449 | Leading Teams Remotely

Joel Fortner 0:00
On today's episode, we're discussing navigating the various challenges of leading remote teams and how to lead them to success, that's coming up next.

Chris LoCurto 0:18
Welcome to the Chris LoCurto show where we discuss leadership and life, and discover that business is what you do, not who you are.

Unknown Speaker 0:30
Well, welcome to the show, folks. I hope you are having a fabulous day. I am obviously not Chris LoCurto. This is Joel Fortner. I'm our VP of leadership development, sales and marketing. And every now and then when Chris is away, I sneak in and kind of hijack the show for that I jack the show for an episode. Hopefully, it all comes out super well. And joining me on the show today is Brian Alex, many of you all who listened to the show for a long time know the sultry tones. Brian's how we can put up your voice.

Brian A 1:03
I doubt I've ever been described as sultry in any context.

Joel Fortner 1:08
But now you have been.

Brian A 1:09
Now I have been.

Joel Fortner 1:09
Both three tones of Brian Alex, joining us all the way from Europe, which is just amazing. I mean, how amazing is that?

Unknown Speaker 1:19
Modern technology. Here we are. We are a global company now.

Unknown Speaker 1:24
Incredible, the feats we're achieving. Well, welcome to the show, Brian. Today, we are going to dive deep into the subject of remote team members how to lead them how to lead people remotely, and how to overcome some of the challenges faced by leaders and team members alike. So we're getting into this today because not only is this the direction that the world is moving with the world, this is also where even our team has been moving as well. Interestingly enough, Brian, I remember we were having a discussion not long ago, and we actually were talking about how a lot of our company like it was you and you and Chris helped, you know, got this thing going. And then I came on remotely. And it never really dawned on me until recently that we even have roots of remote working in this kind of worker. I think I was and now I'm in the office every day and somebody has so much of my team, everyone else is gone. The irony is amazing. So this is where things are going. Guys, many of you all are no doubt experiencing this, you've probably gone this way. The pandemic forced this upon many of you all, and I know for so many of our business coaching clients, the pandemic forced the issue. It forced with that a lot of fear and trepidation and having to make decisions and navigate things and uncertainty that they never have before. And so because this has become such an enormous topic, and something that you were probably facing as a leader of remote people, or maybe you have a mixed team of some people or remote some in the office, we really wanted to get into this and share some keys and share some perspective with you today to help arm you and equip you to be a leader of remote team members. So Brian, how about we dive into this?

Brian A 3:20
Yeah, I mean, and just thinking about my own experience, I came off of the mission field in 2019, before there was a pandemic, and got back on the team. I don't know if that's back on the wagon or off, how you describe that. But I got back in the office and I had been doing some remote work came back to the HQ in Nashville. And we experienced a lot of change 2019 moving into 2020, and then the pandemic and all of that. And there was just shift after shift after shift. And I imagine that a lot of our our business leaders, business owners are feeling that same kind of, you know, the ground is always moving underneath us. And we've experienced that we've had, you know, some team members change and then several members, we brought on a remote worker from South America. And then me coming back to the field and now another team member going remote. There's so many variables that change when you have remote team members that you're just not accustomed to, you know, handling. And so I think that's what makes this such a a relevant topic because we're not alone in that. I mean, you know, just looking at some recent statistics about remote workers. This is not just a trend, more than half of the companies in the US. 56% of those companies now allow remote working more than half. That's amazing. And there are even a growing number of companies worldwide, more than 15% are already 100% remote. So I think this is where we're going and as we're as we're moving that direction, I want to help our leaders get some stability in their thinking and their processes in how to lead and guide these remote team members, and maybe even see some things from the team members point of view as we get to the end of this.

Joel Fortner 5:33
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So some of those other stats that you were just sharing, how about, I go ahead and just read off some of those because they're extremely revealing. So, in addition, so you say over 15% of companies in the world are 100% remote. That's a lot. So there's no doubt this isn't a trend. This isn't one of those. Oh, here comes the internet thing. And I don't know if that's your thing. It's this is here to stay. And it's only going to we're only going to continue to see more of this 44% of companies don't allow remote work. So 56% of companies do allow it. Better Work life balance is the main reason why people choose to work remotely. 77% of remote remote workers say they're more productive when working from home. That's a huge one, the average annual income of remote workers is $4,000 higher than that of other workers. 85% of managers believe that having teams with remote workers will become the new norm. 74% of workers say that having the option to work remotely would make them less likely to leave a company huge. And then we've got this last stat that I think we're going to dive into a little deeper the three biggest challenges associated with remote work or unplugging after work. 22% say that loneliness 19% And then communication and collaboration 17%. Again, those are the top three challenges that most remote workers deal with. So when we come back, we're gonna get into the nitty gritty of leading others remotely and uncovering some of the top problems that leaders face.

Hey, it's Joel Fortner here. I'm the Vice President of leadership development on Chris's team, and I oversee our Next Level Mastermind business coaching program. Most business owners and leaders lack a clear path to succeed in business. They question whether they're making the right decisions, if they're focusing on the right things to really grow their business. If this is you, you need a coach in your life. Coaches help you make better decisions, navigate uncertainty, lead more effectively, and grow your business without sacrificing your life and your family. In their first year, our clients typically see an average of 67% increase in gross revenue, and an average of 138% increase in net profit. And regained hours of time, our clients stay in the program for three and a half years simply because of the results they get. So if you're ready to run your business at the next level and see the growth you've been wanting, then visit chrislocurto.com/mastermind. Again, chrislocurto.com/mastermind, today.

Brian A 8:18
And we're back. So, Joel, we've been working together remotely for a few months now. And yeah, how's that? How's that been going? Well, this is rocking context to ask, Don't answer that unless its positive. No, haha.

Joel Fortner 8:34
Oh, I will. I will share I will share,

Brian A 8:37
I'll pause my zoom over here. You just share whatever you want.

Joel Fortner 8:42
So seriously, and all joking aside. It's I believe it's been going very well. We've been working together again remotely for months now now that you're in Sicily. So for me from the leader perspective, it's been very smooth. Because I'm used to leading remotely most of my team members are already remote. Um, Aaron is in Crossville, Tennessee, when he's in California, Xaviera is in Nicaragua, we've now got Cassie Katie's about to go remote. This isn't new for us. And for me, especially. So which is why you know I popped on the show today is because I lead so many remote people were like, well, let's just have Joel come on. And let's unpack it from his leadership VP perspective on what it's like to lead remote teams. So this has been going very well. I believe some core reasons for that are because of are there so many, one is that it's all about the people you have on your team. A lot of fears have that leaders have, are people going to be productive? Are they going to take advantage? Are they going to sit at home and not work? Are they going to hide things from me? If you're thinking that kind of stuff, and those are your worries, you don't know your team member well enough and leave for some reason got to figure out out what have we done or not done well, and our recruiting, hiring, onboarding, and then culture indoctrination of team members. We shouldn't even be thinking that stuff. I don't think any negative thoughts about about anyone who works remote, because I know you I know, Aaron, I know Xavi and but that started in back well before you just put someone in a seat. So if you do great due diligence in recruiting and hiring, and you go super in depth of trying to quote unquote, hire out bad attributes are bad character, which is you can't you'll never get everything right. You're never read the hiring process, the best hiring process, never get everything. But it increases your chances of hiring people who actually really want to work and who are going to be a great cultural fit for your company. As a leader, you've got to focus on that of hiring people who actually want to work because here's the here's the thing that's so irrational. Go back to the stats, we were just talking about the people who are in the stats of saying, let's just go back and look at 170 7% of remote workers say they're more productive when working from home. So let's assume that that is fully true. Is that does that sound like a crummy team member? No, it sounds like somebody who wants to be productive. It sounds like somebody who wants to work, who doesn't want the distractions that come at times with working in an office or with people on the right and on their left? Because a lot of people will tell you, it's hard for them to get work done, because other people are so distracting. And people popping into their cubicle or offices office going, Hey, could you help me with this, Hey, I need this handy that that there is some good separation and boundary that some people are experiencing, not that there's not value at times to spontaneity, that there's not value to sometimes popping in an office and saying, Hey, this has come up, let's discuss it, or let's ideate on it and get some creative thought going. There's a lot of value to that. But go to those stats. The fear that I'm really driving into here is that fear, really, that I've hired the wrong person, or for someone who's on your team who's going to go remote. It's a fear that they're all the sudden going to become a bad hire. Well, are they now because my experience is stuff's going to show up in the office that year that needs to be dealt with already.

Brian A 12:36
Yeah, and so those are some excellent points, we're going to dig down into more of the fears, and even some of the benefits that are starting to come out as we get into these questions. But I just want to mention, because those those are huge points that you just made about the the care that we take with hiring in our onboarding and training process. Guys, if you feel like you need to go back and examine some of the training, some of the onboarding some of the hiring process that you have, we have whole episodes dedicated to those very subjects. But I'll just I'll weigh in from my side of things over here as a remote worker, and in a foreign country. I actually talked to a colleague the other day, here an Italian, and they were saying to me, you know, it's an interesting work what you do that you're able to do this work. And they said to me, this would never work over here. And I looked at them, I said, Well, what do you mean by that? And they said, Well, just culturally, no one would ever trust that you're at home, actually doing the things that you're supposed to be doing. And it came to me, you know, as I was reflecting on that, well, it's because we have processes in place. We use Asana, we have accountability there there are, you know, K RAs, and there are different things metrics that we use, and in the hiring process, the onboarding and all the training, that that alleviates the stress and the fear to a large degree from leaders so that they can delegate and empower their workers to do the work that they're supposed to do in these remote settings. And so all of that's possible, if you have the right, you know, processes and metrics in place. So that brings us to the questions that we want to dig into. Here's the first one till we've dealt with a lot of change as a company. I've already kind of mentioned that. Now. We've even got Chris and Heather. In a certain sense. They're they're a little bit remote because they're on the ridge and we're going to talk more about that in some upcoming episodes. What's going on at the ridge, but as as they're away, I mean, just imagine from the owners perspective, they're not here hands on running thing. You're You're remote, in a sense from them, and then you have your own remote work. So we've got these layers going on. So how has the leadership team, you guys? How has the leadership team tackled the challenge of maintaining the culture and the community aspect of the business that we have?

Joel Fortner 15:24
So the first answer is, is intentionality. And I sure hope that we're tackling tackling this Well, I feel like because of how much time we have taken, and been so intentional about building unity on the team, practicing and teaching high levels of quality communication, having strong accountability, having strong culture that we do our absolute best to protect, having the leaders not in the Crazy Cycle, where they can actually be focusing on their teams and working with their teams, and so much more that that allowed us as it allows other companies to just bend into going remotely. Without that stuff, it's going to be super tough, it's going to be absolutely a nightmare probably for you. And going remotely, will just really highlight all of your problems you already have. And it will actually be it's like it will pour gasoline on them and set it on fire. If I'm not being dire enough and extreme enough, that's probably what's going to happen, even with great people, if those if those systems and processes and cultural pieces and communication pieces are not there. So I think these are all these things have helped us immensely be able to do this. So we focus so much on communication, and we know how vital high levels of quality communication are, we've already built the systems and processes to facilitate great communication. So like when you went remote, one of your concerns isn't that we talked to was not communicating. And I get that I totally get that. And that's the sign of a team member who actually cares, right? That you're like actually even bringing it up. And you realize this could be a vulnerability? Well, because I've led remote people, I already know that this in place that in place this in place and this in place, and we're going to be fine. Even though you're you are a day ahead of me as my team member. So I think those kinds of pieces being intentional about about community being conditional about how we actually care for team members. So I think about things like this, I'll use one example. When a Chris's daughter, when they ran a race the other day, and I knew she was training and doing this big race, I had no idea that we actually sent her a care package to celebrate her in the race that she was doing. I didn't know that as soon as I heard it. I love that we did that. Because Katherine just handles stuff like that. And so that's just one example of what do we do to actually maintain community? Yesterday is another example. Catherine went and did some things for Chris and Heather. Because it because they're they've been at the ridge. And she took them things that were thoughtful and caring. If we don't think that way. Or if you don't think that way. Get somebody on your team to tap into somebody on your team who thinks how do I serve and take care of other people? And it makes it work really beautifully. Right.

Brian A 18:33
Fantastic. And so, you know, you mentioned some things as we've brought members, we've had them in house, and we've brought on new remotes and some of those people in house are now migrating out out house. Can I say that in the outhouse? I guess I'm in the outhouse. Well, I guess it's better than the dog house. But there are some some newer obstacles that we're we're encountering, because as you said, I'm seven hours ahead of where you guys are. And then Lenay is what two hours behind you on the West Coast. And so we've got these huge gaps. That is one of the newer, more modern global obstacles where you've got these huge time gaps. Let's dig into some other newer obstacles as we've got more members going remote, but we're still a central kind of location where we have events. And people come to our location in Franklin for these events, but our team is increasingly spread abroad. What are we noticing what are some of the tension or the changes that are happening?

Joel Fortner 19:45
You know, some of some of the things that are going on there, which first of all, I love that you're in the future because then you can text me I can wake up in the morning and have a text from you like Joel watch out for this stuff that's coming. It's heading west. So some of the things are at What it comes down to is that if you have great communication, and you have processes that facilitate great communication, and you have processes and software systems that document processes and the work that's being done, and communication is all taking place in the same place, there's great clarity going into projects, or solving the problems along the way, when we encounter communication breakdowns or process breakdowns, you can have people all over the world in all different time zones, because you're planning with it in mind. You're not just saying, do the work, you're planning and you're actually stopping to be able to think through what is this going to be like? Well, if this is going to happen here, and this is the due date, what how does having people in different time zones factor in to the work that's being done when those people can actually communicate, and you simply plan to it. But that brings up one of the one of the key challenges that a lot of leaders who are stuck in the leadership Crazy Cycle have, which is they don't have enough time to think and create and plan and create strategies and create processes and involve 13 and the creation of these things. So we're just operating, or just go Go, go, go go putting out fires, solving emergencies, getting involved and stuff that you never planned on getting involved in in that day. And you have such limited time to actually do creative thinking and good planning. Yeah,

Brian A 21:32
and I think you're hitting on where, I think could be a trouble spot for a lot of our listeners, especially if they if either a they don't have those remote workers yet, they likely will looking at the statistics that we just said, or they've encountered problems, and they've just been putting out fires, it does take some time, zoom out, assess what's going on, do some thoughtful, caring, careful planning about how to resolve those things. And, and I love that, that we keep pointing to look, guys, there's a process for things, you're not just without tools or without the right equipment to combat some of these challenges. But with the right to an end, it's amazing that a lot of our processes already lend themselves to resolving these things, the things that we have been teaching that Chris has been teaching on this podcast for years, already lends itself to like the communication that you're talking about now, like the processes that we have using different tools like Asana, and others and we're not getting money from them for saying that that's just what we use. But it works. It just it just works. But it's it's not all negative either. Some of the new obstacles or challenges that we've been seeing, we're also seeing that there are some emerging benefits, from having different perspective different time zones and collaboration. And I think I'll just kind of kick that off. One of the benefits, I think that we could be seeing as a company and all this is still relatively new in the sense that our team is growing into remote Ness. One of those emerging benefits is the careful amount of planning and the ideation that can happen. But just having the the collaboration, but the careful collaboration of who do we need to bring into each conversation, what's vital, what's important, who doesn't need to be there, I mean, I think there's a higher level of scrutiny. If I can use that in a positive sense that we're we're thinking through very carefully, choosing the team members, putting them in the right place, having those conversations that we need to have. And you know, before it might have been a little bit more, you know, improv or just spontaneity, or let's just group everybody together for that. But now we're seeing that, you know, we're actually being very strategic, I guess, with our collaboration with our communication. So what are some other benefits that we're already reaping?

Joel Fortner 24:20
So I think another huge benefit is the power of structure and the power of defining things. So when you have great clarity and structure, structure, meaning organizational structure, who leads who, who is accountable for what, and then you get to definition within structure. What is the strategy that you're executing as your business that's pointing you to a vision have we built now, the strategies or the goals to actually get to that vision in terms of operations, sales, marketing, finances, everything that we do event planning All of it, the leadership development team, all the coaching programs that we have, there is so much structure that we have. And so many defined processes and defined strategies that are written down in there, actually, the leaders and team members live within these things. And then you've got things like your K RAs, that are pointing to KPIs and key results areas. And then we meet on those things. And we update, and we set up team members to be successful in that stuff. And we hold people accountable to what is their job, and we tackle tough conversations when we need to, when we do all this stuff, it creates so much structure and definition. And that provides clarity that everybody knows this is mine. This is my job. This is my team, who does what, why are we doing at all? And then we fix and solve problems along the way. Without that level of structure and definition? It would be chaos all over the place.

Brian A 26:04
Yeah, yeah. And I wonder if that's where some people feel the rub of remote workers and those fears creep in of, well, are they doing what they're supposed to be doing? I don't know what's going on anything the leader can feel. Because you know, one of the statistic one of the stats that we mentioned was one of the biggest challenges associated with remote workers feeling, you know, that ability to unplug after work, just having those boundaries. So that you know, you're clocking out and you can disconnect from the work. Because those days can run long. Loneliness. Yeah, that field I mean, you know, the word remote just means it literally means to be disconnected from and having little relationship with. And so then communication and collaboration become so important without that kind of communication that we're talking about. Even the leader can feel disconnected from his or her team. And so it's a two way street there. And I love that we're bringing that up. So when we come back, some of the problems that team members face and how to improve your leadership from far away.

Joel Fortner 27:23
Hey, leaders, this is Joel Fortner VP of leadership development at Chris Locurtos company. I have some questions for you. Do you as a leader feel like you are caught up in a Crazy Cycle of stress and task that never ends week to week? Do you ever have to deal with tough conversations with team members? And you sit at home the next day the night before, worried about how's it going to go? What am I going to say? What are they going to say? Can I think fast enough on my feet? Is it going to be a total failure? Are you experiencing culture problems or that stuff that just breaks down trust and unity on your team? Well, if you can relate to any of this, this is a pretty typical leadership story and situation. Here's the thing though it doesn't have to be that way. And we can help you solve these things, we can help you become the leader that solves these problems and leads their team to greater success. I want to introduce you to the Key Leaders Program. This is an ongoing leadership development program. That gives you the lesson track, coaching, and accountability. You need to become the leader you can become to actually implement what you're actually learning in this program. Things fall apart without great leadership and intentionality. If you want to solve the problems that are holding you back from being a great leader, we can help you with this program get in touch with [email protected].

Brian A 28:49
Alright, so here we are. Again, I want to flip the script a bit at this point and look at things from a little bit different point of view point of view of the team member who is remote. So on the other side of the coin, I can attest to what some of the stats that we mentioned. Just before the break that remote means to be removed from and have little connection with. And so that can be a huge problem. One of the things that we've already talked about is having the processes and having the equipment or the the tools, the programs in place. And communication is such a big a big thing. And as you mentioned earlier, that was one of my fears, I guess before going remote is okay, is the current level of communication that we have inside of the office sufficient or do we need to build in more structure you kept mentioning that word structure right before the break. So I want to just roll through a couple of rapid fire things. What can team members do to help bridge that communication gap.

Joel Fortner 30:02
If team members have a fear, if you have a fear over anything, that means you're probably lacking information. So when taking responsibility, you should do similar to what you're doing is you came to me and you were asking, you were sharing, Hey, these are my concerns. This is what I see. Totally legit, totally get it. Why? Because you don't want to be remote, like you're out in the jungle. But then you're still being held responsible for stuff, but nobody's communicating with you, and nobody's helping you actually do it. No one's leaving you. No one's communicating with you. No one's giving you the clarity and information. So you come to your leader, and we talk through it. And we talk through, this is what we're going to put in place. Here is this meeting, here's this meeting, they're already on your calendar, they're set up, this is what we're going to talk about, this is what I'm gonna be here to do for you. This is where I'm going to be here to help Ida. This is where I'm going to be here to answer questions. We're not going to not do it. It's going to happen as much as humanly possible. If we can't meet on that Wednesday, what do we do we move it to Tuesday. Because I am your leader, I'm super intentional about communication. Because I my focus is on making you successful. I don't want you to feel like you're out in a jungle. I want you to feel set up for success. And that's my mindset.

Brian A 31:25
Yeah. And so you know, if you're one of those team members, and you were remote, do what we teach here, you've heard you've heard Chris, and Joel, talk about it before, don't wait for clarity. If you have doubt, if something is unclear if you're lacking information, like Joel just said, don't wait for clarity to come to you go to the source of that information, whoever's over you leading that team, whatever, get the information, get the clarity, Be the squeaky wheel and get the oil that you need to function properly. It's so so important. All right. Second question along this line, what can leaders put into place to curb their fears about remote workers?

Joel Fortner 32:13
Once again, information, information structure, definition communication? How is it going to take place? Because if you're a leader, and you've got fears about people going remote in certain roles, we need to gain perspective to see now what does this mean? What needs to take place?

Brian A 32:34
And what is the Give me some earmarks. If I'm a leader, and maybe I'm not even cognizant, I'm not even aware that I'm acting in fear. What are my tendencies going to be towards my team members?

Joel Fortner 32:47
A lot, you're going to have a lot of objections. You're going to have a lot of Yeah, but yeah, but yeah, but that shuts down perspective. I'm not saying you have to go remote with your team. I'm saying look at what's possible, live in a world of options. And what's possible, not in can't be done can't be done can be done, because you're shutting down learning. Rather go to what's possible, gain the perspective. Now, when I get enough perspective, I talk to people who've done it, I listen to podcasts like this, I go and read the non billion books on leading remote workers out there now that I now get the what I now get the keys from other people who are out in front of me on this, and I put that stuff in place to get the information. Fear hates information. It hates it, fear and then faith on top of it hates information.

Brian A 33:43
Yeah. And I imagine too, if you've already got that team, and you're you're experiencing some fear, some anxiety about team members not knowing what they're doing not and, you know, the tendency is probably going to be to, you know, over exaggerate certain things or to micromanage or to just manage and not lead your team because you're scared that they're not following because you can't see them as closely and monitor as closely as if they're sitting there in the office. But you know, again, that that communication, that's a powerful image, that, you know, fear can be drowned by information and the voice of fear can be silenced with enough good clear information. And I think that will resolve so many of the fears and the difficulties that leaders and team members alike experience with with remote working. And so the last one along this line is how do leaders from the leader perspective, how do you take better care of your team members? I you know, I know a couple of times already, you know, in this remote scenario that we've got as a leader You've asked me, How can I lead you better? You're always looking for room to improve. So for the leader out there who has remote teams, what what can they ask themselves? How can they gain that perspective? And where would you leave them to go to improvement?

Joel Fortner 35:20
So on the topic of caring for team members, for this starts with just who you are as a person, who are you? What do you value? What's your mindset? If you're, if you're so focused on task and productivity, and you're not focused on people in remembering that people are people and they're not robots? You'll never get down this path of how do I love and care on my team member? How do I ask the right questions? How do I know a little bit at least about what's going on in their life, where I can meet them where they're at, and I can send them a care package, I also have to know the perspective of hey, just because you're maybe in the office, or maybe you're the personality style leader, that's very task and doesn't need a lot of connection with people, or that doesn't need a lot of community. That doesn't mean your team doesn't need that huge, right? It's enormous thing. So the more we can get not out of task and out of overwhelm, the more we can be a leader. And remember, we're leading humans, you can be intentional about what does Cassie need? What does Brian need? What does Aaron need? When they're when you see them in person? Or when you see them on on meetings? Ask how they're doing? How's personal life going? Not that you have to spend a ton of time on that. But it's being able to grow into that leader who is a caring? Who cares at least a little bit. You don't have to if you're not a high and high s, you don't have to force that in your personality style. Yeah, but it's a matter of am I being intentional? And do I know the information that hey, part of it and working remotely, is people can feel disconnected? And you can go to Well, yeah, but we do zoom calls all the time. And we're we're on the phone and give it what's all of it about task, strategies, processes, but you don't know anything about their life, because you're not in an office with somebody overhearing a conversation that they're having, that if you had been in the office, you would have walked over to them and say, Hey, tell me more about that.

Brian A 37:26
Yeah, now, and for those, you know, of you that are out there, and you want more information, we have so much. We have so much information. So many podcast episodes, so many tools on the website that you can go and find about personality styles like Joel was mentioning, we use the disc di SC personality profiling system, you can go and you can see tools to gain from our website for using those tools. We've got episodes about leading teams using personality styles. All of that is is there on the website and other episodes for you to dig into. So we're going to come to our last question here. And so we've zoomed with, I don't know, I think we went to a micro level right then talking about the the makeup of the leader themselves, and the things that they need to get past in order to lead Well, now we're going to go to a macro level, and zoom all the way out. So we've been discovering that leading remotely continues to become more and more the standard just in the world. And so what else do leaders, business owners, even companies at large need to think about changing in terms of, and this is crucial vision and strategy? What what needs to change fundamentally, in order to stay on top of this emerging phenomenon? You already mentioned that, you know, you've got to ask yourself some tough questions and be willing to get past some of those fears about well, what is possible and why not? Why wouldn't we explore it? I think a lot of companies actually had to, we were forced to do that during COVID. Uncomfortable as it was to do that in the middle of a pandemic and it was kind of you know, crisis management control. But now that we're, you know, coming back into a normal economy slowly, I wonder if there are things that fundamentally have to change about how we look at people, teams and businesses at large. What do you think,

Joel Fortner 39:36
you know, my where my mind goes on that is this stuff comes back to the mission of your company. If you've got to start with clarity on Why do we exist? Who are we? And then we've got to say, does that hold true? Has anything changed on that? No. Has anything changed on the vision meaning the destination we're trying to take the company Nope, that's all still the same. Well, then we back out of that into strategies to get to that vision and live out that mission. Has anything changed on that? Some, okay, what's changed? Because we have to go to now the team that executes the strategies and the K RAS that exist, and the teams and the accountability structure that exists. Now what needs to evolve Bob, and we even move and what do we need to edit? And then look at now, what do we think of this? Here's actually a better way to actually execute the team, or to lead the team and for the team to execute the team. What's not executed? The not in that vision? Yeah, we don't need to. That's a very, that's a hard hard consequence.

Brian A 40:48
That's drastic, extreme.

Joel Fortner 40:51
But we've got to look at things like that and say, Okay, if my mission, vision and strategies are all still true, what are we doing as a company? How do we serve our customer, which is the whole reason we really exist? And then look at go from there, go from there into and see what team do I need, because this will help you to see and get greater clarity on how much of my team could I actually take remote for those who actually own a lot of property and don't want that property, or you're leasing space. And it's a huge line item in your p&l. You may see this and be like, Man, if I can get this leadership stuff, right. And all these things that Chris Joel Bryan and talking about, this could actually save me 1000s and 1000s, and 1000s and 1000s of dollars, if I can offload a rip payment that I'm making. Yeah, even to some degree, there's a ton of companies that are offloading real estate right now, because they realize we don't need it. So what I know, I'll close with this, one of my best friends, we've been friends since college, he works for the federal government as I used to. And he's a senior leader now within his organization. And he's lived in Washington, DC, Northern Virginia for a long time now. And when COVID Here, he went remote. And then his organization stayed remote, because they realized we can do all of this with people at home in their own office spaces and workspaces. And there was they were like, We can do this, we don't need to actually have all this now government own space, or the government paying rent to something to actually have space. This is what just happened. He just moved his family to Athens, Georgia, back closer to their families. And there has been zero hiccup, because he's simply able to maintain if I can do this from Northern Virginia, I can do it from anywhere. And they chose to bring their their family and their kids back closer to grandparents closer to friends closer to brothers and sisters, these things are possible. It's all a matter of how we view it and our mindset around it. Yeah, it's awesome. It's great. So guys, if you're, as you're listening to Brian, and I talk today, if you're especially if you're a new listener, this is the stuff that we help business owners and leaders navigate. We help you make better decisions and help you plan better. That's what strat plan. When you come here for four days and work with Chris, or you join Next Level Mastermind, which is a business and leadership coaching program, you don't have to do all this on your own. This is what we help leaders and owners to do. So if you're interested in any of these, go to our website, go to Chris accardo.com. Go check out the business coaching page or executive coaching page and get some information. If you want to talk to me or Aaron, inquire about it. We'll set up a call have a good quality conversation about it and we'll go from there. But you don't have to navigate difficulties and uncertainties and problems by yourself. That's what that's where we can come along and be just partner with you. Well, Brian, thank you brother for being on the show today being on Chris's show as we've hijacked it and hopefully we've hijacked it successfully.

Brian A 44:05
We might give it back. This was fun though.

Joel Fortner 44:08
It is fun. This is I know we want to we want to launch-Brian and I want to launch our own podcast what I aggress into that at another time not wasting your time today. But thank you for helping me unpack it. Thank you for helping share some super valuable perspective as you are well into the day in Sicily, and I'm just beginning my day here in central Tennessee. But with that, folks, I hope this information has helped you today. As always take this information, change your leadership, change your business, change your life, and join us on the next episode.