your general direction, but they were, because even in volunteer world. And then you know, so you have to start to build that bridge and that gap to okay, I’ve got the right person, I’ve hired the right person, I’ve trained them, resourced them, empowered them, given them clarity, all that sort of thing.

Polly Merens: 5:02

And you step back right, and then you work in partnership with them. Well, why is having a team important? Yeah, yeah, because it is important. I mean, I look at family units as teams community groups as teams.

Polly Merens: 5:16

You know clubs as teams, of course, businesses of all shapes and sizes. Even if there’s two of you, it’s a team. Yeah, so this is important in all aspects and all shapes and sizes. Even if there’s two of you, it’s a team. So this is important in all aspects and all shapes and sizes of what you know. It looks like to be coming together with another human being, or many, many human beings, and trying to accomplish something greater than what the individual could do on their own. So that is the growth element of what you talked about on their own. So that is the growth element of what you talked about. If you’re looking for growth, for progress, you need to develop a team, create a team.

Samantha Pruitt: 5:50

Scaling If you want to have more sales, more reach, more impact, whatever the things are that you’re up to more harmony in your family unit or something like that, doing things better. Let’s say it comes with some you know some consequences if you’re not doing it right. But then getting it back on track and I think, like you said, you can have great leadership in the family unit as well.

Samantha Pruitt: 6:14

You can also have great dysfunction, right. So one of the things we’ve talked about is some of the projects we’ve come off recently and how we’ve seen some dysfunction and things breaking down. What are some of the signs that high-performing team is not happening? Like what do you see? Or what’s some things that you’ve seen recently that you know signs of like hey, we’re having some breakdown in the team.

Polly Merens: 6:36

Sure, it can be really sneaky and quiet.

Polly Merens: 6:39

Yeah, festering like a blister that you didn’t know you had on your baby toe kind of thing, or it can be really obvious and loud, um, and it’s important to be paying attention especially the leader of the organization needs to be paying attention to the blisters and the massive breakdowns, right. So a lot of times, um, in particular you and I again coming off of these two big projects that were a week long, with teams and different places doing different things, you’ll see a lot of it will be manifesting energetically and I know we have an awareness to other people’s energies, but you’ll feel a vibe change within a space with one individual or multiple individuals. With one individual or multiple individuals, you’ll see communication styles shift Big time, right. So they’ll become maybe more defensive or more secretive or aggressive. You know, more aggressive is kind of an obvious like wow, right.

Polly Merens: 7:35

Like that’s a big thing, a blow up, but you’ll also see people just retreating and isolating, and that’s also a red flag. Yeah Right, you’ll see people who you traditionally knew to have a certain kind of work ethic and be maybe pretty engaged and involved all of a sudden change their behavior pattern. These are red flags. Yeah, these red flags Obvious things are. You know we’re not communicating, we’re being disrespectful or we’re being inappropriate in our communication styles or ignoring Balls are dropping, you know.

Polly Merens: 8:05

And then balls start dropping, yeah, yeah, and goals aren’t met, yeah, and things start falling through the cracks.

Samantha Pruitt: 8:09

Getting those emails like oh shoot, you know, something didn’t get delivered, something didn’t get you know, followed up on A complaint you know that’s the worst kind, you know that you don’t want. Or simply looking at your financials and going, it’s going downhill, what you know. How are we off track here?

Polly Merens: 8:23

Right, yeah. So a lot of times you’ll see it first in the human behavior, with subtleties of, you know, ignored emails or changes in behaviors and communication styles, and then you’ll see these other things that are more tangible, obvious signs of a team breakdown.

Samantha Pruitt: 8:39

You know, as we were preparing for this, one of the things we’re thinking about is, you know, not everybody is in, let’s say, the startup phase, so they’re not sort of forming a team. Some people have had teams for many years.

Samantha Pruitt: 8:51

Or inherited a team from someone else, okay, or inherited a team or got put into a team or something like that. So this could be, if you’re the business owner or even just mid-management or leader or something, or community group or whatnot, you know, the dysfunction could have been going on for a while, like we’re just coming in, you know, maybe we’ve stepped into teams and we are seeing, you know, the glaring problems because it’s glaring to us, as you know, like whoa, what’s going on here?

Samantha Pruitt: 9:16

It’s obvious Some people could be kind of like that you boil the frogs and they don’t quite notice Like you said like that little blister right, or people just kind of like shove things under the rug, like they’re ignoring the communication breakdowns, or they’re just sludging through having to work with people.

Polly Merens: 9:36

That yeah, I wanted to say something that you just brought up to my radar, bing. I have experienced and witnessed sometimes the you come into the environment. Maybe you just you’re a new hire, or you got promoted, or it’s a new team that just got formed for like an event or a special project.

Polly Merens: 9:59

Right, so you don’t normally work with these people or whatever, and people bring with them their belief system, right. So they come into that new team or a new environment project, et cetera, and they see the dysfunction, they feel it, but they don’t say and really how to be an exceptional A-team player in a different episode, and I want to just pinpoint that to the audience right now is we will address that in another episode, because that’s a massive opportunity for people, for growth, for personal and professional growth, and we’re not ignoring that, even though today we’re really talking to that leader of the team.

Polly Merens: 10:43

And great leaders, also great teammates heck, yeah, you know so we started as teammates exactly always we, yes, of course we didn’t become, you know, high performance team leaders just out of birth goodness gracious. It’s blood, sweat and tears and years yeah of um struggles, and that’s why we’re so passionate about it, cause we’re like, damn, we have experienced some, got some problems yeah. So we want to be helpful.

Samantha Pruitt: 11:12

Yeah. So in this, in this episode, what we’re going to mainly hit upon is you know what is a high performance team? We’ll go into that. You know why is it important? I don’t think we’re going to get to the how to create it and all of that on this episode, but we do want to let you know we are building that and that’ll come in follow-up episodes, but today, you know, we want to give people.

Samantha Pruitt: 11:31

You know, sometimes I love this from Tony Robbins. He says you know and Abraham Lincoln you could quote you know, without a compelling vision, people perish, right? Tony Robbins says you just get stuck, you get in the muck and mire, you get down into fife dumbs or whatever it is inside of that team. But instead, if we have this compelling vision, so let’s talk to people to create a compelling vision, if there may be sitting in or managing or supervising, leading their own team. We’ve talked a little bit about some of the dysfunction that can show up. What does it look like over the fence? Like what could they look forward to? Or maybe they’ve been on them before and we’re here to remind them like you can still create that. So let’s talk some about your definitions or your context or your elements, like what is a high performance team? How do you know when you got it?

Polly Merens: 12:14

Yeah, and it’s never too late to fix one. Just let me throw that in too, cause a lot of times people will just feel so discouraged and so fed up because it will fry you if it gets out of hand. So it’s never, never, never too late, for sure. A hundred percent Right. So what is what? What is the makings of right? So what are the ingredients of? Um? It may seem obvious, but maybe not like. Picking the right people to be on the team is a thing, and we will, you know, that’s a whole how do you create the team?

Polly Merens: 12:52

So we will break that down in a future episode. But so high level is like picking the right people and then, very important, putting them in the right positions, based on their actual skillset, so you can leverage that right, but understanding who they are as a human being. Why are they here, why are they wanting to be on this team and what is their value system in relationship to the value system of the leader?

Polly Merens: 13:20

the mission of the actual organization and the purpose. So do those things align? So you need to get those in alignment right, because we don’t. We come in all as individuals. We should be respected appropriately. So really, to build that team, these things are important and you should be having those conversations. It may seem obvious, but a lot of times I notice it’s not, it’s not right. The leader says, well, this is, I’ve put this out there in some way shape or form, but Well, I think one of that goes to you.

Samantha Pruitt: 13:53

know what Becca was great about? Um, and I appreciate the work that she’s doing in the world and that you and I’ve done also is like just so, where the world of hiring has come from over the years is not just like oh, you have these skill sets. You can do A, b and C.

Polly Merens: 14:06

It’s on your resume, right, right, right. What do?

Samantha Pruitt: 14:08

you mean, that’s one level, but we know so much more about hiring in the last 50 years yes, especially in the last 10 years. I would say that, like you’re dealing with, let’s say, a human animal. They have emotions, they have different drives, all this stuff. So when, when we say you know hiring and putting them the right skills, it’s also like their motivations, their, their dynamics, what they’re intrigued by, what are their intrinsic motivations, those sorts of things. So for for a future episode, yeah, we’ll go into, like, how to build them. But, as you say, like having the right what is the Maxwell quote? Or something like having the right people on the bus and the right seats, something like that.

Polly Merens: 14:42

So okay, all right. So those are really basic, foundational things not to be ignored, but rather than 100%.

Polly Merens: 14:48

So then, you’ve got the team right. So the team is there, it’s functioning or not functioning. Can it be functioning at a higher level? Always, by the way, even the highest hyper-functioning teams always have room for growth and can always take it up a level, and that’s what they seek. So a core belief of ours is how your life feels is more important than how it looks, and secondary and specific to the team environment is. We believe that 18 players want to be with 18 players.

Samantha Pruitt: 15:19

Well, this reminds me of the episode that we talked about about the soccer team. Yes, oh my gosh, these women the? U about the soccer team.

Polly Merens: 15:24

Yes, the US women’s cup, the US women’s standards. Oh my gosh, these women.

Samantha Pruitt: 15:27

The US women’s soccer team. Yeah, you know.

Polly Merens: 15:29

The level of excellence oh exactly.

Samantha Pruitt: 15:31

So I would say that not only do you have the right people, like they can do the job, they’re capable, that sort of thing.

Polly Merens: 15:51

But values and what they’re motivated by. Like 18 players are motivated by being around other 18 players.

Samantha Pruitt: 15:54

We seek them out and we absolutely nurture those relationships because we will be excellent in their presence. They will command and demand yeah, exactly, yeah, yeah, for sure.

Polly Merens: 15:58

So that’s super important. And then another thing I want to touch on is providing the resources for your team. So I have done this in my own businesses. I’ve had my own businesses many times and led teams, as you know, of all different shapes and sizes. But working back in the business sector now, with other people inside their businesses as a coach, I repeatedly see a failure to deliver on the promise to the team, meaning that the resources the team needs to succeed are not provided. Resources meaning time, energy, attention, training and mentorship, and sometimes financial. You know it’s a lot.

Polly Merens: 16:43

Of resources are required for people, especially a team at a high level to produce, and if some of those needs are not being met and they’re not clearly identified and addressed? Impossible, impossible yeah.

Samantha Pruitt: 16:57

And that will go into that when we get into the assessing. But I think you know other aspects of the team. So we talked about the the standards Right, so like the standards for excellence, that aspects of the team. So we talked about the the standards right, so like the standards for excellence, that type of thing. I think, some other things I’ll just throw in here. That I’ve been a part of and seen and call forth in my teams is, I call it like high functioning.

Samantha Pruitt: 17:13

So that includes, you know, integrity and trust you know you get into these things Like I love us.

Polly Merens: 17:19

Whoa, yeah, I mean hello, I know, I know Trust, let’s just get a Sharpie. Let’s highlight that. Let’s draw some circles around it. Yeah, trust is earned. Right, respect is earned. Yeah, nobody deserves it because they’re breathing or they have a title. So let’s just make sure everybody understands that that’s the real world we live in. Yeah, and then, once trust is built, respect is built. These things are built. You can very easily lose those things. And to get them back is very, very difficult.

Samantha Pruitt: 17:57

Yeah, Very very difficult and high functioning relies on it. It’s critical Imperative yeah.

Polly Merens: 18:02

If you don’t have it, it’s critical, it’s like Imperative yeah.

Samantha Pruitt: 18:04

That’s it. That’s it Like if you don’t have it.

Polly Merens: 18:07

Deal breaker. Deal breaker.

Samantha Pruitt: 18:08

Also accountability, reliability. You know the members. I call that like doing what you say you’re going to do and I can count on you Right. So like I expect you this or you expect this of me, that type of thing you know closely aligned with that is ownership, ownership, responsibility. You know people that you know take a hold of like and I think you know I have studied a little bit, I think you know more in the whole military world, but I mean the things that I hear, that the Navy SEAL level of how they look at the unit and it’s like like I mean it’s not just like no man left behind kind of thing, but it’s like even their core thing. What do they say? Like team army, god or something like that. You know, like they value so much that team, like nothing above all, it is one unit.

Samantha Pruitt: 18:56

Yeah, first and foremost, so that ownership, responsibility of not only your role but like this whole unit, like I’m responsible for you. How are you doing over there, what’s going on? You know that kind of thing. And then I don’t think any high performance can happen without resilience and discipline. Yes, right, yes, I mean people gotta. Sometimes there’s times we grind, you know, sometimes we celebrate, sometimes we gotta like knock out some work.

Polly Merens: 19:21

Well, a lot of times we hear from leaders that are struggling with their teams. That guy, my team, is not resilient, you know? Well, yeah, but that has to be created and generated, like you know. If then it’s not a team, yeah, like I can be having a horrible day but if my teammates have me and understand me and they know I’m in this for the long haul and 99% of the time I do deliver for them, big deal, totally, totally, yeah, yeah.

Samantha Pruitt: 19:47

It’s, it’s that arc of like how are we doing overall? But you gotta have the let’s, you know, for a sports analogy, you gotta have the endurance to do this thing called work together. Uh, I think other things include creativity and problem solving, you know, because if you get stifled or stuck, like you’re talking about, in your little silo, or you peel off or you like pull back, or your feelings are hurt or whatever, creativity and problem solving drop out the window.

Polly Merens: 20:13

Oh you just stop contributing. Yeah, you know, it’s just instantly gone, which is just a waste of talent and time.

Samantha Pruitt: 20:20

So it’s like well, we’re not, that’s not going to move forward. Then I think you know a couple of C’s here. So cohesive communication, let’s call it collaboration collective. I think you said um, there’s one you said last night was like a cook.

Polly Merens: 20:34

Camaraderie, camaraderie. Yes, that just feels so good when you have it, you know you have it and it is like food for the soul and if you’ve been on that team or been part of that team or led a team, that has real camaraderie.

Samantha Pruitt: 20:50

I mean legit legit.

Polly Merens: 20:53

Oh man, Nothing can. I could live off that in the desert Seriously and make the occasional ice cube, I could live off that in the desert.

Samantha Pruitt: 21:04

Occasional ice cube. I could live off that in the desert. For you as a little side note, I see you when you go to your gym in the morning and camaraderie fuels you, like you’ve sparked the light, you know you bring this like boom in the room kind of thing, and then I’m sure the camaraderie and just the cohesion and all that stuff, you with your ladies in the morning, is just pulsating.

Polly Merens: 21:22

Right, it is an energy. It is an energy right, and we have the choice to bring that to the table, to the room, to the team, or we have the choice to hold back, kill it yeah well, we can kill it, but we can also hold back our own selfish kind of or even not even selfish. Sometimes, yes, sometimes out of personal insecurity and protection yeah. Feelings hurt.

Samantha Pruitt: 21:50

Emotional mastery, I think, is, you know, like emotional intelligence, because you know what would happen is if you truly believed in that camaraderie and stuff like that. You speak up it’s like, hey, this is what’s going on for me, Something you just said, or this happened, or whatever. Like, oh, let’s talk about it Right. Like going on for me something you just said, or this, this happened or whatever, like oh, let’s talk about it right, like transparency that you’re comfortable being seen and heard and your feelings matter, like oh, I didn’t know that, what just happened?

Samantha Pruitt: 22:10

like let’s, let’s, let’s have a conversation so and then I think you know this is from the leadership, you know, and it’s it’s, it’s shared, but the vision, the plan, the outcomes of the deliverables, like everybody knows it, you know when it’s, when it’s vague, when it’s loose, when it’s sort of like sometimes important, let’s be honest, you and I have so many over our own.

Polly Merens: 22:33

You know, we’re not young.

Samantha Pruitt: 22:35

Samantha’s like rubbing her eyes.

Polly Merens: 22:36

She’s like oh, I have been in so many and I know you share this experience, this worldly experience. So many environments as the leader, with the leader under the table, on the table, whatever the dynamic is, and we continue to immerse ourselves in this work called humaning. Why is it so hard for the leader and I’m sure I’ve made these mistakes, I’m not saying I am perfect for the leader and I’m sure I’ve made these mistakes. I’m not saying I am perfect but to clearly understand their own personal reason, why, their purpose, their values, their mission, and then disseminate clearly that information to their team and then spend the time and energy investing in that team to really get their buy-in. Why?

Polly Merens: 23:23

is this so hard, because this is like business 101. Mm-hmm, this is literally business 101.

Samantha Pruitt: 23:30

That’s a whole nother you know, I’m reminded of when we were in Moab and working on that team and how, like one person had all of the information Control, there’s 10 other people trying to move around in a short period of time. This is an event. This stuff’s got to happen quickly and like one person had all of the information and it was like it would just slip out a little bit at a time and it’s like, wow, we could all be like 10 people could be maxed.

Polly Merens: 23:57

It could be a hundredfold productive.

Samantha Pruitt: 24:01

And that goes to big growth is massively compounded by great leadership, not great doership. And that was a perfect example, like one person had, the information wasn’t disseminating, it wasn’t just kind of sharing the big vision or sharing like, hey, here, do this, do that, or allowing those people to suggest or anything so a lot of standing around maybe doesn’t have their own personal clarity in these areas.

Polly Merens: 24:20

they need to back the bus up and stop the bus. You shouldn’t be moving down the highway. You can’t be moving down the highway at 60 miles an hour with a bus full of humans, but it happens all the time If you don’t know where the hell you’re going Happens all the time, babe, you know this.

Samantha Pruitt: 24:36

Yeah, I know that that’s going to be. You know this. Yeah, I know that’s critical. So we’re here to like raise the flag and go stop it. Yeah, stop the overdoership.

Polly Merens: 24:44

We can spend a couple hours and work this thing through very like it’s in them. I believe it’s in them, but extracting it and getting it in writing with such clarity and really deliverable at a high level so it gets people to buy in so you’re starting to touch upon.

Samantha Pruitt: 25:00

So, like some of the whys, like why does this matter? Why you know we’ve touched upon some. I’m sure you guys and we’d love if you want to share in any comments, please give us feedback. What you see as high performance, what teams have you been on that you’re like man, like we talked about camaraderie that was really a big point. We just hit upon Like what else for you is really essential? When you see and you feel a team is like cranking it right, what does that look like? But why does this matter? You know what is so? One of the things we talked about is like I wrote it out on the top of the sheet. I was like a team, you know, and then’s just like well being on a team, right.

Polly Merens: 25:40

Whatever. So there’s being on a team and there is the A-team. And we speak about the A-team because we are A-team players, we want to be with other A-team players and we want to help create and build A-teams. We have the skills and the experience and the knowledge to help make those teams happen. This is one of the our biggest passions in life, and we’re not talking from sports, even though we can do that too, like we’re talking about. And so what is what? Why does it matter?

Samantha Pruitt: 26:11

Why does it matter? I mean some of the easy ones that I can point to and I’ll just list these quickly is like when you don’t have high performance teams, what that looks like and as an example, mostly in business is like the biggie is performance right, like something is suffering, so costs are going up, productivity or output is going down. You got delays, client you’re losing clients, brand is going down, reputation is out the window, like those are some things like you’re bleeding. Well, if those things don’t matter to your business, then you know you’re not gonna be in business for very long. So or you’re going to suffer. I mean it’s going to be some level of not happening in your business.

Samantha Pruitt: 26:49

It’s, it’s potential isn’t being maximized or optimized just like in you know, people in their health right or people in their own life. If you don’t take personal responsibility and, like, step into your own personal intervention, if your health is getting off the rails, if your relationship’s getting off the rails, your business is getting off the rails. Until you take that ownership and do something. These are some of the results that you get right.

Polly Merens: 27:10

But, polly, why can’t I just blame these people for not performing and doing what I have tasked them to do?

Samantha Pruitt: 27:15

That’s a strategy Some people do follow.

Polly Merens: 27:17

No, surprise, right, because it’s not taking ownership. You created the team. You built the team. You chose these people. You are the leader of these humans. You’re responsible for this unit let’s say If they fail, you have failed. I’m going to say that again If they fail, you have failed. Come on, like we all need to own that. That is our role when we stepped into that position of being a leader of I don’t care if it’s two of you 200, 2000,. However big the unit is.

Samantha Pruitt: 27:52

And it’s never too late, just like you said earlier, never too late, never too late. So when you have an 18, so why, why? What can you expect? What can you expect? Why would you want?

Polly Merens: 28:01

it. Yeah, why would you want it? Unstoppable, woo, Unstoppable. And we have experienced that and we know what that feels like, tastes like what they’re capable of Literally unstoppable. So it’s kind of like irrelevant if chaos might be reigning. You know there’s resiliency around stress and chaos and challenge.

Polly Merens: 28:21

These are not problems for A-teams, these are I’m not going to say the word fun, but I mean really we thrive off of like challenge in the face of challenges, when we rise above it all and can really see what we’re made of and we look for those opportunities because we really enjoy stepping up our game, challenging each other with respectfully, and all of those kind of things and then creating the next level of what’s possible. So in the business growth or in future opportunities and really beyond, creating like a next level experience for whoever, our customers, for each other, right, obviously, what follows in that is results, and I don’t know any business owner or leader of an organization or community group that is not interested in results. Right, I mean actual, tangible results, yeah, yeah.

Samantha Pruitt: 29:12

Yeah, I mean it seems so obvious, but it’s like, well, duh, you know, and I think one thing I think about that little you touched upon earlier about the importance of getting the right people in the right seats in the bus and stuff like that is what you were reminding me of is when you say just this massive unstoppability, Saying that as a high-performing person and seeing people’s potential and as a coach, I love to see people reaching their potential.

Polly Merens: 29:44

If that doesn’t excite you, then a team is not for you Right, that’s just like okay.

Samantha Pruitt: 29:46

If that doesn’t like feeling ignited by what you just said, like oh my God, we’d be unstoppable, it’s like sign me up, I don’t know what we’re doing, but like clear the way. What do we got to do? Where are we doing? Where are we going, how? How are we doing that together?

Polly Merens: 29:57

Are you seeking what’s possible for you, your full potential and your businesses or groups potential? Obviously, some people are not fired up, like you just stated, and we’re not saying that that’s bad, we’re not looking down on them. There’s no judgment cast at all. We’re speaking specifically to an audience of people who are looking for more out of their personal and professional lives. That’s what we’re doing here at the everyday awesome project. Right, y’all, we’d be talking to you.

Samantha Pruitt: 30:27

it’s like, it’s like a call for those that are in a team, leading a team, most importantly, to know that it’s possible. And we’re here to remind you. You know, if, even if, like we said in the beginning of the show, if it’s gotten track, you can still get it back on track. And so, like we were just touching upon some things, that what it looks like, the context, you know how great it feels to be in. You know team awesome is like have that compelling future brought back to you. You know we’re here to remind you that, no matter how, how dire the?

Samantha Pruitt: 30:58

circumstances. Look how bleak the results are, how dysfunctional the performance or the relationships, how much breakdown there is. You can still rebuild it and having that confidence and that oomph to go, you know what, maybe it’s time we make some changes here. You know what? And a leadership leader talking to you girl right here is like hey, it’s time to do something sometimes it’s admitting that you have failed.

Polly Merens: 31:26

Yeah, you failed your team.

Samantha Pruitt: 31:29

Yeah, yeah, doesn’t feel good, but hey fall on the sword.

Polly Merens: 31:33

Move on if your ego is too big to admit that you haven’t provided all the right tools or put the people in the right places and you know, etc, etc. I made the right decisions. Um, okay, then go on in perpetuity with a dysfunctional team until, basically, things get so eroded there’s no going back right and it happens like If you’re up to think you’re like well, we try that when the building’s on fire.

Samantha Pruitt: 32:01

That seemed like the right person for the job. Clearly not Right, and so you know adjusting Right. One of the things that we’re passionate about this year is our pivots.

Polly Merens: 32:10

Yeah, being nimble.

Samantha Pruitt: 32:12

Yeah. So hey, like, okay, it’s time for a pivot. A team pivot, right, A leader pivot. Okay, what can that look like? What do I need to do? All right, where do we start, you know?

Polly Merens: 32:24

something just you reminded me of is, a lot of times, maybe, people in leadership positions feel like they have to have all the answers and so when they’re not thriving with their team whatever dysfunction might be occurring, thriving with their team, whatever dysfunction might be occurring they feel like it’s their responsibility and so maybe that burden of having to be right is too much to bear. That’s not reality. By the way, you can’t have it all right. It’s never going to happen, and especially in business I mean actually in anything. Really it’s impossible. There isn’t. Perfection is not a thing, so we should just debunk that right away, right?

Polly Merens: 33:01

So if you’re going to go on about the business of restructuring, rebuilding, addressing things that aren’t working, it’s not about having all the answers. I love that. It’s not about having all the answers. Maybe someone on your team has much better ideas. So one of the things you asked me about earlier I was leading in a team environment and I recognized some things weren’t going according to plan. I had to ask my team what resources have I not provided in order for you to excel here, for you to deliver the goods? Because I am that. My highest priority is to get you the resources you need so you can crush this, please tell me, because I don’t always know, it isn’t always obvious, and and if you have that mutual respect and that communication, it’s very easy for them, without judgment or anything bizarre, to just say, hey, we need more of this, we need more of this, we need more of that.

Samantha Pruitt: 34:00

What I love about what you’re saying is like if somebody’s holding on to like an ego or a stance like oh, I look stupid because I don’t you know they’re failing, or something like that, and you walk up like hey, what do you need? Like where are we at, let’s do something about this, right? Like no judgment either way. Like either way. Like okay, we’re at where we’re at now. What, yeah, Right, you’re like, what do you need? Like, just matter of factly, like okay, we’re still going for the goal, what do you?

Polly Merens: 34:23

need and well cause. I genuine believe, genuinely believe, that people want to reach their full potential, collectively and individually, in their personal lives and every aspect of their life. I genuinely do have that belief. So when I come across another human, I mean I’m all about helping them figure that thing out, and sometimes it’s what I can add to the table right. What can I do to help support that? I feel like my job as a leader is to be that person, not to be at the forefront, doing all the things with the mouth and the saying on, but like I’m the underneath, coming beneath that team right and bringing the resources, the energy. Whatever it is, they need to be exceptional. They win. I win Right. Yeah, say that again they win.

Samantha Pruitt: 35:10

I win, yeah, and we were talking about we too, right? So it’s like are we failing? What do we need, you know? Like stepping in and seeing the collective, like I’m a part of this team, even though I’m quote the leader, or you know, I’ve got this title or whatever it is, it’s like how are we doing Right? What do we need? Where are we? You know.

Polly Merens: 35:29

Yeah, and we do work a lot with the individual leaders, owners of companies or organizations, and a lot of times we do see that they’re not taking care of themselves, and so that is going to trickle over now and ideally we would lead by example. If we want our team to be healthy mentally and physically, we would be doing the same and we will be role modeling that and we would be respectful of their time invested in their own mental and physical health long Like that’s just core.

Polly Merens: 35:58

If we could just solve to that. Oh my gosh, so many humans and so many teams would perform at a higher level if we could just solve to that. So let’s all take a moment to just reflect.

Samantha Pruitt: 36:12

So what are some other stories where you see people you know either high-functioning or poor performance? What are some stories maybe some turnarounds or some things that you inserted or you were witness to or you had on your own teams that things weren’t working out?

Polly Merens: 36:29

I mean, I literally have so many stories, but for some reason, when you were just saying that, I got a flashback of being in an incredibly high stakes situation and an event world and in the outdoor space, um, people think it’s dangerous. Yeah, human life is literally on the line inside of the hands of leadership of the organization or the event, and so I’ve been in those situations many, many times and maybe I was in a leadership position and maybe not. So I naturally can’t help but put myself there if that role isn’t being filled, because I will not allow the safety to be at risk and I will not allow my team to fail.

Polly Merens: 37:13

So sometimes it is stepping in front of leadership. If they are dropping the ball, that does need to happen and that’s real and leaders should understand that. If you are not stepping up in times of crisis or when everything’s really on the line here, you should hope you have brought other leaders to the team who can help carry you, and I have graciously been allowed those opportunities and filled those opportunities. I have great appreciation for that. And then others where it was all me and I needed maybe somebody to do that with me or for me. I definitely have those people. Those are great experiences, but you wanted a story about what Cause I literally probably have a hundred just in my head right now.

Samantha Pruitt: 38:02

I was wondering if that was the one when you’re in British Columbia. That’s what I was kind of getting from you as you started to tell that story.

Polly Merens: 38:07

But without saying one country or where I might have been, since I have traveled internationally and done a lot of these things and those international trips tend to be very high stakes.

Samantha Pruitt: 38:16

Yeah, yeah, I mean people from around the world and like big, big event, big event, but okay. So get us out of context.

Polly Merens: 38:24

In breakdowns. There are a lot of things can be happening that cause the breakdown In my learnings of being in those environments where they’re very high stakes games. You know, it’s not a matter of now’s the time to all sit down and kumbaya and figure out what went wrong. Right, you are, minute by minute, making decisions that are critical to the success of the event the company, the finances, but, most importantly, the human, the lives of the people. Yeah, so you got to jump in and you got to make stuff happen, but you need to do that tactfully and you need to understand also what your skill set is. You call me, I believe, a diplomat ah well, you just are, can’t be.

Polly Merens: 39:08

I’m just calling what I see I repeatedly get put in those positions for some strange reason, but anyway and you step into them like you said I love it, yeah, yeah yeah, I don’t know why it’s your nature, honey, I’ve told you this from your gene keys, yeah, yeah, I don’t know why.

Samantha Pruitt: 39:20

It’s your nature, honey. I’ve told you this from your gene keys. I know you don’t they listen to me, whatever but it’s like it’s part of your inherent dna and and it makes up who you are is diplomat. It’s like not just leader, but diplomat. Those are two different things. They’re they’re an element, I think, of each other, but diplomat is like, it’s almost like a Switzerland, you know. It’s kind of like a neutral third party.

Samantha Pruitt: 39:42

Yeah, it’s like I’m neutral here. I’m I’m pushing for the overall objective of like what’s trying to happen or whatnot. And I take, you take the big picture, um conversation, or you hug it all in and you say what are we going to do here? Right, it’s not like you see the odds or whatever. It’s like, hey guys, come up to this level with me where I see everything and let’s, let’s, let’s work it out at this higher level. I know you guys are in this emotional or there’s breakdowns or there’s finger pointing or there’s like five thumbs or whatever’s happening or ignoring, like people don’t even know that they’re responsible for whatever. And you’re like, hey, come up here that they’re responsible for whatever. And you’re like, hey, come up here, let’s operate up here outside of, like you’re team A and I’m team B and we’re at odds, or something like that and for some reason I thrive off of experiencing those high stakes opportunities, if you will.

Samantha Pruitt: 40:34

Pressure, pressure.

Polly Merens: 40:37

And creating a team amongst the chaos. So you went in and the strategy was X and you’re doing a thing and everybody seems to have clarity and all have their roles and responsibilities. The bus is driving never mind 60 miles an hour, it’s going 120. You’re on a racetrack, right, and you’re full throttle, but then there’s a breakdown in the midst of that moment and then you really see what people are made of, and that’s why building that team in advance and testing them so grace under pressure, you know that whole like diamond under heat, all that kind of stuff.

Polly Merens: 41:11

That is a team playing. When you can get the right people who, under no matter the circumstances, can rise above that and still perform at their highest level, damn, that is magic.

Samantha Pruitt: 41:26

Yeah.

Polly Merens: 41:26

And.

Samantha Pruitt: 41:26

I think what’s beautiful about the lot of experience that you have you know, 10 years and events and more is they are. They’re like micro businesses or you know, let’s say, a company would have an annual cycle for a product launch or something like you know, it’s a project, project or something like that, and it’s like this year.

Samantha Pruitt: 41:46

But yours are like micro moments, you know. There’s like you want to talk about the compounding of like seeing what people operate, like under pressure. You know it’s one thing to have like, oh, we’ve got a year for this launch of something, or six months we’re going to shoot for this new deliverable or something. Yours is like, okay, we have five days to get from here to there and 15,000 people, and you know, and so you’ve had the beauty of seeing. You know, cause, it’s true, you can, you can have a lot of sloppiness when there’s time and plenty of money. You know you’ve got like lots of resources are available. Oh, we’re not in a super big hurry, we’re a tiny, tiny little cog in this big big wheel. It’s like, oh, it doesn’t really matter, but your stuff is like mission critical, time sensitive, everything, yeah, money on the line, not, you know, huge budgets and things. It’s like we got to be precise, right, and and that’s where I think you’ve been able to hone in and fine tune all those skills with those teams.

Polly Merens: 42:42

Well, and that’s an example of it going well. Right In the opposite example, which I also and we also experience and see on a regular basis in general business worlds or communities of whatever sort, is where it didn’t go well and it fell completely apart.

Polly Merens: 42:57

So you know, that can be something that the business literally starts to deteriorate in front of our eyeballs.

Polly Merens: 43:05

I mean, in a 30-day period, people can lose their business.

Polly Merens: 43:07

I mean, some decisions can be made that cost them literally their business, their livelihood, right, or whatever. The goal was that they were striving for, allowing these things to not happen, and really what I saw, or what I repeatedly see still to this moment, is people get in their own way. So I’m speaking to the leaders now specifically of getting in their own way. So I gave an example of a very high stakes game where leadership wasn’t executing and performing at the level they needed or providing the resources to the team, and other people stepped up to lead, including myself, to make sure that this thing was going to happen, because it wasn’t going to die on our watch, right, and nobody was going to literally die on our watch. But in other instances, the leaders won’t step aside, they won’t deal with what is real and they therefore get in the way of their more than capable and highly motivated team with lots of skills. Instead, they stand in the way and they literally become a barrier to that team’s success and like, what?

Samantha Pruitt: 44:15

like? Give me a practical like is it, is it? They, uh, don’t share, they don’t have clear whatever, they’re not unavailable. I don’t know what are some of the things that you see that people, the leaders, getting in the way.

Polly Merens: 44:28

Give me an example, busy, busy being a doer, or they find something else to be a higher priority than what their team’s needs are. Yeah, To me that’s unacceptable. Yeah or not later, yeah, you know. Not withholding information or not providing the right amount of information or resources. Like I said, criminal, you know. To do that to your team is just like beyond comprehension to me.

Samantha Pruitt: 45:00

That was one of the things I was thinking as you were saying that it’s also like this. To do that to your team is just beyond comprehension to me. One of the things I was thinking as you were saying that is also like this ivory tower-ish Somehow I’m picturing. I think you and I both would agree. I set the stage, I’m speaking in a different voice, mimicking somebody who’s in that ivory tower. I did these things, things here, go do it. And uh, we talked a little bit. You know there’s dictatorial leadership. It’s like you’ve got a job to do, come back when it’s done, instead of like the we right, yeah, so that’s what I mean by that like this. You know this separation they. They see is like if you, if you guys, screw it up, it’s your fault, I will penalize you. There will be ramifications, get it done. You know this separation they see is like if you, if you guys, screw it up, it’s your fault, I will penalize you. There will be ramifications, get it done. You know kind of that Shame and blame.

Polly Merens: 45:46

Well, that’s not leadership.

Samantha Pruitt: 45:47

Yeah, that’s not, it’s one form, no, no, because I mean truly in the world. It’s going on.

Polly Merens: 45:54

It’s definitely happening.

Samantha Pruitt: 45:55

Yeah.

Polly Merens: 45:55

But it’s not how we would define.

Samantha Pruitt: 45:57

No, yeah, it’s dysfunctional leadership, if anything but it’s happening.

Polly Merens: 46:01

I mean, I’ve been privy to it and you know ironically, not only does that screw over the team and all the humans underneath you that you’re trying to get towards this, you know goal it’s miserable for the person in the leadership position. There’s nothing rewarding about that. It is so lonely. It is not rewarding whatsoever. And also they’re going to fail and ultimately, at the end of the day, it will be their responsibility. No matter how much shame and blame they throw at the team, at the end of the day they will be held responsible.

Samantha Pruitt: 46:34

I think there’s a, I think there are cultures out there. I’ve been privy to where that’s the style, so I wouldn’t say necessarily the worlds that we swim in and let’s say Western world, but there are definitely cultures around that. You know that people are seen as ants and they’re just worker bees and they’re not meant to have a voice and have the you know and the word Disempowered.

Samantha Pruitt: 46:56

Yeah, and so maybe we wouldn’t even call that a team. I mean, they work for the person or people or whatever, but um, the mentality is just completely different. I would say it’s archaic if you will.

Samantha Pruitt: 47:06

It is archaic like it’s, it’s had its place and its time and stuff. And now I think, as the people are more empowered, as people more conscious of, like, the work they want to do and things that they do matter in the world, you know, you definitely see this in the younger generations, like they’re not just going to show up as an ant and like a cog in your wheel.

Samantha Pruitt: 47:25

Yeah, you, if you still think that leadership style is going to work, you’re in for a war, you know you’re already hurting, probably, and you just don’t know it, or you haven’t realized where things have gone right, and so it’s, and so. So we’ve seen some of those. So you know what, what is you know, if we want to, you know, kind of summarize what we said so far, because this is a part of a series, yeah, so this is not we’re going to give it all to you, and I’m hoping, as we’ve really tried to touch upon is this is a call for our fellow leaders, whether you’re a leader of a family, a business community, whatever you want to be, to remember there is a thing called high-performing teams. There are A teams. You have probably been on them, you’ve had them. Even if there’s dysfunction, it can transform.

Polly Merens: 48:12

And if you haven’t, you should want one If this hasn’t convinced you as to why it is important and of value.

Samantha Pruitt: 48:20

Wake up. Wake up. I mean the excitement I get by hearing you say, like unstoppable camaraderie, we’re gonna crush it. It’s like raise, you know, like there is more. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Get that, get that compelling vision back in your life and want that for yourself and your team, and who knows where the future could go for yourself, your body, your team, you know, your results in your business, or any of that.

Polly Merens: 48:46

And you know, running a business, running a family, running a community, being in a any kind of role like that, which I believe that we all are, honestly, you know, um should be rewarding. It should bring you you joy, it should bring you satisfaction, like this is the legacy of your life. What, yeah, I think I just got to feel good, I think I just got the one thing.

Samantha Pruitt: 49:11

So we we like to always end each and we didn’t really know what the one thing was going to be, you know. So each of our episodes, if you just fast forwarded to the very end, it was like, okay, they’re going to give me the golden nugget at the very end. I think it’s an, it’s an invitation to what’s possible to our leaders out there. It’s like the one thing is remember you can have a massively successful, you know, high performing team and if it’s not, it’s your responsibility, let’s do something about it. Get on the business of that. We’re going to have more episodes where we’re going to talk about how you do that, but just like, I want to leave you with a nugget that it’s possible and it’s up to you, like, let’s get about it.

Polly Merens: 49:49

Right, and it’s going to involve less doing more pouring into your team.

Samantha Pruitt: 49:52

Yeah, yeah, so I’m going to, I’m going to close this out a little bit here with reminding you of where we started. And so, becca, thank you for this quote. So it says big growth is massively compounded by great leadership, not great doership. Boom, boom, thanks, becca. Yeah, yeah, so just reminding you, our fellow leaders, leaders-to-be leaders in your own life, that you don’t always have to be doing it. The success, as we said is, is shared success, right? If they’re winning, I’m winning, right? Kind of thing.

Polly Merens: 50:26

So future episodes on this, the series will be about how to pick the right team, how to create it, how to fix it if it’s broken. So the regeneration of your team, the re-inspiration and regeneration.

Samantha Pruitt: 50:42

Yes, yes, get excited. We’re excited. Can’t wait to deliver this content for you guys and share. You know what we’ve. You know, one of the things I shared with Samantha that I’m so excited about in working with her is you know, people go through their life and they have these beliefs. They develop them through experience or whatnot, and your cultivation of the isms the Samantha isms around leadership and success of a team and what it takes and stuff. You know us getting that out into the world is going to be so beautiful, so I’m excited to have those for future episodes for people.

Polly Merens: 51:13

Audio and maybe in person. Yes, we’re talking about it. Yeah, yeah.

Samantha Pruitt: 51:18

Why not this?

Polly Merens: 51:19

is our. This is my personal work in the world, you know, and it involves a lot of different aspects, but at the bottom line, it’s this is what it is right yeah, getting in those businesses and cranking it up.

Samantha Pruitt: 51:30

Man Crank up, the humans Crank up the volume.

Polly Merens: 51:32

We love you humans. All right, let.

Samantha Pruitt: 51:34

So what do you want to tell people, what do we want to remind them of?

Polly Merens: 51:38

Today, I want to remind them of the same and every day and every damn day how your life feels is more important than how it looks.

Samantha Pruitt: 51:49

And every day is your opportunity to find your awesome Okay.

Polly Merens: 51:53

Woo Thanks, lady.