187. Fix My Boss: Redefining Workplace Empowerment with Molly McGrath

💭 Ready to transform your leadership skills and empower your team?

Join us in an enlightening conversation with Molly McGrath, CEO and founder of Hiring and Empowering Solutions. Molly's journey from a legal administrative assistant to a successful entrepreneur and author is both inspiring and informative. Hear firsthand the insights from her book "Fix My Boss," where she tackles the disconnect between leaders and employees head-on. Through her unique perspective, Molly emphasizes the vital importance of effective communication and empowerment, offering practical steps for employees to step into leadership roles themselves.

Accountability can propel your business to new heights, and Molly knows exactly how to make that happen. Discover the power of regular check-ins, strategic meetings, and fostering a culture where all voices are valued. You’ll learn about the myth that leaders must have all the answers and the real strategies that encourage proactive problem-solving and collaboration. By embracing an open communication environment and focusing on immediate issue resolution, your business can experience dynamic growth and enhanced efficiency.

Elevate your work environment by removing obstacles and fostering mutual support. Molly shares actionable tools and resources, including her latest book and a free workbook designed to align team goals and boost productivity. Highlighting the essential role of every employee in business success, from receptionists to CEOs, Molly provides a roadmap to reduce turnover and increase profitability. Listen in to discover how clear communication and empowerment can lead to significant business improvements, making every team member’s contribution count.

🌐 Connect with Molly:
• Website: https://hiringandempowering.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/molly-hallmcgrath/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hiringandempowering/
• Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/molly_mcgrath_co

📚 You can purchase Molly's books at Amazon:
• Fix My Boss: https://www.amazon.com/dp/16

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Chapters

• 0:00 Fix My Boss
• 11:33 Empowering Accountability in Leadership
• 20:13 [Ad] Business & Society with Senthil Nathan
• 21:01 (Cont.) Empowering Accountability in Leadership
• 21:37 Fostering Accountability and Empowerment
• 29:29 Implementing Timeouts for Team Accountability
• 38:58 [Ad] Virtual Rockstar
• 39:49 (Cont.) Implementing Timeouts for Team Accountability
• 41:43 Boosting Business Success Through Empowerment
• 53:21 Maximizing Leadership Growth and Impact

Transcript

Mick Spiers: 0:00

There is an odd dilemma that faces most organizations and teams around the world. We have bosses complaining about how their staff do not step up and step in and take accountability for their work. Then we have team members who are frustrated that their boss doesn't allow them to step up and step in in today's episode of The Leadership Project. I'm joined by Molly McGrath, author of Fix My Boss, Molly shares with us the secrets to breaking down communication barriers between leaders and their teams to create an environment and culture of empowerment, trust and accountability. Stay tuned to the end for practical tips on how you can start today to create this environment in your team. Hey everyone, and welcome back to The Leadership Project. I'm greatly honored today to be joined by Molly McGrath. Molly is the CEO and Founder of Hiring and Empowering Solutions, and she's also the bestselling author of multiple books, including her latest book, Fix My Boss, the simple plan to cultivate respect, risk courageous conversations and increase the bottom line. Fix My Boss. That's a pretty controversial title right there, and it's what we're going to unpack today. We all have bosses over the time that I'm sure try their best, but don't always do their best, and I'm really interested to see what Molly's got to share with us today. So without any further ado, Molly, please introduce yourself to our audience. I'd love to know a little bit about your background and what inspired you to write this book in particular?

Molly McGrath: 1:42

Oh, Thank you so much for having me, Mick. I always love to dive deep into this conversation. So a little bit about my background. I started out as an employee, and I was always a very good employee, open, coachable and deeply curious, and I had the pleasure back in 1997 to start with a legal organization which I knew nothing about. Attorneys, very intimidating, if you know anything about lawyers, extremely analytical, very heavy on ego, and also really lead heavily on analytics, data and what have you. So I started out as administrative assistant, and back in the late 90s, when coaching and leadership and management and empowerment, they were not street terms. You know, you were lucky to have a job as an employee, our unwritten rule book was, do what you're told, keep your mouth shut, show up and you'll be rewarded with the paycheck. And then the mindset of bosses, typically was You were lucky to have a job, you know. So it was very convoluted, and I think broken structure. I was assigned to be the assistant to a coach this legal organization brought in to provide a coaching program for attorneys. Now, attorneys were not typically open and coachable number one and number two. Coaching was not a street term there. I had no experience with coaching. I had employee mindset and a little bit of entitlement mentality, to be completely honest. And so I dove into this program and assisted this coach. And my mind was blown away. He was classically trained by Tony Robbins. I had never heard of Tony Robbins. In 97 he had gone through s training, landmark forum, all of these different organizations that I think are a lot of the founding fathers, if you will, of the coaching and leadership and management industry. And my job was to go to the conferences and mingle and provide Member Services and client services and talk to our clients. And I go to the cocktail parties. My first assignment, I went to one of their quarterly events. And they're probably 2000 business owners, entrepreneurs, leaders there, and you're breaking bread, you're having coffee cocktail parties, a whole week long conference. So I'd always say, Tell me about your business. What's working, what's not working, and over and over and over and over again, I would hear business would be great, but for the employees and all the stories that they had, they don't want to work. They have entitlement mentality, what have you. Well, then it would turn to the employees, and they would say, my job would be great if my leader would just stop being a control freak. I know what the solutions are. If they would give me just some let go of control, if they would just let me step up and lead so I go back to my boss at the time like there's a massive disconnect here. They both want the same. Thing, but they're not speaking the same language. The leaders, the managers, the C suites, the entrepreneurs. We're pouring all this coaching and giving them strategy and structure and frameworks to how to become better leaders, how to build their business, what have you. But nobody's talking to the employees. Nobody's helping them become, you know, leaders, leading leaders, but their leaders are so jammed up and overwhelmed and stressed out and people delegating up and what have you. So I said, Can I take them in a separate breakout room and start working with the employees to get behind their leaders, get behind their bosses, if you will. So that was the starting ground of that. And you know, fast forward to me being an entrepreneur, creating my own business that is about recruiting, hiring, finding rock star talent, and then empowering them and retaining them and training them how to walk, talk and behave like a leader, leading a leader. And I was working with my publisher on my book, and through all my studies, naturally, the title of my book was, fix my employees well. It brought me back to that very first conference, and when I finally was awarded the opportunity to bring them into their own room where they had a safe place filled with grace for them to speak their truth and really tell me what's not working, what they want and what have you they number one thing I heard is, wow. This is really refreshing that we're included in this conference because typically, and this is way back when there were no online trainings, webinars, none of this stuff that we're so fortunate to have in this day and age. They said, our and I work with by and large attorneys, which, you know, are trained skeptics to the core at law school. And they'll say, typically, our boss would go to all these conferences and come back with binders and come back with all these business books, and they drop it on our desk and say, Here, read this, implement this. And it landed to them, like there was something wrong with them and they needed to be fixed, and there was no context of it. And so my publisher and I are like, how will Bow River reverse engineer this one? And finally write a book, a business book, a leadership book, a management book that the employees will pick up. And we're like, visualize an employee walking through an airport, walking through a bookstore, and they see this title that says, Fix My Boss. You think they're going to pick it up? Yeah, they're going to be like, Finally, someone's going to nail it to them. And or a boss that's running through an airport, busy entrepreneur, and they're traveling, and they see this book that says, Fix My Boss, and they're stopped in their tracks. They have that niggling feeling like, oh, no, what's she telling them. And so I really wanted to write a book that both of them will pick up together, because in all honesty, it's a leadership and a management book, a growth book for both of them and allowing for the employees to finally step up and lead. You know, And not to oversimplify it, but it

Mick Spiers: 8:15

I love it, Molly. And it is a very thought really is that simple. One of my chapters in the book, I think, provoking title, so I think mission accomplished there for sure. What I'm hearing there is like a description of nearly is courageous conversations. I talk about it starts with every organization on the planet right now. That's exactly what's creating the house rules of engagement. Now, some people going on. So bosses do have that exasperation, and I hear people call these core values, right? Family first. You know, they all say this all the time, oh, why? Why don't people take land like these, TJ, Maxx home signs that hang in the accountability? Why don't they step up and step in? And then conference room that really seem very fluffy, and I'm not against the team, the employees, are going, Oh, won't my boss just let me step up and step in? So how we get ourselves in this those, but really creating these house rules of engagement, and I situation where both sides of the story are saying the same like to say that, versus core values now you can still have thing from their own perspective, and yet we somehow your core values, which I always lobby. For the businesses I didn't get to the point where we put two and two together and get coach is that we are a culture of accountability, and it starts four. So how do you break down that quite severe communication breakdown, Molly, how do we get people to listen to each other at the top, because as entrepreneurs, as leaders, as to the point where they understand that they do both business owners, we just at least the feedback that I've want the same thing? received in my research in the book and 4500 businesses I've Yeah, really interesting, Molly. There's a coached and consulted that employees think that we have all the answers. Somebody awarded us and allowed us to become a business owner, which, by the way, is depending on your state. It costs about 150 bucks to set up an LLC. You know, we don't have a secret rule book. We don't have it all. We're entrepreneurs. We're leaders at heart, what have you. But a lot of times you'll come out of Back to Back meetings and your calendar. We all know the struggle with the calendar and what's on our plate with payroll and everything else, and we open up our door finally to go get a glass of water, maybe gear up something to eat for the first time, and there's a line of people to delegate back up to us, right? And so they're looking to us for the answers. And I would say it starts with accountability in regards that we create, that I want you to come to me with proposed solutions, not constant problems. I don't and again, Brene Brown talks a lot about vulnerability, taking responsibility, or what have you, but who are we at the core and how do we want to operate in my business and anywhere in my life, quite honestly, whether it's with my children or any my friends, my family, what have you, I thrive on accountability. I need it just as much as anybody else, because I have big goals. I have big dreams. So if it's my job as a leader, the CEO, to get more business in the door. And the thing that has to happen is I have to do a webinar, a presentation. I need to go out and do some more networking and what have you. If I don't have someone holding me accountable, I'm not going to do my job and my role and my part. So I surround myself with accountability, and I think it starts with the leader. It starts with us first, and really empowering our people to say, Okay, here's our roles, here's our goals, here's our unique ability, here's the highest value that we each bring to the business, to our higher whatever we're up to in our job description, and here's when I'm going to do it, here's when I'm going to get it done. Here's where it's chunked out, and my time template, and I need you to hold me accountable in that. And I really created a daily huddle. The military calls it a stand up meeting. Professional sports teams call them timed out and half time and what have you. Nobody creates this billion dollar, you know, rock star plan to build, grow and scale a process people production, which all impacts profitability, and then don't take a break. No, there's time out. There's locker room huddles. We're watching film for hours after whatever we just did to get deeply curious about what worked, what didn't work, where we can make two millimeter shifts. And I think it's really easy and it's super fun when you create a culture of that. few things that are jumping in my head. There probably three. The first one's a bit of a limiting belief. The second part is, I love this word around empowerment, and then this third part about the playback and the time out and the lessons learned, and whether we're doing that at all, and if we do do it, whether we do it effectively. So let's unpack that a little bit, one at a time. The limiting belief I picked up there Molly was that in many cases, the employee thinking that the boss has got all the answers. In some cases, the boss also thinking that they've got all the answers. And the reality is the boss doesn't know everything. And in fact, we're smarter together, and if we can truly listen to each other, we can co create a solution that's far better than one person's brain. So how do we get past that limiting belief, where we can have that vulnerable conversation, where the boss goes, You know what? I don't know, you tell me?

Molly McGrath: 14:11

Yeah, it's really that simple of I always say the answers in the room. So often people will spend myself included. I make the mistakes, but again, my team holds me accountable. No more checks for this super magic power Consultant Program, what have you. And I'm a consultant and coach, so I'm all for that, but we never take the power of the pause and check in with our team. So when you have a framework where you have a daily huddle, or you have your weekly meetings in place that you are hardwired, same place, same time, agenda, and we allow for the voice of the employee. It's amazing of where they know this solution. So it's exactly that. So someone, you have the line of people with the problems that were heavier, like ding. Ding, ding. You know what? These are great answers, let's you know, questions or problems or whatever, batch them for tomorrow's meeting or what have you. I really want to go to the whiteboard, and I want to start unpacking them, one after another, because people aren't constantly wanting to ask questions. It's a huge flashlight that there's a lack of training process. What have you automation, whatever it might be. And so when you sit down and ask them, say, You know what this is? This a great problem. This a great question that we're at. If you knew the answer, what do you think it would be? What do you think the answer to this should be? And I always train people that it's not that one statement I eradicate with the firms that I work with and is that we're no longer allowed to say I don't know. I don't know is a lazy response. Let's have fun with this. And because a coach had taught me one time, people that constantly say I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, it's really just a trauma response. So if you did know, what do you think it would be? Let's take a shot in here. There's no shame, blame weaponizing. There's no wrong answer, what have you, and giving people the floor, because a lot of times, employees are like, I'm afraid to say the wrong answer, because then it's going to use as a weapon to fire me, because I don't understand my job. I don't want to ask questions because I don't want to look like I'm not getting it. I don't want to look stupid. Those days are typically over in this market, because when you create first of all, no employee in America needs a job. Nobody's looking for a job. We all know the statistics around how the unemployment rates and what have you. So those days of employees afraid they're going to get fired or in trouble or what have you, those are by and large, over which is exciting as an entrepreneur and a leader, because keeps us on our toes to keep like redating our employees, that none of us are off the hook once we hire right, once we have a rock star, it keeps us like, Okay, I have to constantly. I play a game with myself every morning, that every day I'm going in and re enrolling my people into their job, if they're the right person, and if they're not, re enrolled and re engage and using their voice, then they're not, maybe not on the right bus with me, so it's really just asking for their voice. And you might get crickets in the beginning. People might not talk. You might get responses like, well, I don't know. And that's kind of, for me, an indicator that, Oh, I haven't done a really good job of creating a culture and a framework for people, really, to speak up, and so then you just start making it consistent and persistent, and magic will happen, in my opinion.

Mick Spiers: 17:49

So what I challenge that a little bit there, on the part about the saying, I don't know. I think it is okay for people to say, I don't know. But what I love is the second part that you're saying there, which is the psychological safety to go, Okay, right? So none of us know. Let's have the environment where we can have an open conversation about, well, what are the options? What are the options here? And there's no stupid ideas, let's, let's throw everything out there. But they need to have that safety that if they do say something, that everyone goes, Yeah, I don't think that works, that it's not the end of the world as it's part of the process to find the right solution is to have an open dialog and to say what's on your mind. Like, what did you say? Let's pretend that you did know. If you did know, what would be the answer? That's a really interesting question, Yeah.

Molly McGrath: 18:34

Yeah. I love that, yeah. And think about that a room around I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. And the leaders like, awesome. This is going to be fun. Let's open up the think tank and let's get all the ideas on the table, and then let's agree what our next right move is that we're going to try on and guess what? If it was a miserable failure, it doesn't matter, because we have our meeting next Wednesday. Everybody. Test it, try it, come back. And it's all about two millimeter shifts and continual improvement. I love that. Thank you for that.

Mick Spiers: 19:05

Yeah, great. Now I'm going to come back to the second chapter of what you were saying before, which is then the empowerment, which I do believe is the answer to everything we've spoken about so far, or a key part of it, I should say so, with that empowerment, when people stop waiting for the boss to have all the answers when they feel like they're empowered to find their own answers, then we might starting to see that exact thing that we spoke about before I am going to step up and step in, if I'm not sitting around waiting for my boss to give me the answer, if I know that my boss is empowering me to go and find my own answer. And what I'm going to say to you is that the other end of that journey is then the accountability, the responsibility and the ownership that we're all talking about, and the accountability, responsibility and ownership that the boss is looking for, is at the other end of that empowerment and that space that. You're allowing the person to step in. If you don't create that space, they'll never step up. Then once you create that space, they will step up. And then at the other end of that is the ownership and accountability that the boss was waiting for. How does that sit with you?

Molly McGrath: 20:52

Oh, Mick, you said that so beautifully. I love that because, you know, in this day and age, I named my company hiring and empowering back in 97 or what have you. And people like that word, but now I think there's such as like. Empowerment means like, has all these political and just whatever means. Sometimes I'll hear from people I don't like that works. It means that they are have enough, you know, cockiness, confidence, whatever, they're constantly marching and ask for a raise. That's not you just really demonstrated that definition beautifully, because they're coming with proposed solutions, right? And then when you have that, when you have clear, concise, well communicated goals, next actions, whether it's a project, maybe it's a shift in the process, or what have you with who's leading it, and a due date and a deadline, and then you have hardwired time to come back and circle around it. That's accountability. When you're in, employees and team members start to really embrace that. Because, you know, the way I like to spin in, like, Y'all are getting a degree in project management, like, the, I don't know if anyone's ever tried to take that PMP test here in the state, but it's like passing the bar or medical. Like, it's very, very difficult. You know, it's almost like, you know, a structural engineer. This is an essence, equivalent of that when you start running your day, running your week, running your goals, like that. And there's no, you know, why do people pay personal trainers to lose 20 pounds before their wedding day? You know, a bajillion dollars, and maybe they got have to lose 20 pounds or 40 pounds or 100 pounds. Doesn't matter what the number is, but they're doing things that they don't like. They're recording their food. They're showing up at 530 in morning for the workout or what have you. That's the greatest example of accountability. And next thing you know, it comes to the end of your 12 weeks with this personal trainer, what have you? And guess what you have you have habits built in you, and you will never let yourself off the hook, because you know how it feels. You know you can how to plan your day. You know the impact, the cause and effect on your energy, on your sleep, on all the things, the ripple effect, and then it gets to place. And that's another word I think that people like get a little knee jerk reaction to of accountability, but I think intentions and deliverability are everything, because it shifts. I see like there's no longer these words like micromanagement and all that. When you built a culture of empowerment and accountability with structure, then you know, people will constantly say, who's accountable for that? What's my accountability on this? And they start to use this CEO leadership language right down to the receptionist making 20 bucks an hour or whatever it is.

Mick Spiers: 24:03

Yeah, really good Molly. And I like the metaphor. That will be like a habit. And that leads me to a question, which is, how to get started. So if we've got people listening to the show right now Molly that are recognizing themselves in everything that we've said that they're in this situation where the leaders waiting for people to step up and step in, where the team want to step up and step in, but they just want the boss to get out of the road. I'm saying it pretty literally sometimes, and they're in this situation where they're waiting for the boss to give the answers as well. How do people start? How do we make the mindset shift where they can start practicing this new habit of No, no, that's that's our old model. Our new model is one of empowerment, where you're empowered to go and find your own answers. Step up, step in, and take accountability and responsibility. What's step one?

Molly McGrath: 24:59

I think step one is really number one, take a deep breath and get really excited about this. This something that you're going to try on and it'll be exciting. I always tell people, it's like a door of the Explorer, like a treasure hunt. You know, you're excited because of all the things you're going to uncover. So step one is to schedule time with your team so often. I'll speak for myself, we are busy. Our team can see our schedule. They can see the energy we're bringing in the room. They know that we're always have no time, and so you have to make time for your team member, and that's the greatest gift you can give them. We have to remember we're. Hiring human beings, first and foremost, it's a two sided relationship, and when you human beings at the core one time, attention and feedback. So I would say, start with and I had a, I literally had a company that did this yesterday, right after our call. And I'll just unpack it, because it's right now, what they did send an email to the entire team, and they're like, Listen, I'm really excited and invested in our collaboration, our project management. What have you I know that I have moved meetings. I've missed meetings. What have you, effective next Tuesday at two o'clock from three o'clock, we are all going to meet in meeting conference room, 405, literally, these are the words. And here's the agenda. I'd like for people to come with a list of we're going to all reinduce ourselves, what our name is, what our roles are, what our biggest wishes to end this year with on a high note, and what have you. And we're going to talk about our framework and our structure going forward. I really want this team to win. If we win, everyone wins. And my commitment, I know I've been busy, I know I've been unavailable. And here's my accountability I am putting right here in writing and CC, seeing everyone and their brother and the CEO and CFO and what have you. I need y'all to hold me accountable, to show up, because 90% of life is getting in the room and showing up, and here's my commitment to and I'm really excited about, and we'll define together where this is going to go and evolve. But I have an agenda in my mind I'd like to propose, and I want your insight, my goals. We walk out of this meeting with an agenda we're going to follow every single week, and we can Duke and jive and add and twist when we feel like what's not working or what needs to be added to it. Can't wait to see you next Tuesday.

Mick Spiers: 27:29

I absolutely love this, this idea of reintroducing yourself. I'm going to say, every time you do something similar to that, I haven't done it in the exact model that you've just said, but every time I've done something similar to that, I've always found out something new about people that I didn't know as well. So it's also about connecting to each other and building that trust and rapport with each other as well, but then to have that conversation where people get to say what they think's working, what they don't think is working, and then to reset, reset how are we going to work together and resetting expectations? What are your expectations of me? What are my expectations of you? And if we can have that conversation, we might uncover that tricky ground that we spoke about at the very start of this conversation, which is the boss is waiting for people to step up and step in, and the team are wanting to step up and step in, and how is it not happening? And the only way you can get there is at the other end of that conversation. I love it. Molly, really good. I want to get to this time out concept now, because that really caught my attention as well. I've been thinking about NBA basketball teams and the coach calling a timeout and getting together and going, Oh, okay, this is what I'm seeing. What are you seeing? We don't do that. The closest thing we do that in business are lessons learned, and I'm gonna put it out there. Most lessons learned turn into talk fests that don't change the way we actually do things. Like people will share a lesson learned, but they might not even put the lesson learned into action the next time around, and quite often, lessons learned are done at the end of a project, not periodically through a project. So tell me more about this timeout concept. I think it's really interesting.

Molly McGrath: 29:11

Yeah, absolutely. You know, I call it the power of the pause, and one of my chapters in my book, but I love that what you use. Because not only that, but when you do it at the end of a project or a quarter or a year, team members tell me constantly it's kind of a waste of time, because I know we're not going to do anything with it. Number one, there's no additional meeting. So at the end of the project or what have you, we have this debrief meeting. What worked, with didn't work, whatever it might be, project completion, what have you, but there's always room for improvement. There's always insight or what have you, but there's never that next meeting. So the timeout for me is that you have your meeting. So for a lot of the companies and bosses and leaders I work with, is that they really treat monday like a CEO day by and large. You know, we're not meeting with clients depending on the size your organization where you have your weekly all hands on deck meeting. And I like to, again, I'm a big fan of manage, lead and facilitate the conversation agenda and a time peak for companies like EOS are very, very big on that, with ninety.io and what have you. And so we Same place, same time, every and then you move into all your meetings. If you have to meet with the project leader team, or you have to meet with your CFO or what have you it, that is your locker room. You know, your game day. Plan. You're creating your strategic plan for the week, for the month, checking in on the quarter, what have you. And then you have the timeouts, which are daily huddles. Now for me, for my business, I'm a virtual business. I have been since 2000 so about 24 years now. I've always had my employees and my clients that are virtual. In this day and age, I have a ton of people overseas in the Philippines and Honduras and what have you. So it's really important for me to do that daily huddle and just checking it. Here are my top three for yesterday. Here's what I accomplished. Here's what I didn't How refreshing is it that you have a place where you could come and you're like, this was my goal for yesterday. I didn't get any of it done, and you don't feel like you're in trouble. You're like, and here's why. This exactly what happened. Like, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, wow. How did that happen? Why is Susie delegating that to you? Or, wait, this the fourth time that Susie put that back on your plate or called in sick or didn't show up or miss a deadline. Now you know you have a problem child on the team that you have to have a conversation with, or what have you, versus waiting for the employee review or what have you. Or you're like, you know, the X, Y and Z happened over and over and over again. And you're like, wait a minute. Lot of times it comes down to, like, technology. Well, I wasn't able to do it because, you know, the supersonic konica printer jammed up again, and what have you like this. You're the third person who said this this week. Somebody go revisit the lease, and we need a new system this slowing down production and effectiveness. But so often people like, I'm not going to bother people to let them know that, you know, this half million piece, half a million piece of equipment that manages all of our production keeps breaking down. It's impacting for people's work every single day. It's little insidious things like that. So when we come together, and also it's a way for accountability, for somebody to say, I consistently have this on my goal for the day, and I can't get to it. What have you, because this, this and this, and they're like, actually, that's the highest use of your time. Why don't we hire an intern? Why don't we get someone in the Philippines and gets a VA to handle that? Because I heard you say that it's happening for me and me and me and me, and they're coming with proposed solutions, like, can we hire someone for 10 hours a week, at seven bucks an hour to just handle this stuff that we're not getting, that is definitely necessary, but not the highest use, and the cause and effect and the impact, because four of us are not getting it done, and just even from our energy and our own personal victory, right? And we're like, great, you do it then, okay, great. I'm excited to do this. So it's really a way to make those two millimeter shifts in real time. It's a way for your team again, to really step up and lean. Because I want to go back to that first accountability meeting. If it's the first time you're doing that, or the first meeting that you're going to have on Tuesday in room 405, conference room, you might get cricket people, like, I don't know. I don't trust this. Whatever. You go first as a leader, you call yourself out, and when you're like, here's what's not working. From my perspective, I'm late to every meeting. I don't like how that feels. I don't like how it feels for you guys. I've been ditching the meetings or what have you. Here's what's not working is I realized that I never handled the quarterly reviews. And you give 3, 4, 5 of them, and then you watch like popcorn people start because you've demonstrated self accountability, responsibility and vulnerability.

Mick Spiers: 34:16

Yeah, I love this role modeling the behavior that you want to see from others straight away, if you can admit your own, oh, yeah, this didn't work yesterday, then all of a sudden the floodgates will open. Yeah, I had this problem, you say, too. And before you know it, you're building that awareness of, oh, hang on a second. We've all got the same problem, and you can co create the solution together and making sure a few things. There were three things that I heard there Molly that were really powerful. The role modeling was one. The second and third one was getting everyone back on the same page. It's so often when we don't have these conversations, we wake up one day to find that not everyone has the same understanding of what the plan is, what the objectives are, what are we trying to achieve here? So it's a constant resetting to make sure everyone is on the same page and there's not someone sitting in a corner that had no idea that the plan changed last week, and then the third one of being able to just share the problem so everyone can find the awareness that everyone can help find the problem, which could be anything from, oh, I didn't know that the easiest way to fix that is x, or it could be used to, I think you used the name Sue before that. Everyone's been waiting on sue to release some document or something like that, and she had no idea. She had no idea that people were waiting for her. And without those conversations, she can't fix it. How does that sit with you?

Molly McGrath: 35:38

Yeah. I agreed, what have you. And it's really like, Oh, my goodness, like Sue. And we're like, she's like, Well, I was on vacation last week. I wasn't in that meeting. And we're like, oh, we forgot about that. So it helps you with and, you know, even reintroducing the team, you know, to, for example, when we're doing that stand up meeting and taking that locker room huddle, if you will, and we all make the decision that we're going to get the girl or guy in the Philippines, or what have you to do overseas, and now we're all on the same page. How often does it happen in business where there's a new guy or gal on the block and we're like, Okay, well, and then they're sort of, kind of doing this and what have you. No one's clear on who's doing what to reach goal. And with that introduction meeting with that company, they've added three people since the last meeting that they have, which was in March. And people like see them, they're like, Oh, this is Bob The whatever. They have an idea of what they do, but not really. So I mean, if there's just so many multipliers that come out of this and what comes out of it, I think, as a leader, is immense pride in the people that have your back and that you will see how your people are suffering in silence, because they, number one, know the answer. They have some ideas about this solution. They want more work and a lot of times, and we don't give them the space and grace and time for that. But I think, as leaders, as business owners, as whatever your title is, and they use the bot word, boss, you know, supervisor, manager, whatever, there is no greater satisfaction when you start implementing this and giving your people a place to speak and use their voice and start using this. You know, it's really mini strategic planning. It's really mini project management. It's really many process improvement. It's really many, many hiring, figuring out your hiring, firing, onboarding and training solutions. And there's no greater satisfaction when you see someone that you hire that you really know a lot about. They're kind of quiet. They you know, we're good enough employer by having and you see them just grow personally, professionally, their competence or confidence, what have you. And I think that's like our number one bullet point and our job descriptions as leaders is to really grow people up. So it's no different than when you see your kid graduate from university. How proud are you? And it's I really like to equate it like that too. You see someone taking them from a shell where they can't make eye contact, they don't ask any questions, what have you? See them walk in they're like, Okay, here's the deal, here's the problem, here's what I think we should do. And I already did this, this and this. Do I have your permission? Do you guys, okay, if I take this and run with it, and don't worry, I'm not making any decisions. I'm not saying any contracts. I'll bring it tomorrow, and I'm going to give you the best three options, good like, how great is that?

Mick Spiers: 39:31

Yes, it's fantastic. And I agree with you on the pride, by the way. It gets to the point it not everyone realizes this initially, but it gets to the point quite quickly. When you let go and you allow that space for others to come through, it gets to the point where you have more pride watching them knock it out the park than you would if you did it yourself. It's infinitely more rewarding once you get to that point. Yeah, love it, Molly.

Molly McGrath: 39:57

Oh yes. It's got goosebumps on that one.

Mick Spiers: 40:00

Yeah, it's really cool. All right, now there's a third part to your book. I want to get to that. So what we've been going through so far is a way that would reset the environment in which we work. We all spend up to 1/3 of our life in the workspace, so creating a better environment is better for everyone. It's less frustrating, it's more rewarding, it's more productive. All of these things. Part three of your book is increasing the bottom line. What does this mean from the business perspective? So I've spoken about the employee and the boss. What about the business element of everything we've just said?

Molly McGrath: 40:32

I love that. You know, it's so often when people come in, they're like, I need just a receptionist. Am I? You mean the person, the director of first impression. You mean the

Mick Spiers: 40:44

Yeah, really interesting, Molly, I tell you most important person in the business, because if they don't do a good job, you don't have any clients or customers to meet what I'm taking away from the whole conversation leading up to with. So for me, you know, the bottom line is, when you have, I don't love the word culture anymore, you know, I think, like it's very confusing a lot, but for conversations, when you have the bottom line. So if we have these conversations where we're an environment and a business where people are personally and professionally invested in winning, they're very clear on what their annual, quarterly, monthly, daily goals are. resetting, we're resetting the expectations. We're creating They're really clear you have. Framework for them to raise their hand to say, here's what's not working. We got to pivot. space. We're creating the environment where people can do What have you I have seen businesses 2x 10x 4x depending on where they started. I've seen a solopreneur who makes a decision to hire their first person and follow this model and their very best work. We're having the conversations about grow to a million dollars, because they're very clear on what their again accountability, the job descriptions are in what's working, what's not working. We're going to then motion. And as leaders, we have job descriptions. As business owners, we have job descriptions. And everyone's clear on what our 80% and what we bring and money is energy, remove interference in the business. We're going to remove period, period, period. You could have the best strategy, the best funnel, the best you know, superpower, whatever, and the things that are holding us back. At the same time as what have you. But if your people are not invested in it, and they don't get it, want it, have the capacity for it. Have it in their bones and blood. And they use words like our creating the space where people will step up and step in, be customers, our business and what have you, you might make the money, but are you going to be able to sustain that, scale empowered and take accountability and that, and grow it? And when you have high turnover, we all know the numbers and the statistics and what have you, it will responsibility for the work, and then all of a sudden, the impact the bottom line next month, I don't know six months, I don't know a year. I don't know the life cycle of your leads or your customers, or what have you, or the average case results are going to look after themselves. So adding more value on each of them. But people impact the bottom line. There's no doubt about and they always say we are responsible people to a problem where the environment is not good, it's for the energy we bring in the room and the energy we leave in the room, and if we are coming in hot and heavy, frustrated and constantly looking at disappointment and doing what I not clear, it's not set up optimally, won't necessarily call Siegel leadership, you're never, ever going to impact your bottom line, which is in a business money you need money to increase your productivity, but working on these behaviors and give bonuses, give people raises, to give maybe that next person who's showing up, an executive assistant, or whatever it might be, but we need money as a business, which is our mindsets that we've been talking about, all of a sudden we'll get bottom line, to be able to continually porn our people, our process and what have you.

Molly McGrath: 43:34

Yeah, I love that. Yeah. You know, as you rid of checkpoints in the business. People will stop waiting for the boss to tell them what to do. They'll step up and step in, and all of a sudden we have this force multiplication effect where the productivity will increase the mindset of ownership of the customer that you just spoke said that, it reminds me of something I often say, like about, we're going to end up with bottom line improvements just through this resetting activity. How does that sit with you as a summary, Molly? these giving them the time, attention and space and grace. They're actually walking, talking PNLs. They're actually cost of goods to services, little production cups. Because when, like, I think this isn't working, I think we should kill this printer that's costing us a ton of money and toner and what have you can I research three new contracts, see if we get and then the leader is like, yeah, just make sure we're not paying for maintenance and we get free toner, or what have you cool I know your parameters that's impacting, expenses that's impacting so when I like to have in my mind I'm like, this also walking, you know, accounting or bookkeeping, or CFO conversation too, because in The back your mind as the leader, you're like, oh, expenses are going to decrease, profitability is going to go up, revenue is going to go up, a workforce is going to go down. And it's really fun, because eventually you do get to that place where they're like, this costing us money, and this isn't working, and it's another piece of software that's making it over complicated. Can we cancel this contract and just streamline it like this? Because they're the ones that are in there using it.

Mick Spiers: 46:07

Yeah, really powerful Molly. So we end up with, I was going to say double whammy, but it's a triple whammy. The team become less frustrated and happier. The boss becomes less frustrated. And happier, and then the business becomes more productive and profitable. It's like a triple whammy, absolutely. So I'm going to summarize just a little bit here and the call to action for everyone listening, have a think about what Molly is saying, right? So the challenge here is, we all want the same thing, but we're not talking about it, right? So bosses want the team to step up and step in and take ownership of their work. The team want to step up and step in and take ownership of the work, but they feel like the boss is in the road. By having these resetting discussions, even reintroducing themselves, like Molly said, you can reset that. You can reset the expectations of each other, what's working, what's not working. What do we need to do differently, and to set that new environment that makes it clear about removing that limiting belief that you have amongst yourselves, and then adding in this concept of the power of the pause this time out, where we're also going to periodically check in with each other and go, Okay, what is working? What's holding you back? What can we do together to solve that that we can also unlock all of this, and by doing all of this, we'll make employees less frustrated and happier, bosses less frustrated and happier, and the business will become more profitable and productive. So it's a win for everyone. Molly, this has been a wonderful conversation. I want to thank you for your time so far. I want to go to now to our four final questions. These are the same questions that we ask all of our guests. So Molly McGrath, what's the one thing you know now that you wish you knew when you're 20?

Molly McGrath: 47:59

That I wish that I had, you know, the courage to speak up when I knew the answer, even when I was afraid I would get in trouble or what have you. You know, I heard a statement once that it's not about getting increasing your confidence, it's about increasing your courage. And when you increase your courage, your confidence increases.

Mick Spiers: 48:22

Yeah, it's really good. I think we all resonate without this so many times where we think we've got the answer, but we're not so sure, and we hold ourselves back, and there's really no reason to do that. Yeah, really good. What's your favorite book?

Molly McGrath: 48:35

Daring bravely by Brene Brown.

Mick Spiers: 48:37

Had a feeling you're going to say that based on our earlier conversation. And what's your favorite quote?

Molly McGrath: 48:43

My favorite quote is by movie called We Bought a Zoo with Matt Damon, and it is all it takes, is 20 seconds of insane courage.

Mick Spiers: 48:53

Oh, well, I haven't heard that one. I've heard of the movie, but I've never watched it. I'm going to watch it now. That's really cool. And finally, how do people find you, Molly, if they're interested to know more about your books, your company, you yourself. How do people find you?

Molly McGrath: 49:08

Sure, absolutely and thank you so much for having me. You go to my main company website, hiringandempowering.com. To learn more about me. I drop a podcast every Tuesday, a blog every Thursday, in a pocket coaching every Saturday, just to pour into leadership and employee and everything we've been talking today. And of course, I have a free workbook with my latest book, and you'd go to fixmybossbook.com, and if you want a fast track, either. I have a workbook that will really support you with getting started and implementing everything we spoke about today.

Mick Spiers: 49:47

Wonderful Molly, that's fantastic, and thank you for that. And we'll put the links in the show notes and make it easier for people to find that want to really thank you for today. It's been a really great conversation given me, personally, a lot to think about, I feel richer for having this conversation, and I know that our audience will also get a lot of benefit from doing what Molly said. To think about the fact that we all want the same thing, we're just not talking about it, not having the right conversations. Thank you so much, Molly.

Molly McGrath: 50:15

Thank you, and thank you for the amazing work you're doing.

Mick Spiers: 50:18

You've been listening to The Leadership Project. In the next episode, we're going to be doing our first in a series of solo casts, where I'll be reflecting on things that I've learned through the week. We bring together thought leaders from all around the world to share their insights and wisdom about leadership, and I'll be sharing how I take those lessons and put them into action in my own leadership, I'll also be sharing things from my personal life, including any lessons that I'm learning outside the podcast as well. Don't forget to subscribe to The Leadership Project YouTube channel, where we also bring you a weekly live stream video podcasts and curated videos to help you become the leader that you wish you always had. Thank you for listening to The Leadership Project mickspiers.com a huge call out to Faris Sedek for his video editing of all of our video content and to all of the team at TLP. Joan Gozon, Gerald Calibo and my amazing wife, Sei Spiers, I could not do this show without you. Don't forget to subscribe to The Leadership Project YouTube channel where we bring you interesting videos each and every week, and you can follow us on social, particularly on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram. Now, in the meantime, please do take care, look out for each other and join us on this journey as we learn together and lead together.