Coach Hughes interviews TJ Schier, discussing leadership, employee recognition, and the evolution of workplace culture over two decades.

Highlights

• 🎙️ Coach Hughes welcomes TJ Schier, reminiscing about their 22-year friendship.
• 📚 Schier’s book “Send Flowers to the Living” emphasizes recognizing employees while they are still with the company.
• 🤝 Leadership involves creating a supportive culture and valuing employees’ contributions.
• 🌱 The importance of continuous learning and adapting in leadership roles is highlighted.
• 🏆 Recognition vs. appreciation: understanding the emotional impact on employees is crucial.
• 🏢 The restaurant industry must better communicate career paths to attract talent.
• 🔄 Personal growth comes from experiences, both successes and failures, in business.

Key Insights

• 🎯 Recognition vs. Appreciation: Recognizing employees with awards or bonuses is different from making them feel valued emotionally. Leaders need to balance both to foster loyalty.
• 🤔 Culture Matters: A strong workplace culture is essential for retaining employees and improving performance. Leaders must actively shape this culture rather than just focusing on incentives.
• 📈 Career Paths in Hospitality: The hospitality industry often fails to illustrate clear career advancement opportunities, leading to high turnover. Providing visible career paths can enhance recruitment and retention.
• 🧠 Learning from Experience: Personal and professional growth comes from experiences, including mistakes. Leaders should embrace their journeys as invaluable learning opportunities.
• 🔄 Listening as a Leader: Great leaders prioritize listening over speaking in meetings, allowing diverse opinions to shape decisions. This builds trust and promotes collaboration.
• 🌍 Generational Work Ethic: Today’s younger workforce is often misunderstood regarding their work ethic. Leaders should recognize their potential and value contributions to the company.
• 🔍 Consulting Value: Consultants can offer essential shortcuts and insights, helping companies avoid pitfalls and accelerate growth. Their experience can guide leaders in making informed decisions.

What a pleasure it was to have an amazing conversation with an incredible young lady that "WILL" be making a name for herself sooner than later. Watch Out. Thank You Jennifer!

SUMMARY:

Jennifer and I discuss her 1st book called Puzzle Progress where she "Maps Out" steps to become the best version of ourselves. Jennifer shares her journey from a young employee at Jersey Mike’s to becoming a marketing coordinator and author, inspiring others to find their career direction.

Wait til you hear her insight into how to Be BEST You. Look out world here comes Jennifer Kottman...WOW

KEY INSIGHTS:

• 🌱 Early Experience Matters: Starting young in the workforce can build essential skills and shape career aspirations. Jennifer’s journey highlights how initial roles can influence future opportunities.

• 🤔 Asking Questions is Key: Emphasizing curiosity and inquiry can lead to personal and professional growth, helping individuals find clarity in their goals and paths.

• 🎯 Intentional Career Direction: Setting clear intentions and goals is crucial for fulfillment, as it allows individuals to map their steps backward from their desired future.

• 🔄 Failure as Growth: Redefining failure as a learning opportunity rather than a setback encourages individuals to take risks and explore new avenues.

• 📊 Holistic Approach: The book emphasizes the interconnectedness of personal goals, finances, and networking, creating a comprehensive guide for career preparation.

• 💬 Value of Connections: Building genuine relationships in professional settings enhances growth opportunities and creates a supportive network for career advancement.

• 🧩 Personalized Learning: The workbook format encourages readers to engage actively, making the process of career exploration manageable and less overwhelming.

Some Additional HIGHLIGHTS:

• 🌟 Jennifer began working at Jersey Mike’s at 15, fostering her passion for customer service.

• 📚 She created a workbook to help others navigate career uncertainties.

• 🔗 Networking is about genuine connections, not manipulation.

• 🧩 The book uses puzzles as a metaphor for building a fulfilling career.

• 💡 Mindset and self-efficacy are crucial for career success.

• 🎓 The book is designed to be user-friendly and actionable for readers.

• 🏷️ Available on Amazon, it aims to guide individuals through career preparation.

In this episode, Coach Hughes teams up with his friend and work colleague, Mookie Golden, to have an engaging conversation with Will Guidara, an American restaurateur and best-selling author of the book "Unreasonable Hospitality."

• Importance of Intentionality: Leaders must be intentional about their actions and relationships, fostering a culture of openness and support. This builds trust within teams.
• 🤝 Mentorship Dynamics: Effective mentorship involves both teaching and learning. Leaders should seek mentors while mentoring others to create a balanced growth environment.
• 🌱 Personal Growth for Leaders: Leaders must prioritize their own well-being and personal development to effectively support their teams, ensuring they lead by example.
• ✍️ Journaling as a Tool: Journaling aids in reflection and capturing inspiration, helping leaders articulate their thoughts and improve decision-making.
• 🚀 Embracing Vulnerability: Authentic leadership involves being vulnerable, allowing teams to relate and connect with leaders on a personal level, fostering a supportive culture.
• 💪 Community and Connection: Building a community around shared values and goals enhances collaboration and motivates individuals to strive for excellence.
• 🎯 Adapting Leadership Styles: Leadership styles must evolve with changing circumstances and personal growth, requiring flexibility and openness to new approaches.

Listening with your eyes -

What are people saying? We might be able to understand more if we paid less attention to the words people are using to communicate and more attention to how they are saying it. This is known as body language. Whether you are a speaker, teacher, coach, parent, athlete, or even a spouse, listening to body language can be important in better understanding what is really being said.

In today's world, we trust less what people say and more what they do. To get a better understanding of what is really being said, "Listen more with your eyes".

Take a listen to my conversation with Joe Navarro, who wrote "What Every Body is Saying," and definitely add this to your personal success library.

To be a good communicator you need to be a great listener.

It was the clever title of the book that Joe Mull wrote that caught my attention first but then it was the topic of the book that made me rush to order and read it.

Joe Mull leadership trainer and speaker and is passionate about helping employers build a work environment that encourages employee commitment, what he has cleverly coined “Employalty.”

The title alone...Employalty... should peak your curiosity. You can't go too long before you bump into someone that is not concerned about or complaining about the current work force we are dealing with these days. Finding employees and then getting them to stay is more difficult than ever before.
Joe provides some insight into how this came about and some ideas on how to best take and win the battle for Employee Engagement and Retention.

He nicely lays a roadmap of sorts where an organization can create and follow clear and concise steps for implementing an “Employalty Movement” .

The book is broken into 3 parts and he also has created helpful tools to help during each part.
“Ideal Job,” he writes about compensation, workload, and flexibility.
“Meaningful Work” covers purpose, strengths, and belonging.
“Great Boss” is perhaps the most engaging because it centers on coaching, trust, and advocacy.

Hope you enjoy.

What a great conversation with author Jon Giganti who wrote a great book called With Intention.

The world is distracting. Are you paying intention?

Our fast-paced lives don’t allow much time for reflection. In our relentless pursuit of more, most of us end up with far less. Peace eludes us. Frustration finds us and unfulfillment permeates our souls.

In 2013 author Jon Giganti nearly became another statistic. His job hung in the balance, and the condition of his marriage was even worse. When he looked in the mirror, he didn’t like the person looking back at him. As a father of two, he knew something needed to change.

Thankfully, he received a second chance.

Working harder wasn’t the answer. Focusing more wasn’t going to fix it this time. Jon needed something drastic. He started paying intention, and when he did, the solution emerged slowly but steadily.

Jon discovered a process that changed everything—but firstly him. This is where true transformation always begins, with ourselves.

In With Intention, you’ll see how wrapping purpose around life is not only possible it's essential to living a masterpiece. In this breakthrough book, you’ll learn and leverage the five components of the With Intention Wheel©:

● Awareness: Identify your personal blindspots and professional gaps so you can step into your genius and make your time count.
● Agency: Take complete ownership of your past and present so your focus stops getting “hacked.”
● Ambition: Create a new future that reflects your ideal legacy.
● Action: Leverage the right mindset so you can win more days and achieve your vision.
● Adjustment: Forever evolve so you contribute to your world in a meaningful way.

Attention requires a focused mind. Intention requires a focused heart.

Begin the path to unleashed influence, uncommon results, and ultimate fulfillment starting today.

Building a Team where people stay…and WIN!

Heard a great interview on NPR during this past years NCAA Basketball Tournament where Graham Honaker, co-author of The Cinderella Strategy, discussed how smaller, non “Blue Chip” schools are not just making surprise runs in the tournament but are making the tournament every year and becoming consistent contenders for the title. Schools like Villanova, Princeton, Davidson, Gonzaga and Butler are year after year fielding teams that make it into the final rounds and winning championships beating schools with huge budgets, stacked talent with future NBA players and histories of winning.

What struck me was how similar the NCAA landscape is to todays work force. Players are jumping schools with “The Transfer Portal” looking for greener pastures. Teams are stacked with teams of Freshman super stars who leave for the pros after a season and most recently the NIL where athletes are making money off endorsement deals.

Sounds awful familiar to todays work force. How do you keep talent?

Its many things and they are all discussed in this podcast and researched in the book but once again it boils down to one thing…Culture.

So, take a listen to my conversation with Authors Graham Honaker and Jerry Logan and check out their book.

Enjoy