Hello, everyone. Welcome to The Keys to Creating a Thriving Team Culture. This is the first topic in the 2024 Deer Oaks Supervisor Excellence webinar series. I'm so happy that you've joined us. I believe this is the 11th consecutive year we've offered this series. And so, it's always been a popular series. We've got a great turnout again today. I'm very grateful for so many of you taking time out of your busy schedules to be with us today.

Before we get started, I want to remind you that the 2024 Deer Oaks Supervisor Excellence webinar series is four quarterly sessions. We've got The Keys to Creating a Thriving Team Culture, of course, today. Then, coming up in April, we have Successful Approaches to Difficult Employee Conversations. In July, we have Advanced Coaching Skills for Leaders. And we're going to finish the series in 2024 in October with How to Lead a Team that Provides Great Customer Service.

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All right, folks, let's go ahead and get started today. I want to begin by asking you if you don't mind communicating with me through the question box in the GoToWebinar software. I'd like to ask you if you can hear me clearly, if you can see the slides clearly. I just want to make sure we're good to go technology-wise. Again, if you-- either you can communicate with me through the question box or you can hit the Raise Hand icon in the GoToWebinar software. But I'd like if you would let me know if we are good to go technology-wise.

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Let me begin with a quote by Peter Drucker. Many of you remember Peter Drucker. He was-- especially in the 1900s, he was one of the most esteemed and well-regarded management consultants. I love this quote. And I think it's a great jumping-off place for our conversation today. He said that culture eats strategy for breakfast.

Now obviously, what Mr. Drucker was referring to is a lot of organizations spend a lot of time figuring out their strategy, putting their goals and plans together. And while those are all important parts of leading a successful organization, the culture that you create for your employees goes so much farther in terms of motivating employees to get engaged and do their best work, keeping people from wanting to look for another job somewhere else because they're uncomfortable with the company environment.

And so, folks, I want us to think about that. Again, strategy is important, goals are important, completing tasks and projects, of course, are very important. But the culture that we create for our teams, I'm going to define culture by the environment, by the way we treat each other, by the energy that we create for the team, and we'll get more-- we'll drill down more into that here in just a minute, sets the foundation. And I really do believe that Mr. Drucker was right on, that this is the most important piece.

I'm very fortunate, I work for Deer Oaks EAP services. As you all know, I've been with Deer Oaks now going on 13 years. We have an incredible culture. Our executive director, who I report to, does an incredible job creating an environment that's very safe for people. It's very encouraging. It's very collaborative. Very respectful. Employees are valued. And as a result, I mean, I'm very comfortable working at Deer Oakes. I'm very

Motivated. This is the longest I've worked anywhere in my entire career. And I wouldn't be surprised if I stay here for the rest of my career because it's a great environment. And you don't get that everywhere. As most of you know, you don't get that kind of environment or culture everywhere. And so I'm excited to talk about what we can do as managers and supervisors, and individual employees, what we can do to contribute to a really motivating, respectful, positive culture like that.

All right, so what does a thriving culture look like? First, I want to talk about our impact on creating a thriving culture. Most of you, if you're like me, I'm a middle manager, many of you maybe are as well. What I mean by middle manager is I don't run the company. I am a supervisor. I have three people that report to me, but I also report to the executive director. So I report to a supervisor. And who has a lot of responsibility for the overall Deer Oaks culture, right?

The overall Deer Oaks workplace environment. But I have the most influence over my subculture. I think that's where the rubber meets the road, and I'm going to focus on that a lot today, folks. If you're a supervisor or an individual employee, you may not have a whole lot of influence on the bigger culture across your organization, especially if you work for a large organization.

If you work for a county government, or for a school district, or a private company, and you have hundreds of people working in your organization, even if you're a supervisor, you may not have a whole lot of influence in creating a thriving culture for the overall, right? Because you just don't have that span of control. But you have the most-- as a supervisor or a leader, you have the most influence over your subculture. I want to define a subculture as your work team, right?

And that's what I'm going to really focus on today, what we can really control, where the most control I have is creating the most positive and respectful workplace environment for my subculture, for my work team, for myself, and the three people that report to me. And we work on that every week. We do one-on-one meetings every week individually. And we do team meetings almost on a weekly basis. And we really work on creating an environment where everyone feels comfortable, and safe, and respected, feel supported, they feel recognized. And that's what I want to talk about today.

What does a thriving subculture look like? Well, first of all, it's welcoming. Everyone should feel like they have a sense of belonging, that this is their workplace community, this is their work family. That's the ideal. And most of you would probably agree that not every environment is like that. Sometimes workplace environments are kind of cold and businesslike. Other times, workplace environments are kind of toxic. We all use that term nowadays to describe dysfunctional behavior. And human beings, obviously, none of us are perfect. And there's always going to be a little bit of dysfunctional behavior in every group of people, right? because we're human.

But when you have a really positive workplace culture that's very supportive of people, where the supervisor sets a nice positive tone, creates a lot of energy, creates a safe environment, is very interested in people's input, and the rest of the team has each other's back, they really enjoy working together, they're very respectful of each other, they take care of each other. When you get an environment like that, it's like a work family.

And I truly look forward to going to work at Deer Oaks every day because it's a work family. Our executive director has done a really great job creating that environment. And so I try to do the same for my work team, is to help everybody on the team feel like they belong. In our team meetings, I give everyone a voice. I really bend over backwards to make sure that everyone on the team. Doesn't matter what our title is, it doesn't matter how much tenure we have.

Newer employees, we have one-- we've got a couple of employees on our team that have been around for a long time. One of my colleagues has been around for 17 years now, I believe. Another colleague just hit their 15th year anniversary. I'm at 13. And we have the fourth person on our team, started last May. So she's the newer member of the team. But we give her just as much input as those of us that have been here over a decade because everyone's voice matters, right? She brings a fresh perspective to the team. And so, that's the key, is we want to make it welcoming and comfortable for everybody.

A thriving subculture also is inclusive. And I started to allude to that, but everyone is valued and respected. Again, it doesn't matter what their background is. It doesn't matter how long they've been at Deer Oaks. It doesn't matter what their title is. It's everyone's voice matters. Everyone's input matters. Everyone's opinion matters. And we really try to do that.

Our team meetings, when we're talking about issues, and projects, and problems we're trying to solve, we try to go around the room. Every one in the meeting give everyone an opportunity to weigh in because everyone's voice matters, right? Everyone's opinion matters. And two heads are better than one, always. Four heads are better than two, and so on and so forth.

Now a thriving subculture also is engaging. And these are building on each other, of course. What I mean by engaging is people feel like they're a part of it. They take ownership. I think where supervisors-- where we can really help create an engaging culture is not only to make sure that we're spending time with people and so they know they're important to us, not just as employees but also as human beings, right?

At the beginning of all of my meetings, whether it's a team meeting or a one-on-one meeting with a staff member, I always try to start by asking them how they're doing and ask them about their family. And asking about areas of their interests that I know from before. Or ask about what's going on that's important to them, like if someone says to me last week during our one-on-one meeting that their mother's not feeling well, the next week I try to remember to say, how's your mom doing. I just want everyone to feel like I care about them as people.

There's research that shows that when a supervisor demonstrates that they care about employees as people, not just as employees, that employees are much, much more likely to be motivated, and get engaged, and give their best, right? Give 100%. And the other part of that, of course, is constantly giving people a voice.

So we need to be thinking about that. What are we doing on a day-to-day basis, and not just in our regular formal meetings, but what are we doing informally through emails and texts, or teams messaging? What are we doing when we're working together on projects? And what are we doing to make sure that we show an interest in each other's thoughts and ideas so that everyone can provide-- is invited to provide input?

Thriving subcultures also are very collaborative. Again, I'm building-- each one of these steps builds on the other, right? Or one of these components build on the other. We want to make sure that everyone feels like they're a part of things, right? People support what they help to create. I know you all know that. But people buy in and take ownership if they have a say.

In environments where supervisors are doing most of the talking, and that happens unfortunately a lot of times in the world, right? We've all worked in environments like that, where supervisors are pretty directive. Team meetings, the supervisors doing 80% of the talking, and sometimes not showing a lot of interest in people's ideas but going down their agenda, and in one-way communication, people don't feel as involved, they don't feel as a part of things.

But if it's a collaborative partnership where people feel like they're valued, their voice matters, their input is important, and that's what I'm talking about. So when you're working on projects, that's why I chose this picture on the slide there. You see a team very engaged and working together on something.

That's-- when we can get to that place where everyone's engaged and working together, feeling a part of things, feeling like an important equal partner in things, and people get to each other and care about each other as individuals, they enjoy working together. It becomes a real team effort. I love that. And again, as I know you all know, it's not that way in every organization. But we can intentionally do some of the things we're going to talk about today and create more of an environment like that for our work teams, for our subculture.

Last but not least, I want to talk about that a thriving culture regularly provides recognition and shows appreciation to all of its members. And that's not just the supervisor. Of course, the supervisor needs to give recognition and show appreciation, that's important. But team members need to show appreciation and recognize each other. It's everyone supports each other.

It's everyone encourages each other. And that, again, creates a really thriving, positive culture. And again, it's not always this way. And so I want to spend the rest of our time together today to talk about some of the behaviors and strategies that we can use as leaders and as colleagues to create this kind of a thriving culture for the people we work with day to day.

All right, let me start with being a respectful communicator. I think this really is kind of the bottom line. Now, and I think it's for supervisors and colleagues. As we all know, respectful communication is when people are-- they're open to each other's ideas, they're interested in what everybody has to say, interested in their opinions.

You don't have one person or a small handful of people always doing all the talking, or always giving their opinion, always making suggestions. The leader and everyone else on the team regularly is looking around the room, making sure everyone has a chance to weigh in, giving everybody a voice.

According to SHRM, the Society for Human Resource Management. And that's the Industry Association for Human Resources, as many of you know, the number 1, non-financial motivator for employees when they go to work every day is to be treated with respect. And that doesn't just automatically happen. Busy people, when they get in the workplace, sometimes will have their blinders on and just focus on their own agenda.

But when people go to work and more intentionally thinking about being-- not just doing their job or looking at their agenda and completing their tasks, but also sees that they're part of a team. And that they're a valued participant in the greater mission of the team, then people, in general, communicate day-to-day, even in the hallway, in a more collaborative way and a more respectful way. So remember, respect comes across when people are asked for their input, when people are asked for their advice, when they're asked for their suggestions, when they're given a say in what the work plan is or what the goals are. That creates a really respectful environment where everyone feels like they have value.

And the more we can interact that way, again, from the supervisor to the employees, and from the employees to the other employees, the more positive and respectful that environment is going to be. And when we have an environment like that, research is really clear, people in general are going to be more motivated to get engaged and do their best work. It's really worth taking the time to build that, and be real intentional about it.

Now, as part of that, we have to avoid being too directive. And this was a problem I had earlier in my management career, my supervisory career. I am kind of a hopeless extrovert. I do talk a lot. And anyone who's ever known me knows that I do. But I do try to catch myself and then turn around and ask people questions and give them input. Earlier in my career, I wasn't doing that enough. I was being too directive. I was dominating conversations. Like in my team meetings back in those days, I was doing 80% of the talking. And I could tell sometimes people weren't very engaged, and I wondered why.

But I didn't realize it was because I wasn't asking them into the conversation. I wasn't saying, hey, what do you think? What ideas do you have? What's your advice? Have you ever seen this problem before? How did you handle it in the past? And so I've learned over the years, through getting better training and with practice and trial and error, I've learned how to do a better job of asking people for input.

We can avoid being overly directive by catching ourselves overtalking, and taking a step back and asking people what do you think? Whether it's a team meeting or a one-on-one conversation with somebody, to say, hey, here's what I'm thinking, what do you think? Or, hey, we have this problem going on. Instead of telling the individual what we ought to do to solve the problem, ask the individual for their idea. What do you think we should do to solve this? Have you ever dealt with something like this before? What did you do in the past? And so, thats the way we go from being too directive to being more collaborative.

But remember, folks, if you're too directive in your communication style, your employees can perceive it in a negative way. It can feel like you're being bossed around or talked down to, or even micromanaged if you're too directive and you're too much of a one-way communication-- communicator in conversation. So again, I think it's really important that we're careful about our communication approach. And try to be as collaborative as possible. And try to minimize being too directive in how we talk to each other.

All right. Next, I want to talk about spending time with our employees. There's a wonderful book out there called "The Leadership Challenge" by Kouzes and Posner. Again, the title of the book is "The Leadership Challenge" by Kouzes and Posner. I love that book. It's one of my favorite management and leadership books. Right up front, right in the beginning of the book, the foreword of the book, it talks about leadership is relationship. And I truly believe that the most effective leadership begins with the relationship that the supervisor or the manager builds with their team, with each individual employee, and then with the team as a whole.

And so just remember that Gallup, the polling company, they've done a ton of great research around employee engagement. They've concluded after talking over 1 million US employees, all sectors, public and private, they've concluded that regardless of why someone goes to work for an organization, how long they stay and how productive they'll be while they're there has most to do with their relationship with their direct supervisor.

So remember that if you're a supervisor, the connection you have, the relationship you build with your employees, and the time you spend with them will always be a primary factor in their motivation and engagement. So we really do need to make sure we're just not doing-- spending all of our time on our own to-do list. Most of us are working managers, right? We've got a lot of things to do.

But we're also spending a lot of time with the staff, bonding with the staff, touching base with them, collaborating with them on projects and tasks, asking how you can support them. Like in the picture here, where the manager is kind of leaning over talking to the employee, and they're having a very collegial conversation. We ought to be looking intentionally to have those kinds of interactions with their staff on a daily basis.

Some people do a really good job of walking around in the morning. It's a little tougher nowadays for so many of us working remotely or in a hybrid schedule where we're not face-to-face every day. But a lot of people, when we are face-to-face, do a really good job of walking around in the morning and touching base with people. How are you doing? How was your weekend? Did you see the game yesterday? How's your mom doing? How's your daughter doing in kindergarten? Whatever the case may be, just staying connected with people, showing an interest in them. And then professionally, from time to time, asking them about where do you see yourself in a year. What are your what are your career goals. How can I help you get there?

And just remember, folks, we got to spend-- we got to invest time in these relationships. When people feel cared about by their supervisor, again, there's a lot of research that says when people feel cared about by their supervisor, we're going to be much more likely to get engaged and be motivated to do our best work. And every supervisor, right, we want our team to be motivated and engaged. We want them to give 100%. But in order to motivate that, we got to make sure we're spending a lot of time with people and showing them that we care about them, and that we're interested in them, not just as employees but as people. And that takes time. We have to nurture those relationships and spend time with people.

I know, again, it's a little bit more difficult in a hybrid or a remote work environment. But I think it's really important, folks, that even if you're working remotely. I've heard some really creative things. And I have a remote team. My entire team is remote, so we're not in the same room together very often. When we have our virtual meetings on Tuesday, our virtual team meetings, we start a lot of those team meetings by just kind of connecting together, right? And ask them how everyone's doing, going around the room and touching base with each other. And just touching base with how people's lives are, how their families are.

One of our employees just moved into a new home. So one of our recent meetings, we were asking her lots of questions about how's that going. And we were really excited for her because she was really excited about it. And so we spent about five minutes chatting with her about her new home. And those are the kinds of conversations that are invaluable for teams, right? So regularly make sure we take a few minutes to visit with each other and show an interest in one another, because when we do that, again, people are going to feel better bonded to the team, better bonded to the organization and their supervisor, and more likely to get engaged and do their best work.

I also want to recommend regular one-on-one meetings, there's been a lot of research about this. And didn't start doing this until seven or eight years ago. but. I worked for a manager, this is probably about 15 years ago before I came to work for Deer Oaks, who did one-on-one meetings. She had a team of six or seven people, I was one of them. And she, at the beginning of the year, would schedule a weekly 30-minute meetings with every one of us. And we would put it on the calendar in January for the entire year. And she really valued that time. I did, too. I had never worked for a manager that did regular one-on-ones with me on a weekly basis.

That structure, it allowed me to stay connected to her. She used that time to start every meeting asking about my family, what was important to me. And then, of course, we would talk about ongoing projects and tasks. It would help us stay on-- so it helped us bond as people, but stay on the same page with the work, which was really great. I found it interesting because now I do that with my team every week.

And if you've got a big team, you might not be able to do it every week. I've only got three direct reports right now. So I can do it once a week and still have time to do everything else. If you have a big team, you might do it every other week or once a month. There's nothing in the research that says that you have to do it weekly. But there's something about having a structured meeting with your boss every week that keeps you closer together, better connected, and keeps you on the same page with the workflow.

And it's interesting. Gallup, the polling company, again, says that people who have a regular one-on-one meeting with their supervisor, and meet with my supervisor, our executive director, every other week, are three times more engaged than people that don't. There's something about being proactive-- and that's what I find, is I used to, before I was meeting one-on-one with everybody, I feel like I was more reactive. I certainly would meet with people on an as-needed basis, or I'd be responsive to their needs, but it really was more reactive. I wasn't proactively, like, bonding with them.

The fact that I meet with people every week allows me to stay really current with their lives and show continued interest in them as people. And it also keeps us all on the same page with the workflow, which is really great. Before, I felt like I was a lot more reactive in terms of following up with people and seeing how things were going. And was talking to people more on an as-needed basis, rather than just on a regular, consistent basis. So this, to me, is a more proactive way. And I think our team is so much more productive since we started doing these one-on-one meetings. I highly recommend that.

Now we also, of course, to have a thriving team culture, we want to create opportunities for team bonding, right? Teams have a personality. I think we all know that. And it's based on how they treat each other. And when teams are well-bonded, one research study says that when people truly spend a lot of time together and they have a team identity and they feel a sense of belonging and they get bonded with each other to the point where they care about each other as people, they don't just look at each other as just coworkers. They look at each other as this is my work family. These are the people I care about and look forward to seeing every day. When that happens, the research shows those teams are as much as 70% more productive. Those teams, because they're so well bonded and they feel like a work family, they tend to want to work harder for each other.

And of course, the need for connection in today's world because of remote work and hybrid work, when we don't see each other in the office face-to-face as often, it's probably even more important than it's ever been. And so, it's important that we're constantly thinking about how can we spend more time with people. How can we bond with each other? And you just have to get creative to bond with people.

I know one supervisor that I interacted with recently that works 100% remotely, and his whole team does. And what he does is every morning he sends out an email to everybody. And it's a good morning email. How are you doing, guys? How is everybody? Just want you to that I'm going to be in the office all day today. If you need me, I do have a meeting at 2:00 and a 3:00, but other than that, you can get me through teams or-- and I love that. I love the fact that he's proactive and reaching out. Because he doesn't see people face-to-face every day, he's proactive in reaching out and staying bonded with people, staying connected to them. That makes a big difference.

And in your team meetings, folks, make sure you're facilitating the team bonding together. I like doing icebreakers or brainstorming sessions in team meetings to keep people bonded together. Icebreakers are great. One of my favorite icebreakers is you go around the room and have everyone say, what's the best concert I've ever been to and why? I just did that with a team recently. And they really had a lot of fun. And they got to know each other's personalities a little bit more through their musical preferences. Other times, you can do it on a business-related topic, do an icebreaker on, can I have people's opinions on what's the best way to respond to a client issue or problem? Can we go around the room and let's brainstorm this together?

But doing those kinds of things just it gives people a chance to get to each other a little bit better, and learn from each other. Brainstorming, again, is one of the best pure ways to collaborate together and to get connected with each other. Like nowadays, where I used to do 80% of the talking in my team meetings, in my team meetings nowadays, I come to the meeting with maybe two or three topics I want the team to talk about that day. And instead of me doing most of the talking, I turn it over to the team and say, hey, I'd love for us to brainstorm xyz. So here's the background. And what do you all think? Who wants to go first?

And we just work together. And I wish I'd had known to do this 20 years ago, my earlier team meetings would have gone a lot better. But nowadays, our team meetings just go so well because everyone is taking part, everyone's involved. And for me, as a leader, my job becomes less about running the meeting and more about facilitating an opportunity for everyone to have input, everyone to weigh in.

And so be thinking about that. Be thinking about opportunities for the team to share together, bond together, and get to each other as people, and to brainstorm together where they feel like they're producing the work together. It's a team thing. It's not people working in silos, which happens on so many work teams where they're not very connected together. But it's everyone at least coming together periodically to do things together as a team. It's a really important part of team functioning.

All right, the last thing. Obviously, we could go a lot deeper with this, but the last thing I want to talk about in terms of creating a thriving workplace culture is to make sure that you are modeling recognition and appreciation, and you're encouraging the team to do so as well. Interesting, in the leadership challenge book I mentioned a few moments ago, one research study was cited that 70% of employees wish they were more appreciated at work. Folks, we need to thank people for their efforts. And not just give people kudos for results.

I made the mistake in the past of primarily sending out thank you or congratulatory emails when people got a good result. And I stopped and thought at one point, wait a minute. Now, people who are not necessarily getting the same result are also working hard. So I started focusing a little bit more of also showing appreciation for effort.

Because sometimes, as you all know, people are working on something, and they're very diligent, they're really putting in a good effort, but they don't have a complete control over the final outcome because there's things outside of their control. But they're really working hard. They're really giving great effort. So we need to make sure that we demonstrate to people that we appreciate that. And encourage the team to show appreciation as well. You can do that in different ways.

I know one team that recently was going to put together a kind of a team encouragement. They were thinking that there wasn't enough positivity in the team, there wasn't enough of a sense of appreciation, so they were actually creating a program where teammates got to recognize great effort by anyone on the team as kind of an attaboy and an attagirl.

And people would get to wear a badge if you were nominated by one of your teammates for just going above and beyond. And you were able to wear that badge for the rest of that week. And I thought that was a really interesting way to get people more intentionally looking out to support people, and encourage people, and show them their appreciation for their efforts.

Obviously, recognition is a big part. Recognition, appreciation, are similar, right? But they have some differences. Mark Twain, the great American author that most of us are familiar with. I love this. This is a guy at the highest level of his vocation, right? An acclaimed author. He said I could go a whole year on a good compliment. Even him, he's someone that obviously got a lot of acclaim, he still wanted and needed compliments from others to feel appreciated, to feel recognized.

And so, a book, "The Carrot Principle" that I've got on my bookshelf, it cites a study that said that the number one thing people want from their boss at work every day is to be recognized for their efforts. They want to know the boss appreciates and recognizes their efforts. And so, let's make sure that we are intentionally, every day, every week, looking for ways to show appreciation and give recognition to everyone who's working hard and to encourage the employees to show appreciation and recognition to each other.

All right, folks, I we've covered a lot in a very short period of time today. Those are some of the primary behaviors that I want to recommend that we focus on intentionally to create a thriving subculture. Remember, a thriving subculture, again, is welcoming. And like we talked about today, when everyone has a voice and everyone shows an interest in each other, and we treat each other really respectfully, it creates a welcome-- a safe, welcoming environment where everyone feels like they belong. And it becomes kind of a work family.

It's inclusive. Everyone has a voice. Everyone feels respected and valued. It's engaging because everyone on the team is regularly encouraged to give their input, and to give their advice, to make their suggestions. It's collaborative, it's a team-oriented environment. And everyone provides a lot of recognition and appreciation.

All right, folks, let me go to-- let's switch over to the question and answer session that we're going to have today. And so, if you have any questions, please feel free to type your questions into the question box in the GoToWebinar software. We have plenty of time for questions today. You'll find the GoToWebinar software in the GoToWebinar-- or in the-- it'll be on your screen. It is a navigational bar. Some of you may have it across the top. of you may have it along the right side of your screen. But again, just click on that GoToWebinar question box, and please share whatever questions you have today.

We've got our first question here. On the topic about small talk, some employees complain about this and don't like it. What do you recommend? I appreciate that. I think we need to just adjust our style. Everyone, now the truth is, there's a Forbes magazine article that some of you may want to look up. It was from February of 2021 that small talk isn't small. And what it basically was referring to is that we bond professionally together in these two or three-minute conversations or five-minute hallway conversations at a time.

Now everyone's different. So small talk for an extrovert like me can be pretty wordy, right? It can go on 10 minutes. Small talk for one of my more introverted or one of my more bottom-line-oriented colleagues could be 30 seconds or a minute. And so, we do need to adjust our approach to small talk when we're visiting with each other to what works for other people. So if you someone doesn't like to sit around and chit-chat all day, be briefer with that person. Maybe ask them a question or two. How was your weekend? How's your son doing? And then you move on, right?

Because you realize that they don't mind bonding a little bit, but they quickly become impatient and want to get to work. So you're recognizing and appreciating that that's their style. I try to rein in my overtalking style a lot, to listen more, and to be a little briefer, especially with people that I can sense, either don't want to be as chatty or want to get-- process this and move on. So I would just say, let's read the room and try to adjust our style to what works with the person you're bonding with.

One of our questions says, should you give incentives like coffee cards? I do do that sometimes. If you have that budget, for one team meeting recently, I wanted to say thank you. The team had hit several deadlines that we had gotten through and done a really good job with. So for one of our regular Tuesday afternoon meetings, I actually went online to Amazon and got a $15 Starbucks card for all three of my colleagues and went ahead and sent it to their-- I emailed it to them, sent it to them electronically.

And so when we got online together for that week's meeting, I asked everybody, did you get your card? And they're like, wow. I was so surprised. And I said, I just wanted a little token of my appreciation for your hard work. I know we've been through a lot lately. And you guys have done a tremendous job. I want to tell you how much I appreciate it. And so, yes. If you have the budget to do something like that, that's a nice touch.

Another one of our colleagues says, how do you deal with the few that never seem happy? There's going to be people like that, folks. You know the old saying you can't make everybody happy? It's true. And not everyone's going to like our style. I mean, so all we can do is try to do your best to be the best, the most positive, supportive leader you can. And knowing that not everyone's not going to be 100%.

Like one of the things that-- I like to watch the research because it helps me normalize things or put things in perspective. Like one of the Gallup Employee Engagement study shows that 20% of American employees are disengaged. And so, basically, it says one out of five employees, in general-- these are general surveys, right? Every organization is going to be a little different. But in general, one in five American employees is disengaged.

So if I have four people enthusiastic about what we're doing with our team meeting and how we're interacting together and one person that just sits in the background and doesn't contribute, I'm not going to lose sleep over that because that's typical of a group, right? Not everyone's going to get engaged. But if I can get 80% of the team engaged and working together in a collaborative way, then I'm feeling like we're making progress. We are bonding. We are really establishing a really nice environment for the team. And so, I would look at it that way. Thank you.

Another question was, what was the name of that management book you said you liked? That's "The Leadership Challenge." Let me go back up to that real quick, folks, just so you can see it in writing. It's the book right here in this first bullet, "The Leadership Challenge." It's written by Kouzes and Posner. Kouzes is K-O-U-Z-E-S. And Posner is P-O-S-N-E-R. Great book, very research-based.

Got time for some more questions. Here's what kind of icebreaker activities do you recommend for an in-person meeting? I like going around the virtual room-- or excuse me. I like going around the room, whether it's virtually or in person And giving everyone an opportunity to give their input. Folks, an icebreaker doesn't have to be an activity, it can be. I mean, you can Google icebreakers, and you'll get tons of ideas online.

I do a lot of icebreakers around helping people let their hair down and get to each other more as people, so more natural bonding can happen on a team. If you just go into a team meeting, get right down to business, the team will be more cold and businesslike. But if you can encourage people to really get to know each other better, that's why, whether it's virtual or in-person, like, I get a lot of mileage out of things like talk about the best concert you went to and why. People get to each other better.

Or another creative one that we did a while ago was, now that you're older, if you had to go back and give some advice about what does it take to succeed in the world to your 18-year-old self, what would that advice be? I thought that was a really interesting and creative icebreaker that the team came up with. We talk about, what's your favorite sport? What's one thing about you that none of us would have any idea because it's not something you've ever shared, just so we can get to know each other.

And you don't have to do it in every meeting, because it can get stale if you do it every month, like some of you shared already. And everyone gets enthusiastic about that kind of small talk or icebreakers. But if you did one a month, for example, that's 12 opportunities in a year, whether it's virtual or face-to-face, where people are going to get to each other better as people. And I find that the bonding naturally occurs.

We went from biweekly meetings to weekly meetings during the pandemic, just to stay better connected. And interestingly, as we did more icebreakers, I just found the teams environment was so much better, it was so much warmer, and people seemed more comfortable with each other. So those are some suggestions that I'd share. Got time for maybe two or three more questions.

Here's a good one from one of our colleagues is that-- just a comment. Recognition is nuanced. Ask how one prefers to be recognized. This is warranted. I agree with you. Not everyone likes recognition the same way. Like, for example, in my experience, some people don't like to be recognized in front of the group, some people do. Some people thrive on that. Some people don't like to have you copy your boss on recognition to them, some. People love it. They love getting a chance to get recognition in front of the executive director. So by all means, get to know people and find out what motivates them.

Me and one of the supervisors that reports to me, we, from time to time, will go around the room and just the two of us to say, I want to make sure that the recognition we provide is truly motivating for each person, recognizing that we're all different. And we've kind of compared notes on, OK, here's this person, what do you think they like? Here's another person, what do you think they like? One of the reasons I sent out the coffee cards is, that came from one of our brainstorming conversations about what our team likes, and they loved it. They loved that opportunity.

All right, let me get to more questions. I'm trying to find questions that would have a wide audience appeal. Here's a good one. Regarding giving all staff a voice and ability to provide input. How do you balance that with bigger organizations? At some point, decisions need to be made, and not everyone's input can be solicited, nor is it needed for every decision. I totally agree.

If you create an environment where people feel like they have a voice, so, for example, in team meetings, if people have a voice at times, you don't have to get everyone's input on every decision. Absolutely not. I mean, you as the supervisor, I mean, part of your job is to make decisions. Now obviously, communicating about the decisions you're making and letting people understand those decisions is an important part of making sure the staff feels in the loop, of course.

But you don't always have to-- I try to balance it by giving people a voice regularly. So I don't ask everybody for input on everything, but at least periodically, once every couple of weeks, would be an example. I tried to do a brainstorming session. I tried to give people an opportunity to have a voice. I want people to feel empowered. And the research shows that when people feel like they have input, they take more ownership, and they're typically more motivated to do the work. And so we just want to create an environment where people feel, at least some of the time, they have a voice, they have some input.