The OYT Coaching Series – Mike Gentile at CISOSHARE

Improving leadership communication does not have the mindshare of many leaders like operational strategies. However, communication is an essential element that many employees often say needs improvement, even when the company is growing fast. In fact, improving leadership communication is critical in an agile work environment. Our guest is Mike Gentile, CEO of CISOSHARE. CISOSHARE was #88 on the 2019 Inc 500 list. Mike begins by sharing his top strategy for optimizing his time, which is being intentional about his family as much as the work. He shares why putting his family at the top of his to-do list has improved his leadership. In part two, Mike is coached on improving leadership communication. We look at the enemies of communication when you are leading a growing team. You will discover how to improving leadership communication inside this episode.

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Mike Gentile: The Transcript

Target Audience: Mike Gentile is the President & CEO at CISOSHARE. Mike has contributed to numerous publications and has delivered more than 100 presentations on information technology and information security. He’s served on the program committee and advisory boards for multiple technology companies, including the RSA conference.

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Disclaimer: This transcript was created using YouTube’s translator tool and that may mean that some of the words, grammar, and typos come from a misinterpretation of the video.

Mike Gentile
I really realized that when I built my task list of things to do, I’m still kind of an old school guy who use Notepad, and I just put in there, what I have to do for the day, my family was never in the top bullets, it was always when this deal, you know, make this revenue, do you know existence equals issue, fix this delivery issue. And, and what I ended up doing was just literally putting my family at the top of my task list always. And always considering those items, and really practicing what I’ve been saying for years, because my family always, you know, comes first. And it really wasn’t even that I wasn’t meaning to do that. But when you look at that fastener, which items are you getting done, your family’s not there, I can give you a hint, what happened to me is a lot of times, it doesn’t happen in terms of putting your family first. So I did that. And I also communicated that to my family as well as their mistake to go with my wife that I was starting to do that.

Intro [0:59]
Welcome to Growth Think Tank. This is the one and only place where you will get insight from the founders and the CEOs of the fastest-growing privately held companies. I am the host, my name is Gene Hammett, I hope leaders and their teams navigate the defining moments of their growth, are you ready to grow?

Gene Hammett [1:16]
Your time is the most valuable thing that you have, you’ve probably heard that. But it’s more valuable than your house, it’s more valuable than your car, it’s more valuable than probably the wedding ring that you carry around. Now, I’m not trying to get too philosophical here, but your time is everything. So this new series around optimizing your time will help you get more clear about new ideas that you can do, we have a very special format that I’m going to share with you. And but let me introduce you to our guest today he is Mike Gentile, he’s the CEO of CISOSHARE, he’s been on the show before they are an IT security company, they do some amazing things with 50 people, and they’re growing fast. And we talk about the number one thing that he’s done inside the company to optimize his time. And so that’s number one thing I’ll just tease you for a second is to create a higher level of collaboration across the team. He does it in a unique, unique way, we go through the details, and in the first half of this, the second half of this, Mike opens up with me with a little bit of a coaching session, where I dive into what’s really going on inside his business. And he shares with me about improving communication, but we get to the heart of it using an example, I use some coaching techniques inside there, you’ll be able to see some of those coaching techniques and really kind of tune in over our shoulder, you’ll probably see some of the same things I see when a client is stuck in their own ways. But Mike is very open to this. We end that conversation with a clear playbook for him of how to handle this if it comes up again. And guess what, it will come up again because it’s something that he’s noticed is a natural pattern that’s happening consistently. So all that being said, here’s the interview with Mike.

Gene Hammett [2:57]
Mike, how are you?

Mike Gentile [2:59]
I’m doing good. I’m doing great. How are you doing Gene?

Gene Hammett [3:01]
I’m fantastic. excited to have you back on the show. I don’t have many people coming back. But we’re doing a special series on optimizing your time. And before we jump into that, I’d love for you to tell us about CISOSHARE just so we can get some context to your business.

Mike Gentile [3:15]
Yeah, CISOSHARE we’re a cybersecurity professional and managed service provider. And we’ve just continued our rapid growth here. The thing that’s really unique about us, we touched on a little bit last time we talked is that everything we do is based on learning and teaching. And it’s built into our minds. The reason we do that is that security is confusing. And so it’s worked for us. So we just keep we keep growing.

Gene Hammett [3:39]
I love it. When you were on here before we had a great conversation around how the business is growing. And I know it’s probably continuing to grow through all of the stuff that we’ve been enduring and 2020. People need more security. So in this vein of this conversation is around optimizing your time you were sharing with me something that you started, I think it started a few years ago, but you’re doing something that has really changed the game and the way that the team plays together as a team as it relates to growing the business. Tell us a little bit more about what that strategy is.

Mike Gentile [4:13]
Sure. So as we were really growing and growing and growing, we started to have some areas where we really needed rapid improvement in different areas of the business. And so we created this process that we call skunkworks here, and essentially what it is, is you remove all the BS out of the way you just bring in people in different areas of our business, we’ve done it now in sales, we’ve done it in delivery, we bring people together that maybe have some issues or ways that we can optimize that service. Whoever wants to come can come. It doesn’t matter what your role is in the company or your involvement, you can come we just bring up issues, we prioritize them as a group and within a one-month timeframe. We identify which ones we want to take on and we just knit daily out, we go from group to group every month, we’re actually circled around the company a bit now. And it’s been unbelievable in terms of what we’ve been able to accomplish, when you kind of just remove the noise out of the way and just focus on working as a group to solve problems that impact everyone in the company.

Gene Hammett [5:21]
All right, I want to dive into this with you, because I want to break it up into chunks for our audience to learn from this. How many employees are on your team?

Mike Gentile [5:28]
We’re a little over 50 now.

Gene Hammett [5:30]
Okay. And so you look, let’s say you did this on sales, you would invite any everyone to come that wanted to participate in this is that fair to say, or?

Mike Gentile [5:41]
Yeah, and, you know, getting people to come really was not too hard. Because if people had an issue or people had an idea that they really wanted to get traction on, that was their area to really just come and talk about it. In addition, it’s voluntary. We created some roles, like identifying, you know, what the issue is, who manages it, the project manager, and you basically, if you’re really passionate about getting something done, you were in that, you know, in that meeting, and so we’ve today never had any issues with people showing up or participating.

Gene Hammett [6:15]
Now, when you say that you’re working on something, is it a known problem that you come into it when you already know, we want to fix this? Or does the group get together and say, what’s the most important issue that we need to address for this month,

Mike Gentile [6:28]
it’s a combination of both. So a lot of times just in the course of business, you start to identify things like, Hey, we need to add this to the sales group, or we need to fix this problem, we kind of collect it, you know, if it’s unbelievably important to the business, then we need to nail it out. right straight away. But a lot of times, now, people are waiting for the cycle of the skunkworks to come back around. And we queue them. In addition, as part of the process. We also in the session, start talking about what the issues are that other people may just want to bring up in the course of that process.

Gene Hammett [7:04]
So how long do you take for that first meeting to identify what the focus will be for the skunkworks project?

Mike Gentile [7:11]
It’s usually a couple of hours, and we go around. And a lot of times from there, then there are homework assignments to bring back. You know, any ideas or issues that you want, we force rank them, prioritize them. And then in the next meeting, we vote on which ones we want to take on in the allotted timeframe. And then we queue the rest.

Gene Hammett [7:31]
So you could do multiple issues for that team? Because you force rank what your top two or three or four, whatever you can get to in that month, right?

Mike Gentile [7:40]
Yeah, as as a rapidly growing company, having a lot of problems.

Gene Hammett [7:47]
Were you with us here as well, when you were doing this? Where did you get the idea from?

Mike Gentile [7:56]
One of my mentors back in the way in the day, always really worked with me on getting visibility into what’s going on in the organization. Also, I’ve done a lot of work with Toyota, and you know, they have some philosophies associated with Kaizen, and really associated with walking the process. So the first time we did it, there was a group that I didn’t necessarily have the visibility that I wanted. And I just basically set out, that was the very first time, let’s just talk about what’s going on in the group, whoever wants to come can come and I want to be there firsthand as the CEO of the company. So that was the first time. And then from that time, we were able, the group just found it as the best way to make a quick change. And so it’s just kept living within the organization from there.

Gene Hammett [8:45]
I remember when you were telling me before because we did a pre-interview to discover this idea so that we can put you on the show. You were telling me that it’s not about you being the law, the leader of this, everyone has kind of equal roles explained to me kind of the way you approach this so that everyone kind of feels equal and feels a part of this team to fix this these issues.

Mike Gentile [9:08]
Yeah, absolutely. So we have set roles for the conduction of the conducting of this process. So when you go in there, there’s there are participants as people that can bring up issues. There’s the project manager that manages all of the different issues. And then there are old problem owners, that’s the person that’s charged with driving it to its conclusion in the process. So you can be an intern with the season, share and take any of them and take any of those roles. The same thing for me and they’re in when I participate in that meeting. I’m not in there as the CEO, I’m in there as one of those roles I just described. And so it really has removes the kind of the power structure out of the way and just lets people work together in a group on a task. That is accomplishable because we don’t like take on, you know, doubling our sales as one of the issues in that task, right? It’s things that are manageable in that timeframe. And then you know, we just work as a group to get it done.

Gene Hammett [10:12]
So let’s back out a little bit, you have this every month, it’s a new team, that you’re kind of working our department, you are inviting new people to come in with fresh perspectives, all levels of the company, you’re not the one responsible for, you know, performing this and driving it home, it’s individuals inside there. And, you know, this makes a clear picture about why this has really impacted your time because you’re improving the business. But you know, how has, it really changed the way you spend your time as a CEO.

Mike Gentile [10:45]
It gives me more visibility. And I think it also makes me more approachable, to be honest, because when I’m in those meetings, I’m just as anyone else in in the session. The other piece that has been really, really important, and this builds on our learning and teaching philosophy or its user share is when before we take on a problem, people actually walk through that processing element in our company and explain it to people. So you also are learning about what actually even the process is, a lot of times people don’t even know even if there may be in that group, as well as when we fix it, you do the same thing with what the new innovative process is, as well. So people also learn it. So it’s really effective way for me to understand and get visibility, especially as we’re growing. Now we have multiple layers of business, it just gives me visibility that I really can’t get in a lot of other ways. And it’s in a safe environment where it doesn’t look like I’m looking over people’s shoulders because I’m really not I’m just trying to solve these problems like anyone else.

Gene Hammett [11:49]
You mentioned Toyota, I don’t know if you know this, but I actually was at college, Georgia Tech, proud of my education. But I studied industrial engineering, which is around looking at manufacturing lines and how they do this and Toyota’s you know, famously for continuous improvement. That’s what this is, right.

Mike Gentile [12:09]
100% I mean, I luckily, with some of the work that I did for them, I was able to take some of their classes, as a contractor doing work. And I still use many of those philosophies today. And yeah, this is definitely built on a lot of them just in, the only difference would be that it’s, we try to really constrain it in time to and in terms of scope so that we can make a success with it, because that success builds energy. And that energy has been really helpful with, you know, just in a high growth company where everyone’s working really hard.

Gene Hammett [12:44]
love all of that. Well, I want to switch gears a little bit here, and I want to give you a chance to actually, we actually came up with two things that have really changed the game for you as a CEO. And a lot of people struggle with this. I’ve struggled with it. But you’ve said that something in your personal life has really made a game-changer for you optimizing your time, what is it? And how has it changed your life?

Mike Gentile [13:05]
Absolutely. So I always have said, Oh, you know what everyone always says, families, number one and families number one, and I believe that even to myself, as I’m going through my course of business, but I really realized that when I built my task list of things to do, I’m still kind of an old school guy to use Notepad, and I just put in there, what I have to do for the day, my family was never in the top bullets, it was always when this deal, you know, make this revenue, do you know, fix this sales issue, fix this delivery issue. And, and what I ended up doing was just literally putting my family at the top of my task list always. And always considering those items, and really practicing what I’ve been saying for years, which is my family, always, you know, comes first. And it really wasn’t even that I wasn’t meaning to do that. But when you look at that task list, which items are you getting done when your family’s not there? I can give you a hint, what happened to me is a lot of times, it doesn’t happen in terms of putting the family first. And so I did that. And I also communicated that to my family as well as the mistake, particularly with my wife that I was starting to do that. And I think actually, you know, it clicked with it, at least my wife specifically I think she was actually like, you know, I think Mike actually is just an idiot, he put all these items above, but I’ve seen real changes from it because it is a big part of how I manage my day.

Gene Hammett [14:29]
I love that you shared that with us. And I’ve had this struggle to my family is such an important piece to it. And you just highlighting the impact that it’s had, I think will help us all optimize our time. Because if we don’t have the relationships with our family, and you know, why are we doing this in the first place?

Mike Gentile [14:48]
Yeah, especially now too. There’s no way you can execute and make things happen with how intertwined your personal life is with your business life right now and even more so during the pandemic right You just you just can’t do it. And you have to give those demonstrations of respect to your family? or How can you expect them to support you and how hard it is to run a business and balance the family piece? I just don’t think it’s doable.

Gene Hammett [15:15]
Well, thanks for sharing that with us. Mike, I want to switch gears to part two of this conversation, which is really just looking at where you’re going next, what you’re working on, as it relates to your time. What is the one thing or challenge that you’re you’re focused on right now, as a CEO of a growing company,

Mike Gentile [15:35]
I think that there are really two things its communication is a big one, especially as we’re growing. And we have multiple layers, of management here at CES this year, as well as we have way more partners than we’ve ever had. You know, it’s managing communication and getting that efficient. And that leads to the second humongous thing, which is getting good information so that I can make informed decisions. If I can’t communicate and create these freeways with different parts of our business, and then get good information through it through those channels, and freeways. There’s no way I can use my time effectively, right, because I’m not making good decisions. And so I spend a ton of time with that. And we’ve had some, quite frankly, we’ve had some hiccups.

Mike Gentile [16:27]
You know, in different areas associated with that one really big hiccup is, you know, we did a really good job of implementing reporting here at CSO share, which goes over all aspects of performance and everything that we’re doing. But we implemented it quickly. And so we implemented it using a lot of manual elements. And we’re not, you know, a $5 company anymore, right? So we’ve made some manual errors against, you know, that really led to making bad decisions. And they were painful areas, error errors. And so one of the things that we really look to do now is to automate and add a lot more validation in the process of the information we get. So it’s good information, not just information.

Commercial [17:13]
Let me take a second here to remind you that if you want to keep getting episodes like this, you want to evolve as a leader, then you want to make sure you go to genehammett.com/subscribe. genehammett.com is my home base, the podcast is growth Think Tank. And if you want to be a visionary leader, if you want to keep learning from all of these amazing founder CEOs that go to genehammett.com/subscribe, so you don’t miss an episode.

Gene Hammett [17:40]
So this is the coaching portion of this conversation. So I’m going to kind of give you a little bit of experience of what coaching would be like, I will put a little asterisk on this, I’m not going to go deeper into this as I would with the client be as direct as I would, I’m not going to make you cry. I don’t think.

Mike Gentile [17:55]
At this point, at this point, nothing can make me cry. Any do you talk to you these days, it’s still on asleep. You’re not gonna make me cry, right? It’s useless here. So So fire away. I know, I’m not perfect. I got easy targets.

Gene Hammett [18:09]
My clients don’t cry either. But I just thought I’d put out there for a little bit of humor. You’ve got two issues. I know there’s a relationship between communication and data. But which of the two? Could we talk about just today to get you more clear about what to do next in this area?

Mike Gentile [18:25]
Probably the communication element.

Gene Hammett [18:27]
Okay. So let me just kind of zero in on this. Is there a skill that you feel like you need to develop a higher understanding of and use? Or is it a conversation or communication across the company in some way, give me an idea of what you’re looking for.

Mike Gentile [18:45]
I think that the big thing that that I have in communication is associated with the fact that we’ve grown so much and I have an unbelievable leadership team here. But I still get nervous, right? This was my baby. When I started it. I was employee number one. And so sometimes I when I’m reaching out to people, there’s elements of fear and nervousness in my voice, probably and in my approach even and even times where you know, you have to trust in order to be trusted. But there are times where I still have trust issues as I’m rolling out these pieces. And I’m sure that that comes through in my communication style sometimes. And that’s not effective. Right. And so I think that that’s probably an area that I’m an I’ve been coached on to be aware of. But it’s something day today I struggle on and when I’m tired and when I’m moving quick. I’m in it every day these days I can make mistakes.

Gene Hammett [19:42]
I want to invite you to kind of give me an example of what you mean by that because I don’t want to make assumptions. So what would an example of something where your fear and nervousness are getting in the way?

Mike Gentile [19:51]
I think following up over and over on you know how a particular opportunity sales opportunity was was handled, you know, and what the communication, you know what actually happened on that deal. And who’s involved and where it’s going. I mean, that’s a common one, as we’re growing. So instead of following our process, which is, you know, we have a, we have a sales meeting, we have sales notes, we have a CRM system that manages everything and gives me information, I’m going around to the, to this to the salesperson on the deal, right, I’m going to someone involved and put myself outside of our communication channel. And that’s being driven by fear that we’re not handling it properly. And even if we’re not handling it properly, that’s not, that’s not an effective way to lead. And that’s not going to resonate well with the team. And so that that’s a perfect example.

Gene Hammett [20:51]
Let’s dive into that one a little bit. When you think about going around the system, going directly to the sales rep that’s running this deal? Is it to tune in to what’s going on? Is it to give them some support so that they can actually win the deal? Or is it to coach them so that they can handle the deal themselves? What do you think is what are you doing?

Mike Gentile [21:14]
It’s none of those things because that would probably be efficient. It’s all about…

Gene Hammett [21:19]
okay.

Mike Gentile [21:20]
It’s, you know me I’m fairly transparent. It’s all about finding input, getting the information as quickly as I possibly can. And getting to this source and, and understanding if I need to do something as quick as I can and sidestepping our process, which is a disrespect to our team, right? into our leadership group.

Gene Hammett [21:43]
Okay, you just said that sidestepping the process of sales is a disrespect to the team. When you say those words, what’s kind of going through your mind right now as a leader?

Mike Gentile [21:57]
It’s just another opportunity, right? I think where I’ve gotten better is, there are 1000 times when I’m not doing that. And I do trust my team to run the group. And on top of it in the situation that I’ve even given you now. You know, I identified it, even when doing it, you know, and kind of fixed it. But when you’re in the heat of the moments, and you’re feeling a lot of pressure, you know, it’s your buckle and you go to either your old ways, or you go to like a crutch, you know, which is going right to the source.

Gene Hammett [22:44]
I had to ask some of these questions to understand what you were really trying to do here, Mike? Because I feel like the CRM, even though it’s supposed to have all the data, it never has everything. Right. For example, if you were all the complexity that your sales process probably endears, you know, what was the last meeting? Like, when we left it? Were they happy or not happy? We rarely capture that inside of our CRM. Right. So is that are you going in there to like, get that the real story from the people? Or is it something else that you’re trying to do?

Mike Gentile [23:22]
I think in the I think the processes that we have created, thanks to our skunkworks work, actually gives me the exact visibility I need on deals, most of the time, but the challenge in that instance, was that the process wasn’t necessarily followed, or there was an error in the system, I believe. And so I didn’t have that information. And what I should have done is gone to the leader of that group and work with them on it getting the system fixed in whatever. So I went direct to the rep and go into the rep. You know, they were cool about it, but the lead rightfully so, the leader, rightfully so it was not stoked, right. And so that was a conversation that we needed to have. And it led a lot of what I’m even saying here, I was very transparent in terms of, you know, I’m human as well, as a leader. I think that’s one thing that I have gotten better at like I make mistakes all day, and I like to live up to them and be transparent with them. So we just discussed it. And then we put in place business rules that we don’t that I just don’t do that and also with some coaching to the sales process and the sales folks that they’re also following the processes so we can get that information and so moving quickly to so.

Gene Hammett [24:48]
You shared an example where you’ve already kind of come up with the solution. Right you get the disrespect now the disrespect wasn’t really with the sales rep but it was with the leader that You bypassed? I think so. And you guys worked it out. And I could see how they didn’t feel empowered because you went around them.

Mike Gentile [25:09]
Yep, absolutely. and rightfully so.

Gene Hammett [25:12]
And now you have a new way to do this, what is the bigger lesson here? So we step back, and not this one particular thing. But what is the bigger lesson for you and how you improve your communication?

Mike Gentile [25:24]
I think one is, is to just be trying to listen to myself in terms of what’s driving me, you know, to do different actions, I think, also really thinking about it before I take actions, especially if it’s something that’s outside of the process, and trying to, you know, in some ways, often, you know, implement a 24-hour rule. You know, my boys placed young boys play soccer. And I think it’s the best thing in all of the youth sports, at least in soccer is this thing called the 24-hour rule where if something drives you nuts, or bugs you, you wait 24 hours to talk to the coach or the kid, you know, the kid takes 24 hours to talk to the coach. And I think that that’s very applicable in business, a lot of times, a lot of times, we’re in the heat of the moment, and you just act. And the more that I implement 24-hour rule with myself, the more effective I am at not making those emotional decisions, which is really what it breaks down to at the end of the day.

Gene Hammett [26:26]
I actually love that the fact that you can rise above this, pulling something from your personal life, and say, You know what, that probably is a really good approach for me as a leader because I have a tendency to do X, I’m going to put this rule in place, you’ve named it the 24-hour rule. Are you think that is that something that you can, you know, kind of start to adopt as you began to improve your communication with your team?

Mike Gentile [26:52]
I think absolutely. And then I think also coupled with that is, I’ve become a lot more okay with myself in making mistakes. And I just don’t beat myself up like I used to, because my heart’s always in the right spot with what we’re trying to do here and see, so sure, I think in the past, you know, I make a mistake like that, I just beat myself up all day long about it, and everyone makes mistakes. And I think I also have gotten a little bit more comfortable, when I make mistakes, I own up to them, I try to put the fix in place, I try to always treat everyone with respect throughout it. But I’m going to make mistakes and just say that I’m not, and then kill myself if I do. You know, it’s just not realistic. And I think that that eats away from you eats away from anybody, especially under all the pressure that all of us CEOs are under.

Gene Hammett [27:42]
Here’s the thing with mistakes. And I’ve seen this across a lot of the companies I work with Mike, it’s okay to make mistakes, and, and to play with the level of courage that we’re going to, you know, kind of break some things along this journey. But you keep making the same mistakes over and over. And that’s dangerous. As you probably know, I know we talked about this one specific thing with your sales team. The real issue wasn’t that you needed the information is that you bypass someone that you have already empowered to lead this team.

Mike Gentile [28:13]
Yep.

Gene Hammett [28:14]
You see that right?

Mike Gentile [28:15]
Oh, absolutely.

Gene Hammett [28:16]
And the 24-hour rule applies here. But it really is. Maybe there’s a question that goes with this, instead of it just being 24 hours waiting. It’s if I was truly empowering my team, who is the person I should really be talking to about this issue?

Mike Gentile [28:33]
Yeah.

Gene Hammett [28:34]
Does that a fair question that kind of add to that little playbook here?

Mike Gentile [28:37]
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, the best way to really get insight is through a question. Right. And so asking that question to yourself, is gonna is definitely going to help in that situation? I think that the challenge in especially in a high growth company, is that it’s not making the same mistake over and over and over again, and never is because our company has grown. I mean, we’re on the Inc 5000. Right, every year, right? We’re, we’re never in the same situation, we’re bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. And so even the same problem is different. But I think going through that checklist, and that litmus test of questions, is critical and something that I can add to my playbook, you know, I like to think I try to do that as well. But I think having you bring it up, crystallizes it as something that I need to really continue to do. In my day to day,

Gene Hammett [29:35]
I want to go back to something you said in the beginning when we got to the heart of this, it really was about your fear and nervousness that you want that gets in the way of you communicating. Is this going to help you bypass that fear?

Mike Gentile [29:52]
Absolutely. And I think you know, another coaching, I’ve had the majority of mistakes that I make are sociated with fear, almost, at least with me personally, especially also, because I’m always creating businesses, I’m always pushing the envelope. So there’s always a degree of fear in what I’m doing. But I think I always go sideways when I let fear control me. You know, and so I like to think I’m worlds better than I was. But I still have work to do in that area.

Gene Hammett [30:26]
All right, so we were just having a little bit of coaching moment with you, Mike around the next thing you’re working on to optimize your time. And here’s where I see this really connecting the dots. If you improve your communication with your team, the 24-hour rule actually will give you time, right, because you don’t have to address it right away. You don’t have to move in and try to get to the heart of it. You can give your team space, but it also adding that question, Who is the right person to talk to you about this will give you that playbook that you just talked about. And I think from a time perspective, when you do this, well, you will catch yourself more often, and not make continuously make this mistake. And it applies to not just in sales, but probably a lot of places in your business. Is that fair to say?

Mike Gentile [31:12]
Yeah, and I would also say that it gives me a lot of time because I don’t have to clean up a mess after right. following up with leaders follow you know, sorting it out, Hey, stop laughing happens.

Gene Hammett [31:22]
The messes your mess, right, you made a mess.

Mike Gentile [31:24]
Yeah. my mess. And those are the ones that stink the most because they take the most time because I gotta fix it.

Gene Hammett [31:31]
Has this been helpful for you today to kind of go through this?

Mike Gentile [31:33]
Yeah, absolutely. I think it’s always great to have a reflective session where someone’s giving you active feedback. And you know, again, in our learning and teaching model, that’s what we’re all about. That’s the only way that we can get better. So I found that this to be very helpful for me. Yeah, absolutely.

Gene Hammett [31:51]
I appreciate it. Well, wrapping this episode up, I just wanted to kind of close this with those listening in here. What we talked about today was optimizing your time, Mike talked about the skunkforts program that he’s done. I really believe this is a great idea. I don’t hear this much. But it’s such a simple way to address specific problems and specific departments, specific teams, and that you can collaborate at the next level. So if you’re looking for ways to improve your leadership, this is a way to empower everyone across the company to get visibility to what’s going on. But also you as a leader, Mike walked us through that. The second thing we you learned today was about, you know, looking at your own next step and your time optimization, there’s always another step. There’s always something else we’re working on as leaders. This is the part of evolution. And what we came up with today was a playbook for Mike to talk about how he could handle something that causes a little bit of a mess, if you will, that has to be cleaned up. So you’ve got an inside view of what coaching feels like experiences like hopefully, you have seen some areas that you want to work on if you want to check out more free work resources more in this series on optimizing your time for genehammett.com. You’ll find it right there. As always lead with courage. We’ll see you next time.

Disclaimer: This transcript was created using YouTube’s translator tool and that may mean that some of the words, grammar, and typos come from a misinterpretation of the video.

 

The OYT Coaching Series with Mike Gentile

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