WEBVTT
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The topics and opinions expressed on the following show are
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solely those of the hosts and their guests and not
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those of W four WN Radio. It's employees are affiliates.
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We make no recommendations or endorsement for radio show programs, services,
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explicit or implied shall be extended to W four WN
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Radio It's employees or affiliates. Any questions or common should
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be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing
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W four WN Radio.
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This is Beyond Confidence with your host d W Park.
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Do you want to live a more fulfilling life? Do
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you want to live your legacy and achieve your personal, professional,
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and financial goals?
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Well?
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Coming up on Dvparks Beyond Confidence, you will hear real
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stories of leaders, entrepreneurs, and achievers who have stepped into discomfort,
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shattered their satus quo, and are living the life they want.
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You will learn how relationships are the key to achieving
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your aspirations and financial goals. Moving your career business forward
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does not have to happen at the expense of your
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personal or family life, or vice versa. Learn more at
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www dot gwpark dot com and you can connect with
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vats contact at gwpark dot com. This is beyond confidence
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and now here's your host, w Park.
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Good morning, It's Tuesday, and I love being with you.
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So I do want to take a moment and have
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you think about as to how are you bringing AI
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into your world? And when I talk about AI is
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artificial intelligence, and it's important that you think about it
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because it is being around for quite some time and now,
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but generaldi it's so prevalent and it's changing, if I
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were to say, even like every thirty seconds. So if
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you're looking to get ahead, thank you for getting a book.
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For those who have already got a book. If you
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have not, go get our book, the AI Agency and
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it will help you get positioned for the next several
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years and get ahead of here. Well, let's bring in
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our guest. Welcome Mark.
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Thank you Devia.
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Great to be with you, absolutely and wonderful to have
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you on our show. So share it with our audience.
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Do you recall a moment from or multiple moments from
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your lifetime that have left a positive mark on you?
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Wow?
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I think it started when I was a very early age.
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My dad was an entrepreneur per se. He was a consultant,
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but he's the one that kind of engaged me in entrepreneurship.
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And I cut grass. I was a newspaper boy.
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I sold Christmas cards, so I kind of got into
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that entrepreneur spirit.
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But he also told me and really.
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Emphasize some of the things that I need to do
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to be successful. And when you learn that at a
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very early age, it carries over not only in your schoolwork,
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but when you first.
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Get a job.
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All those things enter into creating what I would say
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leadership principles that you develop over time that can make
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a difference, not necessarily in your life, but really what's
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more important in the lives of other people. What kind
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of things can you bring that can help support other
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people and be successful. And there's so much that goes
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into it. But I learned at a very early age
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for my dad, So it's not.
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Just one thing.
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It's multiple things that you learn over time that can
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make a difference, and you build upon what you learn
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to help other people.
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Absolutely, and being in Louisiana, I know you have built
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one of the fastest growing technology states in the country.
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So can you share with us what's your contribution there.
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Yeah, So when I was.
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Running the Louisiana Technology Council was a nonprofit group and
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Louisian was forty nine out of fifty states and technology employment.
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I took over the organization when it was basically almost bankrupt.
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I didn't get paid for a month, but I knew
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there was an opportunity. Since you're really at the bottom
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of the barrel, what can you do to emphasize or
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bring in technology in this It is to get people
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to stop thinking so much on tourism, which was the
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primary driver, and oil and gas. What can we create
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as an additional industry that can make a difference. And
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so for ten years we made and did some very
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significant things. We brought into CIO, Microsoft, We just did
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all those kind of things that would put technology on
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the map. And so for ten years we actually went
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from forty nine to thirty second in technology employment. And
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that's pretty substantial from two thousand and two to twenty
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twelve to make that kind of impact. And you know,
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my goal was really to help people. It's not that
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I did it myself. It was a combination of all
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the people that you that you bring into the organization
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that can make a difference that can help people grow
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and help them realize that technology can make a difference.
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And it's been pretty substantial and they continue to grow
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in that area.
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Oh that's fantastic. And what are some of the lessons
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you learned along the way that you can.
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Take Well, you know, the lessons I learned is you
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really need to engage in people who are smarter than you.
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And that is sound counterintuitive, but you bring in these
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experts that have they're experts, they have that expertise in
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their field that can make a difference and you let
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them do their job. So you want to hire the
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people that are smarter than you and you let them
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go ahead and let them do their job because they're
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good at it and you've given the resources and the
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tools that can make them as effective as possible and
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as successful as possible for the organization. It's just not
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one it's multiple expertise that come to a level that
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can really drive an organization to success.
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And that is such a valid point because when you
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have talent, talent is what takes organization to the next level.
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What So, now the question comes in, especially with the
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new generations who don't stick around much, what are some
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of the best ways and best practices in hiring top
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talent and as well as retaining them.
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So I think most executives or most people in the
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hiring business try to hire for skill. They want to
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bring that talent in there. They want to get the
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smartest person. But what I found is the best way
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to hire people is you hire for culture and you
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train for skill. That is paramount because when you hire
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someone and they don't fit into your culture, it creates
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toxicity within the environment, and it doesn't help people because
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they're not motivated. So you want to make sure that
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you have a cultural environment that everybody can surround themselves
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with really good people. And I think the best way
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to do that is to really engage what I call
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the unthinkable approach to hiring, is to find and do
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deep dives into how people think, how they react to stress,
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how they all the kind of things that can bring
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that person into an environment that can fit into the culture.
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And so it's really key in paramount. I stresses so
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much in my cl roundtables. You hire for culture, you
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train for skill. It's really easy because people are motivated
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and you provide tools to help increase their skill level.
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But it's really hard to change how a person thinks,
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how they react to things, how they communicate, because they
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typically bring that habit to the organization and that's a
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hard thing to change.
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Absolutely. And so when we talk about culture, so many
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times you talked about toxicity, what would you say are
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some of the key elements of having a culture that
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allows for failure and it also allows for that safe
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space that if there is toxicity, people can come to
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the forefront and talk about it.
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Well, it really is engaged. Now everybody, everybody's personality is different.
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So how do you get that right person? How do
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you figure out because when you do this this test
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that I've actually developed, nobody can prepare for it. I
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call it the unthinkable approach to hiring. But you want
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to engage in how they think. And I ask certain
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prompts like Vivia, if I'm going to interview you, I said, Tibby,
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I'm going to say one or two prompts. I wants
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the first thing that comes to your mind. There's no
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right or wrong answers, but you want to feel and
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you get to know somebody really quickly by by by
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these typical prompts, and I you know, I'll give you
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a food of them.
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The confident.
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I'll come off the top of my head, five single
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words that best describe you, favorite movie, favorite car, reincarning
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in as something other than a human being? What would
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that be if you had one hundred million dollars in lottery?
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What would you do it if you wanted?
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So all these answers create a pattern of how they
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fit into the culture. Now what's really important, though, is
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you can hire these people and you get the culture
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the way you want, but you've got to put in.
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You have to put in what I would call.
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Team work building activities that can help engage people like
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they're part of a family.
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And then you reward based on those activities.
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You give them goals, You have team building exercises, goals,
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they meet their goals, they get rewarded. All these things
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and factors enter into a successful organization and motivation, and
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they feel like they're part of something, part of what
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I call a family. You want a company that feels
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like it's a family environment.
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Absolutely so, in your considerable experience, do you recall any
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actual stories how that played out?
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Well?
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When I was working help being a manufacturing company, the
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sheet metal business, their culture was pretty pretty tough. So
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we analyzed all the people and well, the first thing
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you have to do is, I always say the best
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way to get rid of A players is to tolerate
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C players.
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So what can we do to help either engage a.
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C player and become or B and become an A player,
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or at the end of the day, how do I
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get rid of that toxicity and a C player. So
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some of the things that you do is you do
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team building activities, surround yourselves around people that can provide
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what I call core values. That company doesn't have core values,
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give them a team of building exercises or these core values.
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People can provide input into what are the five words
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that provide core values for a company and get everybody
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the input what the core value would be and they
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all get together and you pick five or six of them.
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So everybody's part of something that's part of the organization.
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Same with the mission statement of vision said you have
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to have employees that want to participate, or you get
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them to participate in where the company is going, how
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to go, what the future is going to look like,
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and they're feeling now they're part of something and engaging
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in activities that can really help the company be successful.
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Yeah, and core values. That's such a powerful thing. You
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know a lot of people don't talk about it, correct,
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but values is something that can help you charge through
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tough times in life, whether it is at work or
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whether it's in personal life. It can help you make decisions.
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What are some of the other team building activities that
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organizations can do?
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You know, one of my favorite one is what I
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call the start stop key routine. So you get and
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you ask three questions of all your employees and you
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get them documented, and it's really kind of anonymous, but
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you could say, what do we need to start doing
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that we're not currently doing. What do we need to
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stop doing that's really not beneficial, What do we need
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to keep doing that's really been really demonstrate success for
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an organization? And so everybody inputs and provides this information,
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You get on them all together and you list all
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these start stops, keep things, and then the team decides,
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well we need to start doing this. They all decide,
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and we're going to do these kind of things or
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stop doing these kind of things.
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And it's up to the CEO to make.
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Sure that those things that we've all agreed to are
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engaged upon, so they work towards what I call that start, stop,
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keep routine, and then you make sure that you adhere
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to what they want and you implement those things and
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they all agree to it. And that's what's important because
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now you're contributing to something that can be successful. And
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then look, one of the things I think most people
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forget to do, most leaders is they forget the compliment
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that they forget to say, you know, you did a
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great job. I really appreciate all the hard work that
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you did on this and that's not done enough show
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it through gratitude by giving them a small gift whatever,
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those little things. You know, it's the little things that