Motivating & Aligning Your Team | Stories With Traction Podcast

SHOW NOTES:

SUMMARY: In this episode, Alicia Parr and Matt Zaun discuss a simple framework for motivating and aligning a team.

FRAMEWORK MENTIONED:

1. Affirm and reiterate beliefs, principles & values.
2. Look what we’ve accomplished. We’ve done great things together already.
   (Localize to the audience whenever possible.)
3. Acknowledge near term and current challenges.
   (Don’t happy-talk like things aren’t bad if they are. If things are bad or hard, then they are bad and hard. Simple.)
   (If things are good, talk about the new challenges that lie ahead to take things to the next level)
4. Emphasize WE are ONE.  We are in this together.
   AND we have more to do together. We will get through this together.
   (When things are bad and hard, we get through it by coming together. Together we get through this time. Together.)
5. Create a believable image of the future, describe the longer view, which is positive even if the timeline is uncertain.
   (Just because things are bad and hard now, doesn’t mean they will always be bad and hard.)
6. By adhering to our beliefs, principles, values and stick together, we’ll build that better future.
   (When we come together and use our creativity, love, and support of each other, we will not only make it through, we will create a future even better than before.  Together, we create a better future.)
7. Gratitude.
   (Sincere gratitude binds teams, soothes anxiety, and is the balm that we can’t overdose on.)

ALICIA PARR BIO: Alicia is the owner of Performentor, which provides full-stack fractional HR services.

For more info, check out Performentor here, and Alicia here.

MATT ZAUN BIO: Matt is an award-winning speaker and storyteller who empowers organizations to attract more clients through the art of strategic storytelling. Matt’s past engagements have catalyzed radical sales increases for over 300 organizations that range from financial institutions to the health and wellness industry.

Matt shares his expertise in persuasion with executives, sales professionals, and entrepreneurs, who he coaches on the art of influence and how to leverage this for profits and impact.

For more info, check out Matt Zaun HERE. 

 

*Below is an AI-generated transcript, which may contain errors

 

 

Matt Zaun

 

Today I'm excited because we're going to talk about a framework to motivate and align your team.

Today I'm joined by Alicia Parr, is the owner of Performantor, which is a full stack functional HR service firm.

Welcome to show Alicia.

 

Alicia Parr (Performentor)

I'm glad to be your math.

 

Matt Zaun 

Thanks for inviting me. And thanks for your time. I know you have a lot going on, so I really do appreciate the time that you're willing to give to us today.

And I just want to dive right in. So you and I, we met back in May, and you shared with me a really powerful framework.

It's simple, but very powerful. Just to get people on board regarding what it could take to motivate and align one's team.

So I just want to go point by point. I think the points are extremely valuable. And I think that we can build a lot of discussion based on the different points.

So the very first point that you had mentioned to me was regarding basically affirming and reiterating the beliefs, principles, values of an organization.

So let's talk about that for a moment, because I think a lot of leaders, whether they have the quote unquote values hanging on the break room, right?

The one to seven values with motivational posters. I don't think that they think enough about reiterating these values. I use these belief system.

So can you talk about the importance of making sure that we're sharing stories that really, really tie into our values?

 

Alicia Parr (Performentor)

Yeah. So I'm a founder. I mean, we get into just doing the business and, you know, we live and breathe the mission purpose values, whether we've written them on the wall, pixelated or not.

But we forget that just because we're living and breathing those things and the way that we look at the world and the framework or assumptions that we're making about why this thing that we care about matters, know, that's a narrow head, you know, so, so it is always, always, always a great idea to frame things up upfront with, here's the things that were important.

Here are the problems that we're solving for. And when you're in a business and organization or even a nonprofit, you really want to know.

know and be clear about what it is that we're solving for and aiming for. And the mission really helps us establish that and frame things up so that people understand that this is this is why this is with motivating this message.

 

Matt Zaun 

Yeah, that's really a good point. I appreciate you stressing that you're the founder so you live and breathe that.

I think a lot of people listening to this show oh they're a founder, they're C-suite, they're an executive so they're constantly thinking about the values but their team is not thinking about them near as much as they are.

So I think it's really important that if you're sharing it once a year that might be the only time that year that your team is hearing the values that you're doing everything you can to live out.

So it's really important to make sure we have those stories front and center. So I really appreciate you mentioning that.

Another thing you had talked about which was the second part of framework which was look, look at what you've accomplished.

basically here's what we've done. We've done great things together. So really putting out those accomplishments front and center to the team.

So can you talk about that aspect?

 

Alicia Parr (Performentor)

As humans, we tend to think about where we are now and where we're headed. And sometimes we forget or we get impatient.

We haven't come far enough along. So it's a really good practice before you start talking about where, before you talk too much about where you're headed, also acknowledge how far you've come.

And the more, I think this comes up a little bit further in the process. So the more we can share and demonstrate and celebrate how far we've come and we've come together, that really helps establish the group as a we and then demonstrates that whatever hardships or challenges or things we might be encountering now, we've accomplished whole lot.

And that's just a great reminder. And resets our minds to

 

Matt Zaun

to really be thinking that way. Yeah, and I really appreciate how you have point to you right before your third point, which is acknowledged near term and current challenges.

Yeah. I guess the idea would be to keep a little bit of positive on the group, sharing, hey, here's what we've been through together, here's what we've accomplished, and then transition and dive into some of the challenges.

 

Alicia Parr (Performentor)

Is that right? Yeah, that's absolutely right. Things very often I see leaders are like, well, I don't want to name the challenges.

I want people to be staying positive, really only thinking about the positives. And I relate to that very deeply.

I've had to make some organizational changes very recently, and that was a challenge. How much do we highlight, how people might be feeling, or how much do we focus on, here's where we are, and here's where we're headed moving forward.

So it's a very common challenge. So you know, the art, I guess, of the science. is figuring out how to talk about where we've been and what we've accomplished and also what the challenges are.

But these challenges are things that we can handle. These are things that we can handle together.

 

Matt Zaun 

Yeah, another thing that I think that there's a lot of beauty in this exercise and then carried out in real life is imagine someone going and presenting in front of their team.

So this is a staff meeting. They're in front of their team. And I can only imagine that by sharing a story of an accomplishment, they're painting that picture for the team that, hey, look, this is what we did together.

 

Alicia Parr (Performentor)

They see themselves being victors.

 

Matt Zaun

And then it's almost a seamless transition into, hey, obviously, everyone in the room knows that there are things that we need to work on.

In fact, in two weeks, this deadline's done. Now, we know how important this deadline is. We know how important it is for for X, Y, and Z client.

And we know it's going to be really challenging in the next. two weeks to actually bring this to fruition, but then you can speak back to that moment that the team did rally.

They did accomplish. So they can start seeing themselves in the future as victors as well. So I think that that is that's genius of doing it in that way.

 

Alicia Parr (Performentor)

Yeah. Well, I mean, I can't take credit for all this stuff because I really just learned by watching others.

But you know, absolutely. Yeah, I couldn't agree with you more on that, Matt.

 

Matt Zaun 

Yeah. So then once you do that, so basically you share a specific accomplishment and then you can transition hopefully to seamless segue into, hey, here's the challenge that we have to face.

the fourth point in your framework, Alicia, was emphasize we are one. So we're in this together. So how would a leader do that from a simplistic perspective?

what are some other certain things that they should focus on to really stress that unity piece?

 

Alicia Parr (Performentor)

You know, this sounds probably stupidly simple and this is whatever principles is become we with our clients and become we and just using the word we rather than you or they is one very small change that can have tremendous impacts on how we think about how we think about things.

And it's so important because the organization that has some challenge and we want to move forward going to have different parts or different departments and folks that are working on different priorities and you know obviously the idea is that the priorities and the different parts work together but sometimes you know one part might be trying to focus in one area and another part like for example sales you know has a certain set of priorities maybe human resources or accounting has the different set of priorities and you know it takes a real strong reminder especially if we're in a moment.

of things feeling like they're not going well, then it's those differences between the different parts of the organization feel more heavy, feel more in our face.

So it's just a really great way to shift the story from us against them to us together against whatever's going on in the outside world.

 

Matt Zaun

Yeah, and I appreciate you mentioned that. And about your point about it being simple, it's amazing how many leaders, unfortunately, don't do this.

then there's infighting amongst different department heads. And I mean, how toxic is that? I was recently talking to a gentleman where he shared with me that there was an organization that he was he was working with, and the sales in the marketing department were at each other's throats the whole time, and he had to step in.

And there's all kinds of stuff that they had to do to almost break up this this verbal fighting. And it's like, that is not good.

From a team dynamic perspective, it doesn't, it doesn't carry out the mission, the beliefs, the values in any way, shape, or form, because you're not looking at that, you're looking at ego of these different department heads.

And what's amazing is that's one example, but it's all too to common that this happens across companies. So I really appreciate you mentioning that stressing stories to build that we, verse one perspective, I really like that.

So the fifth point that you had broke down for me was create a believable image of the future, describe the longer view, which is positive, even if the timeline is uncertain.

So can you talk about basically painting the picture for our team as it relates to future growth?

 

Alicia Parr (Performentor)

It's very hard to work together towards something if people don't know what that something is. So we do have to paint the picture.

And it's not just one person, the CEO painting the picture for everyone else. The CEO obviously is presenting or the video.

Visionary is presenting maybe the boundaries, but we all have to you know, paint that picture together for not painting the picture together Then we're not gonna be able to You know accomplish it You know, maybe maybe I'm different from from everybody else But I know that when I have a clear goal or an aim and I feel like you know, that's something that's important to me There's not much that can stop me from accomplishing it I flounder and feel you know, frustrated and I think that that you know, that theme is is very common And and I think that if it's common is probably part of human nature And if we have an organization a group of humans, then we should probably design with human nature in mind So that's where a lot of these things come from For sure and I like that.

 

Matt Zaun 

That's a really good point So then the six piece of this and I really like I really like that you you position it in this way Is that basically you're bringing your beliefs principle

and values to the forefront again. So basically talking about sticking together, you'll build this better future. So you just went through a lot of different pieces about talking about an accomplishment, talking about a challenge, you're emphasizing that you are a team, then you dive into painting the picture for the future, and then once you paint the picture for the future, almost like a tieback where you're tying back in the beliefs values that you have.

So can you talk about the importance of stressing that again?

 

Alicia Parr (Performentor)

Why would someone want to do that? What are some advantages to doing that? It's like a book ends the message, because what really matters.

matter, what matters is the mission, what matters is the big picture, what matters is where we're headed together. And you open up and you say, rather than hope and assume that everyone's thinking the same way as you are about the thing, you can set up a vector, right?

Here's the direction that we're headed. then you can do sort of that whole arc that you described, which is fundamentally maps to the hero's journey.

And then at the end, it's like you got to put a bow on it and remember that this is what we're about and this is the vector and here's where we're headed and this is what matters and is important.

And so that's why I believe that it is important to have that purpose messaging at the very beginning and at the very end because that's what it's all about.

 

Matt Zaun 

And what's interesting to me is when we're looking at a speech or presentation, the tie back is so important.

It's one of the powerful ways that a communicator can tie those pieces together is they start and end in a very similar spot.

 

Alicia Parr (Performentor)

So if they're sharing a specific story right out of the gate, they can actually end bringing back that story.

 

Matt Zaun 

the forefront of people's minds, it's just a powerful way. mentioned the book end, it's a powerful way to tie everything together.

Now, there's one more stage to this, which I appreciate it almost gives it the final almost, so to speak, into the world, which is gratitude.

So from a gratitude perspective, is this edifying certain team members? Is this like, what would it look like from if we're visualizing a staff meeting, how would gratitude play out in that meeting as it pertains to this framework?

 

Alicia Parr (Performentor)

Well, you can never overdose on sincere gratitude. So people stick together for a couple of reasons. One is fear of consequences, and the other is trust.

And gratitude, neurochemically, and in every way that you can imagine, helps build bonds of trust. Now, why would it do that?

I'm at the helm and I'm saying here's the direction that we want to go, we're having a hard time, but boy, we can do it together, I want to encourage the team to feel like we are in it together, and that they know.

Oh, that I believe in them and have seen them and know that they are doing their very best and gratitude is a really great way for people to get the feeling that the light is shining on them, that they're being noticed in a positive way.

And if you're being noticed, then you're going to be a lot more loyal, you know, to to that effort.

You know, it's just the bonds of trust are so deepened with gratitude. Never mind that I can tell you that if there is a CEO having to deliver a message like this, they might be little stressed out themselves.

So this act of expressing gratitude is really beneficial emotionally and mentally for anybody. So I would say those are just a few things that come to mind in terms of why that gratitude piece is so, so important.

 

Matt Zaun 

For sure. Thanks for sharing that. And thanks for sharing and taking us through that framework. What I'll do is I will include the entire framework in the show notes so people can just click and they can read it.

from 0.1 to 0.7. So I really appreciate that. So I want to shift gears and I want to talk about your company, Performenter, and just take us back to the start of it, what prompted you to launch this company, what was the need that it filled.

 

Alicia Parr (Performentor)

So it could just take us back for over many years at that starting point and what transpired since then.

Yeah, so I've been in human resources for a few role and it was a really great opportunity. Over time, I had groomed my replacement, built basically orchestrated, architected, you know, the different components that were perfectly designed for the organization.

And there's really nowhere further to go. And what I was noticing more and more in my career was that the things that I'm naturally good at that energized me compared to the things that drain me and that I maybe don't feel like I'm quite as

good at. Those weren't aligned with my role very well. So I thought, well, if I had work that leveraged what energized me and didn't have so much what de-energized me and my natural talents were properly suited rather than having to change myself to fit into somebody else's box, what would that be like?

And I realized that in order to accomplish that, I needed to become an entrepreneur. And as I started having more conversations with other people, I realized that feeling of wanting to be in a situation where I feel we feel unleashed and our energy is full.

That is a very common desire and a common feeling. In my background in human resources, saw that these smaller organizations really could have a better solution than the options for HR that are out there now.

It's just been really limited and not sufficient. And so we just created a model where we can have teams of people so that two or three people working on a client rather than all the work is done by one person, whether not it's energizing work or stuff they're good at.

You can team team people together really purposely and get people in their areas of genius and working together. And that's really the idea and the genesis that was behind what has become before mentor.

 

Matt Zaun 

Great. So I want to talk about about innovation flexibility for a moment. I mean, everyone listening knows just how radical radical change across the board as it pertains to the business world specifically HR.

So how are you and your team staying innovative and flexible during this rapid change, especially in the HR world?

 

Alicia Parr (Performentor)

Yeah. Well, being innovative and agile is really just deeply embedded on how we do things in our in our brand promise.

You know, our principles, we have operating. principles. We structure how we structure our engagements are all designed to not fall to pray to this idea that there's one right way of doing things.

We always know that there's many different ways of doing things. We want to apply the same principles. We understand that these are all humans that we're dealing with and that there's certain common things across organizations, but what one solution that worked over here, one organization may not work over here, or if it's the same organization, the different part of their arc.

We have these principles and the mission is all about unleashing and harnessing people energy. fact, we were just having a great conversation with the team that we realized that in order to really be agile, we needed to design for agility.

Because Because human resources just in and of itself is one of the more complicated things, know, different differs day day.

We're working with smaller organizations, which we're doing. That is also very change oriented. So the area that we work in is sort of like a double crazy, if that makes sense.

So, you know, we have to make sure that everything we do is all about being really, really flexible, very entrepreneur friendly.

 

Matt Zaun 

A double crazy.

 

Alicia Parr (Performentor)

like that.

 

Matt Zaun 

So speaking of double crazy, and obviously, we're not going to hold you to this, but I just want to throw out from from just a potentially crazy perspective, if you were to look 10 years in the future, so a decade from now, is there is there one thing that you think would change as it relates to HR?

Like if you were to if we were to speed up 10 years, 10 years from now, we take a time machine, a decade into the future.

What would be something you think is going to happen as it relates to HR that a lot of people listening to this podcast.

 

Alicia Parr (Performentor)

Cast might not be aware of yet. I think that there's a real shift in mindset in terms of who really owns human resources in any organization.

The, you know, very often as an organization has a human resources team, you know, more and more stuff is done by the HR team.

And that makes sense, but sometimes that can turn into like an assumption that certain things are HR things and HR things only.

But what the, I think the better way of framing it is, is that all of the HR stuff that we think about is actually the accountability of the leaders, you know, in operations or in different parts of organization, because they are the ones that are responsible for the performance of their teams.

And if you really think about kind of like in the way do you want out of an HR function, you want tools, resources, systems that help those leaders do those things better rather than sit back and wait for

for things to be done according to some bureaucracy. 10 years from now, I think things are going to be a lot more customized, lot more tech-enabled.

And I think, really, the time that it necessarily takes in order to do the things of HR, I think actually get a lot narrower, and as a portion of the organizational's total spend because of that.

But that's just sort of like what I kind of see happening. But I'm curious to see how it all plays out.

 

Matt Zaun

For sure. I mean, it makes sense, for sure. What is one piece of a device that you would give to a business owner or an entrepreneur looking to improve their HR practices?

Just one piece of advice you to give.

 

Alicia Parr (Performentor)

Yeah. The business purpose should always be driving all of the practices, whether all the people practices. and to compare or pay attention to the incentives, the explicit incentives in your organization in the implicit incentives, whether they're social or behavioral, cultural, are actually helping point people towards the mission and the vision that you've got in mind.

It is so common to miss that, I would say.

 

Matt Zaun 

For sure. And I really appreciate how you brought it back to the framework that we talked about, right? Because that's the first stage is you talk about really honing in on that belief principle and values.

I appreciate that, the why, the purpose, really driving that. So thank you. appreciate you sharing about little bit about HR.

I also appreciate the framework that you share with us and I really appreciate this conversation. So there's three big takeaways that I'm gonna take from our conversation today.

One of them being We don't need to make this super complex. And I really appreciate that you had a simplistic framework that you utilized to inspire your team, and we can all utilize to inspire our team.

So that was the first point is we can make this simple. The second point is I really appreciate you mentioning that if you are the owner of an organization or you are one of the main leaders, of course we're constantly thinking about our values, our beliefs, we live and breathe that.

But for one of our team members, they're not thinking about it to that level. So we need to be regularly sharing stories as it pertains to those values.

So I really appreciate that second point. And then the third piece is I appreciate the transition into sharing about a challenge.

I think this is something that causes a lot of leaders' anxiety, especially if they're communicating this to their team.

How do I share this incredibly challenging situation? And I think a really good place to start. art is what you had mentioned is look what we have accomplished.

So through a story, you're literally sharing a story with that team saying, Hey, here's what we did two years ago when everyone was saying it couldn't be done and how how difficult it's going to be.

were ready from the tile. We all rallied and we were able to accomplish it and look at what we were able to do and then you transitioned to the challenge and not just saying it, but really sharing that story, painting that picture.

people, their minds can go back to that, that moment in time, that experience, and they can start seeing themselves and now that the new story, which is the more challenging one on something to overcome and get through.

So I really appreciate it, that part of the framework. winners, right?

 

Alicia Parr (Performentor)

Absolutely.

 

Matt Zaun 

That's what I remember that for sure. So thank you for sharing that. Thank you for your time. If anyone wants to get more information on what you do, they want to reach out to you for your.

 

Alicia Parr (Performentor)

Service is where's the best place they can go to get that information? Well, I would love for you to come visit our website.

It's at Performantor.com. If you'd like to experiment little with some of our models and how we think about unleashing and harnessing people in our future propel growth, you can take our free assessment is called the people energy audit.

It takes very little time within a few days. You'll get a report back and gives you a sense of, you know, a little bit more attention to think about how do you unleash and harness your team just a little bit more.

Um, of course, you know, you can find me on LinkedIn and number of other the usual socials, but the website's a great place.

 

Matt Zaun 

Perfect. I will include that in the show notes. People could just click and go from there. Thanks again for your time with Alesha.

 

Alicia Parr (Performentor)

I really appreciate it. Thank you, Matt.