242: Run Great Meetings With Thomas Rechtien

23
Sep

Thomas Rechtien, President of Nance Steel Sales LLC is driven by a passion to help people become the best versions of themselves and run great meetings that drive impactful results.

We learn about Thomas’s framework, which helps leaders foster trust, improve communication, and drive results in their organizations. He emphasizes the importance of well-run meetings in achieving better team dynamics and organizational success, offering practical strategies for leaders looking to elevate their meetings and leadership practices.

—

Listen to the podcast here

 

Run Great Meetings With Thomas Rechtien

Good day, dear listeners, Steve Preda here with the Management Blueprint Podcast. And my guest today is Thomas Rechtien, who is a good friend of mine. He is the president of Nance Steel Sales LLC, and he is also a certified Summit OS guide. He’s part of our guide community. Thomas, welcome to the show.

Thank you for having me, Steve.

Well, it’s great to have you. So, Thomas, let’s start with what we start with on all recent conversations. What is your personal “Why” and what are you doing to manifest it?

My personal “Why” is I’m kind of at the point in my life and career where I want to give back based on some of the things that I have learned throughout my journey. And I really want to help people become the best versions of themselves.

Okay, that’s huge, the best versions of themselves. What does it mean? How do you do that? How do you help people become the best versions of themselves?

Well, I’ve been through the co-active coaching training and some things I’ve picked up there are really, really like where, for example, it’s, they call it level three listening. So you just sit, put your tongue to the roof of your mouth so you can’t say anything and you just listen to people. And when I went through that, I really found out that I tend to interrupt people. So my wife is right when she blames me for that. And it’s really a huge tool. Listen to them, address the whole person, kind of be in that very moment with everybody that you talk to and really pay attention to what’s being said. And not only that, on a surface level, that what can be level one, level three is okay. Also, listen between the lines and listen to what’s behind the words that are being said.

Yeah, I agree with you. This is huge, because the most important things are often left unsaid, and you kind of have to listen between the lines of what people say and tap into some sort of stuff that they might not even articulating mentally to themselves. And if you can reflect this back and help people see it, then this can be very, very powerful and life changing. So take a step back. So what’s your general coaching philosophy? How do you look at coaching and what do you think makes for good coaching?

I think some of the stuff that we’ve talked about already, Steve, I think real good coaching is addressing the whole person when the agenda comes from the client and they come and whatever, they come with a symptom and they want you to put a band aid on. Real good coaching goes way beyond that and it fixes it for good, meaning you dig deep with the clients, you go through some powerful, painful, good and bad emotions usually in those processes. And yeah, you’re always there for them the way they need it. But the client is in the driver’s seat. So it’s not about the coach advising all the time in the first place. It’s about the clients coming up with everything. Well, we also say that every person is naturally creative, resourceful, and whole. And what that means is that they have everything they need. Everybody has everything they need to fix their problems. They just don’t know how to get to it. And that’s what a coach or a guy does, kind of draw that out and help the client to draw it out and discover it themselves. And then there’s a true accountability piece to that as well, that the clients in the end have to walk the talk on, right? Like you and I could talk forever and you say, yeah, yeah, yeah, I’ll do this, Thomas. And two weeks later, I call you and you say, oh, I didn’t get to it. I was so busy. So there’s real wanting to change something that has to be there. Otherwise, it ends up being a waste of time and waste of money.

Yeah, I find it as well that the most important thing is for people, your mentees, to have the desire to do something. Then what you want is you want to remove the inhibitions. You want to remove the obstacles from them to be able to fulfill their own desires. How do you do that? How do you give them enough ownership so that they feel like these are their ideas? They came up with it and then they feel motivated to execute them. That’s great stuff.

Yeah, I want to say that but also depends on obviously the client is different for everybody. You can’t just say to everybody. Okay, put a reminder on your phone that works for some not for others You can’t just say to everybody talk to the person that’s closest to you and have them involved to hold you accountable. So it really depends on what kind of drives them and triggers them. I always compare it to losing weight. It’s a very, very simple process. You got to take in less calories than you burn and you lose weight. If you eat more calories than you burn, you gain weight. So although it’s very simple, it’s not easy. And that’s the same with coaching. You really got to find, okay, this is the clear part, but how do I get there? So, and that’s really what I love about it, too. It’s very interesting. No conversation is like another. It's always something new. Share on X

Yeah. So talking about coaching, you are also a leadership team coach, and you work with companies. You have been running several companies, especially the sales sector, and you are teaching your clients how to run effective meetings. So what does it take to run a great Weekly Tactical Meeting for a leadership team?

Well, there is a secret sauce that’s not really secret, Steve. I think it’s an easy three to four step process. So for one, you have to kind of create a structure and define clear objectives of what you want to get out of the meeting. Everybody hates to get into a meeting that’s scheduled for half an hour and then you have a two hour chit chat with no outcome whatsoever. Or if you have an outcome, there is no clear assignment of responsibilities, who does what afterwards, what is the timeline, when are you going to report back, when is it going to get done. So create a structure, define clear objectives. Then also make it a safe space. I like to start every meeting with sharing good news. That’s for one, to start the meeting out on a high note, and then people open up. They talk about themselves, they talk about something personal, and that kind of builds trust among the leadership team. Make space for vulnerability. It’s very important that as part of being a safe space that everybody can share whatever they want, and it really stays in the room. And that goes back to kind of designing with everybody who is involved, how you want to run these meetings, what can go out, what can’t go out. And as you go through this, people will start asking for help. They’ll openly share problems and it helps really to move forward. So then, yeah, well, the framework behind the framework, what you do, you create a safe space in the first place. You teach a structure, build peer accountability. So they also have to hold each other accountable. And the fourth point would be stimulate action, which means really, like we talked about before in the coaching side, really get people to walk the talk and end the meeting on time. If everybody knows, okay, this is really cool. We go in there, it takes an hour, hour and a half, whatever, 15 minutes, whatever the scheduled time is for a certain meeting, they know it ends then and we have a clear direction of what we’re going to do afterwards.

Yeah, I mean, people get so frustrated and they just have to sit in a meeting that doesn’t really have an agenda. It doesn’t have an objective. People talk sharp. Everyone’s trying to just promote their own agenda or try to look good at the bus. That can be super frustrating. It’s a disruptive thing and it just prevents people from getting their work done.

Yeah. And then you see it too. When you look at the team and they start filling with their fingers, they start taking out their phones, you know that you’re losing them. And all that goes back to the very basics of the meeting structure and creating the environment and the space that you need to conduct a successful meeting.

Okay, so you need a structure, you need an agenda, you need objectives for the meeting, that’s clear. And then you talk about the safe space. How does one create a safe space? Is it just enough to share some personal stuff and listening to people or there are other things?

Well, I think like what’s like Patrick Lencioni’s Five Dysfunctions of a Team, you start with the trust space and that has to be there. And that’s what at the end creates the safe space. You can’t just go in there and say, hey, people, it’s Monday morning, we have our first meeting, now this is a safe space. And everybody goes, yeah, Thomas, this is awesome. We love it. It feels so good. So that’ll take some time and it really takes some work with the team. And I think that the first step is starting to share things. And in the beginning, it’s like, usually you do this for the first time and you get into the meeting, okay, we’ll share something personal, good news. Some people say something real meaningful. Other people say something like, I woke up on the right side of the grass. I made it here on time. But then as you go, it just intensifies because they say, ooh, that person really shared something openly with us here in this group. So they bring something to the next meeting that’s a step up from what they did in the first meeting. And as you go through this, it takes time. Usually, especially the first couple of meetings, they just suck. There’s no other word to describe it. Everybody has to get used to the structure and how things work. But as you work through the process, you create that trust base with everybody. And I would always agree on feedback rules, like let the other person finish. I would also agree with everybody on making, but in terms of making it the same space, that’s what being shared in the room stays in the room. So we’ll write up some rules that everybody in the end agrees to and things like that. And that over the course of a couple of meetings starts, starts kind of making a difference and starts creating that that environment that you really need.

So one thing that my team started doing and it was not my idea, they suggested it, was to start the meeting with an icebreaker. Because it felt like if we do an icebreaker, they’re going to be able to connect at a personal level from the get-go and then the whole meeting, they’re going to be more relaxed, they’re going to feel more connected to their colleagues, they get to know each other, they feel that they’re building trust, and the whole thing is going to go much better. We limited the icebreaker to five minutes so that it doesn’t take up too much time. And we take turns, so every time someone else brings an icebreaker. And it could be as simple as what’s your favorite animal and why, and how do you share something that doesn’t make it obvious for people to figure out? Or your favorite place on your bucket list, you want to go and who you’re going to take there and why and something like that. And it really gets to see a little bit inside to the psyche of the other person. And that makes us more trusting them because now we know them a little bit better. And they saw us listening to and reacting to what they said. So they feel appreciated. And that really greases the wheels of our meeting. All right, so let’s switch gears here. Let’s talk about, you mentioned a term which I’m very excited about, which is peer accountability. So what does it mean, peer accountability? And what kind of other accountabilities are there?

Well, there’s like accountability if the boss is holding everybody accountable and just walk in and say, okay, did you do your job? Did you do your job? That’s a very reactive way to hold people accountable. And usually it doesn’t have the success that you want it to have. People do some busy work so they can come up with some results, but oftentimes it doesn’t really go to the core. If your peers hold you accountable, the people that you work with on a day-to-day basis all day long, it’s a very different pressure that we would feel. So that’s much more successful. And that’s what you try to create. They have to hold each other accountable. And that goes along with also the second step, Patrick Lencioni’s pyramid, like the first step is the trust building. And as you go up that pyramid, you get to the point where it’s like a, I think he calls it a conflict culture. So you have to really openly share and it doesn’t have to be aggressive, but in a polite and open way and honest way share what problems you see. Or if there is well-known elephant in the room that everybody knows something’s going on here between two people that has to be openly discussed and brought up while you need to discuss a way to solve it. And that’s so powerful and it just leads to great results. And once you have established that way of working together, it doesn't just go away again. So it's kind of a way to get there. But once you are at that level, usually it takes the whole leadership team to a new level of collaboration. Share on X

So yeah, peer accountability can be really powerful. No one wants to show up and not be seen as being a team player and helping team succeed. And if everyone is getting their rocks down or their action items down and you’re not doing it, then you’re essentially letting the team down. So that’s very painful to realize and people will avoid doing that just for the sake of the team and other people. How do you stimulate action? So that was the last point you mentioned, structure, safe space, peer accountability and stimulate action. So what does it take for a meeting to stimulate action?

I think a big point, and that goes a little bit beyond the meeting structure and how you built that. I think the big point is that you have to have your goals set and your vision clear and your values. Share on X So you need to know what you’re running after. And if you’re in the meeting, that’s what you always look at, right? And then you break it down, obviously, into smaller steps and shorter terms. So going out of the meeting, what can we do today, Steve, to make one step into that direction and at least fulfill our goal, if not outperform. And if everybody’s on the same page and everybody’s on board and everybody is excited about the big hairy audacious goal, be that to 5X your profit in five years or be that to whatever it might be, then it’s so much more satisfying, if you will, to go out of the meeting and say, okay, I took on these two rocks and I will get them done within the next week before the next meeting so I can report them done and I’ll really put everything I got into it.

Yeah. So what I see my clients and maybe you see something like that as well is often they have a conversation and they would discuss a topic to that, but in the end, there’s no action item. They didn’t make a decision. Maybe they couldn’t reach consensus. No one wanted to decide. The boss didn’t want to decide something. And then they just table discussion or they just pretend that there was no disagreement, but no one agrees to do anything because there’s no clear direction there. And that’s the opposite of stimulating action. So I always tell my clients that stop taking notes about the discussions you have. Your notes should be the action items that you created as a result of discussion.

Yes.

If you don’t have a bunch of action items coming out of the meeting, you haven’t made decisions, you’re not taking action, you haven’t stimulated action, you just basically spent 30 minutes or an hour and a half on discussing stuff without consequences. That’s no good.

Yeah.

The goal is to accelerate the velocity of decisions and actions, and that’s how you’re going to execute. So I love that point, stimulating action. So moving on from this framework, you’ve been president of multiple companies and you’ve worked with CEOs. What have you found as being some of the common communication challenges of CEOs?

I think a lot of it is that that CEOs at some point tend to be isolated and sit in the ivory tower because they start constantly watching their backs. They’re very busy with with internal politics. They won’t embrace continuous learning processes anymore. And that takes you further and further away from where you actually should be. And that’s a big issue, because then if you kind of lock yourself down, there is no communication to the outside. So what I really think has to happen, like what I always say, the management by walking around is one of the things. And even in an MSP, for example, where everybody is remote on their computers in different parts of the world, you don’t have to walk around, but you could walk from one Zoom meeting to the other and be in contact with people. And then it goes back to the general things of coaching we talked about, like level three listening. Really listen. Don’t try to come in and give advice and fix people and or situations. Listen carefully, see what they have to say, and see what your people have as far as solutions for problems go, for example. Be very transparent, communicate openly, be vulnerable. If you want anybody to be vulnerable with you, you have to be vulnerable. Encourage diverse and different perspectives. And then I would say, yeah, embrace continuous learning. And if you really, the first step would always be, get out there, talk to your people, no matter how you do it. Go see some customers with your salespeople and just be out there. Spend the least time of your day in your chair, trying to handle some politics, be out there and see for yourself what’s going on. And you will certainly discover a lot of wonderful things.

Yeah, I mean, ultimately, I agree. The CEO has to be the person who helps all the other leaders in the company to be as effective as they possibly can. And they do this by talking to them, by helping them, by mentoring them, coaching them, having them figure things out, helping them by removing obstacles in their way. And yeah, if a CEO is in their ivory tower, then they really don’t get to know what’s going on in the company. Sometimes you have to go and take a deep dive and talk to people in different levels of the business to find out what’s going on and make sure that you take the action and your leadership team is empowered to take the action they need to take.

Yeah.

Okay, so thanks for bringing this framework about running effective meeting. So you create a structured meeting, safe space, peer accountability, stimulating action, very powerful. Yeah. How do you help the CEO not be isolated and how to communicate better, listen better, keep the tongue at the top of the mouth. It’s a good one. So if people would like to learn more about your approach and Summit OS and what you do, where should they go and how can they get in touch with you? Well, where should they go?

The best way is always to either go to my web page rechtienconsult.com. There’s a bunch of buttons to click, a call to schedule, send me an email thomas@rechtienconsult.com or call me on my cell (219) 743-6749. At the end of the day, it comes down to talking.

STEVE PREDA: Okay, very good. Well, we put all of that in the show notes, so if you couldn’t jot down that number, just check out the show notes and you can reach out to Thomas. He is also on LinkedIn. So, Thomas Rechtien, president of Nance Steel Sales LLC and the Certified Summit OS Guide. Thanks for coming on the show. Those of you listening, if you like the show, don’t forget to like and subscribe, give us a review, and stay tuned because every week, we come with a couple of business leaders and CEOs who share their framework with us. Thomas, thanks for coming.

Thank you for having me.

 

Important Links:

This entry was posted in . Bookmark the permalink.
kristine