Ep. 185: Michael Teape - Maximizing human capital in challenging times

Contact Michael Teape:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/teapetraining/


Teape Training International (TTI):
https://www.teapetraininginternational.com


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Full Episode Transcript:
Adam: (00:05)
Welcome back to Count Me In. I'm Adam Larson. Today, we welcome
back Michael Teape to the podcast. Michael is a well known
management coach and co-founder of Teape Training International.
And he is here today to discuss how businesses can maximize their
human capital, as we begin year three of COVID 19 era, and the
Great Resignation continues. If you are a leader, trying to get
your team back to business as usual, you do not wanna miss this
insightful conversation. So let's get started. 
 
Adam: (00:38)
Michael, we really appreciate you coming on our podcast today.
It's a pleasure to speak with you again, to have you come back to
count me in. 
 
Michael: (00:45)
Thank you. It's great to be here, Adam. Thanks for having me
back. 
 
Adam: (00:48)
Definitely. So let's just jump right into our topic today. So in
your work with clients across businesses, how are people doing
with the crisis as what we are heading into, what, the third year
of it? 
 
Michael: (01:00)
Yeah. Can you believe it three years? No, that's just, yeah.
Crazy. Well, it, every year it's changed. Right? Cause you can
imagine that and as your listeners reflect back, they're gonna
think, well, yeah, there was absolutely in the beginning, we
didn't know what we didn't know. We were washing our vegetables,
you know, we weren't going to the store and now we're way beyond
that. We're managing that with seen threat come into our work.
People have got COVID people have not gone to the hospital. Some
have, unfortunately, so you've experienced it over two years. And
as we come into the third, it's kind of normalized. It's baked
in, it's like you get used to your environment. So, you know,
most people are like, well, this is a reality, Adam, if I'm
honest, that's what they're saying. 
 
Michael: (01:50)
And they're, going back to doing well, you know, may as well do
the training. And from my point of view, you know, as a learning
development specialist, face to face stuff was canceled the first
year. And now in the third year, it is back on again, you know,
they wanna do face to face. Haven't done it in a while. I'm not
so sure that the employees want to do face to face. Cause they've
got used to the virtual environment and they've worked out that
actually it can work. It does work. We've been able to talk over,
you know, over a virtual, just as much in fact, better than face
to face, because face to face, most people wearing a mask,
depending on which state you go to, depending on their level of
infection. Yeah. So, you know, that's where we are right
now. 
 
Michael: (02:44)
Also what I'm seeing Adam is people are moving jobs, you know,
you've heard of the Great Resignation. So that's the other thing
is really picking up speed now in the third year. The thing with
that is that people are seeing opportunity. There is opportunity.
So they're realizing that, well, I can work from home so
therefore I can work pretty much from anywhere. Right? Yeah. So
it doesn't, they're not as limited as they were before. So that's
how people, I feel people are expanding their horizons on the
work they can do and getting so much more comfortable with doing
at home. So we've entered this era of flexibility. Unfortunately,
last thing I'll say. And if, and those of you listeners who are
leading others, I would say, this is that they're not being
flexible. All right. So leaders have got to continue to be
flexible. 
 
Michael: (03:41)
Even with the picture, the move back to the office. We want all
of you back in the office, right? We want you all to come back
and, you know what, we're losing some of that flexibility we've
had for the last two years in this third year. And I feel that if
leaders learn to continue the flexibility, they can continue to
take advantage of a more flexible workforce and make them want to
stay, want to work if you put in what I call, yeah. Of fake
rules, unnecessary rules. Unnecessary. And I'll give you an
example. There's a company that I know that remain nameless.
They're like, right! We're all coming back to work. They've all
been hundred percent remote, fairly small company. And right. We
want all back at work, but we want you in Monday, Thursday and
Friday, you can, you know, we'll be virtual Tuesday and
Wednesday. 
 
Michael: (04:38)
You're getting these unnecessary rules and you must have your
meetings. We want them face to face. So you need to have your
meetings on the Monday, Thursday or the Friday. So you can
imagine employees are like, hang on a minute. What if I wanna
have a meeting on Tuesday, it creates all these unnecessary rules
and decisions to be made when wouldn't, it have been easier just
to say to the each team work out what days you wanna come in the
office. We want to build up to a hundred percent back, but you
know, happy to do 60, 40, whatever works as long as we're serving
the client internally and externally, you know, I leave it up to
your best judgment to make sure the work continues. Great, right?
And then they can work on it. What works best for them? I'm
seeing this over and over again. So how are people doing the
crisis? I think they're doing quite well. They they're normalized
it. They're getting on with it. They're looking for
opportunities, other jobs. What we've gotta is being overly
formal with how leaders bring their people back and teams back.
We need to stay flexible. 
 
Adam: (05:46)
Yeah. So I can't imagine staying flexible would allow you to keep
your workforce better because if you become more rigid, it says,
well, if you're gonna be rigid, then I can just move on. Are
there other tips that we can offer? Like for, you know, if you're
thinking, okay, I lead a team, how can I adapt my team so that I
can continue like being flexible, but what are other things that
I can do to help keep my team together, but still be
productive? 
 
Michael: (06:13)
The productivity is a funny thing. Yeah. So that's the first
thing I'm gonna talk about here. Is it relax? Have they been
productive for the last two years? Look at that. Has the
performance been where you wanted it? If it is, you don't have a
productivity problem. Yeah. If it isn't, then let's get into more
communication with the team about your expectations. So focus. I
think leading through this time now back to where people feel
that COVID, isn't a day to day occurrence, or there's not another
wave or they don't know tons of people that have it, getting
people back, they really need to focus on what they want to
achieve. And the way you do that with teams is you communicate
with them. You ask them how it's going. You set expectations of
what you're looking for. 
 
Michael: (07:05)
And then you coach them. You're really, really good at
communication on, well, how are you prioritizing? How can I help
you prioritize what you need to be doing in this time? What are
some of the roadblocks getting in your way is for that leader to
switch from, "I've told you my expectations" into a coaching
style an...