Summary:

In this episode of the HR Impact show, Dr. Jim interviews Brandon Robbins, the VP of Risk and HR at Ross Group, about the critical competency of learning to let go as a leader. Brandon shares his nontraditional path into the HR space and how he learned to hire people who filled in his knowledge gaps. He emphasizes the importance of being open to feedback, embracing conflict, and building a high communication culture. Brandon also discusses the challenges of building this culture in the construction and oil and gas industries and provides actionable advice for leaders looking to build high-performing teams.

Key Takeaways:

Learning to let go as a leader involves letting go of your ego and prioritizing the needs of your team and company.

Embrace conflict as a healthy part of communication and problem-solving.

Speak plainly and keep communication simple to ensure clarity and understanding.

Stay humble and unselfish in your decision-making and hiring strategies.

Build a strong number two who can push you to be a better leader.

Chapters:

0:02:53 Guest's realization of his own gaps and need for a team

0:06:24 The critical competency of learning to let go

0:10:20 The importance of leaders speaking last in discussions

0:12:10 Challenges of building a high communication culture in the oil and gas industry

0:15:22 Red flags and pitfalls to watch out for in building a high communication culture

0:18:34 Managing and coaching individuals based on their personalities

0:19:07 Embrace conflict, speak plainly, and stay humble

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He's got 18 plus years. In the risk safety and compliance in HR space. He's got deep experience within the construction oil and gas sectors. He's a former member of the Oklahoma Safety Council is also a former board member of the Northeastern State University College of Business and Technology.

Current board member of the Oklahoma. Aquarium and the current VP of risk and HR at Ross Group. Brandon Robbins, welcome to the show.

Brandon Robbins: Thanks for having me.

Dr. Jim: You have a pretty interesting background that I think is going to inform some of the discussion that we're going to have.

Brandon Robbins: I grew up within the construction arena dabbled in oil and gas growing up, but majority of my life has been involved with construction at some point and then people, and really the biggest piece of, I think, make what makes me, it's every job that I've wanted or aspired to be.

Growing up and coming into my career, I'm all about helping people. So I think that's where I really fit into this space.

Dr. Jim: One of the things that caught my attention about your background when I was looking for guests on the show was your overall career trajectory.

You, you didn't land in the HR space. At least from my perspective, going the traditional route. So why don't you tell us a little bit about how you got into the HR space and how. That career journey has informed how you actually do the job of an HR leader.

Brandon Robbins: Coming out of college, my degree safety management, and that's where I really started with the company is just a safety manager and safety involves people who involves changing behaviors and coaching.

I've really learned and grown a lot by bringing in people to fill in the gaps in my knowledge and really helped me learn and continue to grow.

Dr. Jim: You talk through the nontraditional path into HR. And then when you have the opportunity to have HR roll under. Your influence, you took the approach of hiring people around you that filled in the gaps that you recognized.

What did you realize about yourself that made sense for you to take that approach to your hiring strategy?

And again pushing forward that coaching, changing behavior attitude that I brought to the table and when I came over the group, but that's such a big part of this is just, it's just humbling yourself and knowing that you're not good at everything. And that was what my current HR manager really brought to the table, her expertise in the compliance benefits side and helping me learn and helping me know enough where.

Your day to day job that you just don't enjoy as much.

Dr. Jim: It's really interesting how you describe that dynamic that you were talking about. Oftentimes it can be really difficult for somebody to either. Tell you, you have gaps in certain areas, or it can be really difficult for you to recognize that in and of yourself.

So how did you get to the point where? You were open to that feedback or you did that. You came to that realization. What was the work that you did that set the stage for you to realize that these gaps exist?

Brandon Robbins: So part of that is just inherently who I am. I am not a big praise person.

Or, Hey, have you thought about doing this a little differently or or things of that nature? So I'm always open to criticism and I think it is a very critical part in anybody's journey to get where they want to be. But I've always taken it well. I, and I just know what I'm good at.

I'm really good with people. I'm really good at building relationships, strengthen relationships. I embrace conflict. There, there are just things that I am good at that. I know that it's who I am, that a lot of people shy away from. And then there's just things that I'm not as good at. Just I am I'm not that I'm good technically on a lot of things, but there are a lot of people that are smarter to me, honestly, and know different

regulations a lot better just off the top of their head.

Dr. Jim: I appreciate you sharing that about yourself. And I think when I hear what you're talking about. The lessons that I draw from just this little part that you talked about is everybody, if you want to be an effective leader, you have to get in a space where you're really recognizing what works for you, what you're good at and what you're not good at.

And that's a really helped you develop your career and move you in this trajectory. Let's dive into the meat of the discussion. The goal of this show. Is to bring on HR leaders and have them share their game changing insights that help them build high performing teams.

I opened the show where big question that we're going to answer. Is why learning to let go is a critical competency for a leader. And we've hinted at some of that already in what we've talked about, but why don't you share with us what that game changing realization was that you had and how that was informed.

By you learning how to let go?

And I really look around my team and I challenge us every day. To, be vulnerable when need be to build trust, to strengthen relationships and, and to strengthen our team. It's important for all of us to know what's going on, what's keeping you up at night. What was your high from yesterday?

What was your low from yesterday? We start off every day with, Hey, what's your big thing you got to get done today? What was your high from yesterday and your low from yesterday. And sometimes it's really. Nothing, I didn't have a low yesterday, or, I'm really excited for my vacation.

I'm going to get on the next couple of days. And sometimes it's something like, I'm really glad I made this breakthrough with this employee yesterday. He's really grasping this new training. We provided it. He's really excited for his next job. And a low may be well, we had a. 10 year employee decided to resign due to these issues.

You're going to be fine. It's a new day. Let's move on. Let's get this done. So again, letting go is very critical.

Dr. Jim: There isn't a single thing about what you said that I disagree with. And it all makes sense in theory. What I'm really curious about is when you look at all of the things that you talked about what worked having a really strong communication culture.

That doesn't happen overnight. So tell us a little bit about how you got to the point where you had a team that was willing to have those conversations. What were the things that you would advise leaders to do to build that type of culture where you could have those sort of conversations and have it.

Brandon Robbins: It absolutely didn't happen overnight. I was very fortunate to have one person actually a couple of people on my team, as I talked about risk and the HR side of things that have worked with me or or within my department for 10 plus years.

And one of the individuals is, a 15 year employee, but again, it's starting out being vulnerable. It's starting out leading by example. You can't ask things of other people if you're not willing to do it yourself. And sometimes it's forcing issues. Sometimes it's forcing people to be uncomfortable.

I don't have all the people on my team aren't the most social people. So they're not the most trusting right out the gate. So when you, this isn't just a me and one other person we're talking a team of eight when I look at everybody on my team our teams. So it's just, it's pushing.

Again, there's a little, there's always a little bit of conflict and it's talking about, Hey, conflict's healthy. It was when you don't talk about things and you let it fester and spiral where it really turns negative. And that's where a lot, and it's also about just how you handle a conflict. You don't, it's not about yelling.

Dr. Jim: Your comment about leaders need to speak last. When it comes to any sort of open discussion about any topic that might be under consideration, but speak 1st, when it comes to vulnerability, that's really interesting. Tell us a little bit more about why that distinction exists?

I really like that distinction that you made. Leaders need to speak last except in instances where they need to show vulnerability. Why did you make that distinction?

Brandon Robbins: It's very important, as a leader.

So again, it's really important to get everybody else to speak before you as a leader. So you get everybody's honest opinion without throwing yours in there. Because if you talk 1st, he may hear crickets for the rest of the meeting, because in the back of their mind, they think this is the way he wants to go.

So there's no point in me speaking up. And then when it comes to vulnerability side again, it's leading by example. It's if you start off, thank you. With not showing trust, not being vulnerable, not saying what's stressing you or what your high for the day before was, or what your low was if you're not leading by example, nobody's going to follow you and you're not going to get the change that you want.

Dr. Jim: I'd imagine that executing all of that. Within the industry that you're in the region that you're in was pretty challenging. So how did you get to this sort of high communication environment?

Brandon Robbins: Construction and oil and gas both very similar. And like you said, being in Oklahoma everybody tends to think we're super macho, super cowboy. And again, they are both pretty male dominated industries. It has to start at the top, as an executive team we felt like we couldn't ask certain things, whether it was trust, open communication, healthy conflict peer to peer accountability we didn't feel like we were in a place where we could ask that the next level down or our teams, if we weren't doing it at our level.

So we actually brought in a 3rd party 3rd party group to work with us to get that amongst ourselves and ensure we were clicking on all cylinders. We were. We were green out of a three color scale of red, yellow, green, and then really be able to try to embrace and demonstrate these items to get the culture we wanted of the open communication.

And sometimes those personnel, they don't want to move from that area that they're in. So we have some turnover in those areas. So then it's bringing in the next person and getting them to embrace our culture. But 1 thing we do real well every new hire that comes through the office, we have an executive portion where 1 of the members of the executive team go in and spend 20, 30 minutes.

Going through our playbook that we developed, it talks about who we are as a company what our culture, what the culture we're striving for is what our three core values are. And then just sitting there talking and really pushing that peer to peer accountability that passion for what we do, being a consummate teammate.

That's how we've really tried to reinforce it.

The other part that I really like about how you built this culture is that you've actually built out a playbook that you. Go over with every new hire that sets the stage. And it also connects to the values and mission of the organization. And I think when you're thinking about building a high performing team, a high performing culture, a communication heavy culture, a lot of the stuff gets missed on that onboarding piece where you're not connecting the dots for the people that come into your organization about, Hey, this is how we do things.

You built this capacity within yourself where you're humble, you learn to let go, you remove the ego from the process. If other people leaders are looking to build an organization that operates similarly to what you're describing, what are the red flags or pitfalls that they need to watch out for that you encountered?

Brandon Robbins: I think it's looking at decisions and personnel decisions structural, tactical decisions and just asking yourself, making sure that they're unselfish that you're being unselfish that, you're not making these decisions for a selfish reason that it is for the greater good.

It's not what's going to make your groups, duties easier or it's not going to create more work for this other group or even another person. So it's really important to try and ferret out all these things before you go to implement procedures, processes or make just overall decisions where the company is going.

And you can't be scared of that. You can't be scared that I'll just I'm setting this person up to steal or I'm setting them up so that they. They're going to get a job offer in a couple of weeks or a month or within a year, and then they're going to leave. I'll be back to square one. You can't be concerned about that because again, that's being selfish.

If you're doing these things for people you're helping them better themselves, better their families lives, potentially better the organization. You're doing all these things because it's what's good for them. And in that term, it is going to help you out and it's going to help the long term. Goals of the company, but you just, you have to be honest with yourself and not

be scared.

Brandon Robbins: When we were making our changes I just looked at somebody who I felt I could communicate effectively with and, we somebody that again, had a. Strong background in the areas that I wasn't as familiar with, or I didn't have the passion for. So it had to be a combination of things.

I had to make sure they had the the Tim Tebow qualities that I look for employees, the things that you can't teach passion, leadership and again, that humbleness. So it's really hard to build those things in people. If it's a little bit of, it's already not there. Those are the qualities I always look for in people on our team.

That's another piece of it is people don't, have to move up vertically. If you give them some horizontal duties keep adding to them. And as long as they're compensated they're going to be happy. Not everybody cares about a title.

It goes back to knowing your people knowing who you are, knowing your ability to manage what's going to work best and you can't manage everybody the same way. It's like your kids. You can't raise, you're not going to, you're going to try and raise them the same, but you have to handle each.

Each personality different. It's really no different than that is you can't manage, you can't coach

Dr. Jim: Awesome conversation. I think just about every segment that you've offered your insights on has got some actionable takeaways for anybody that's listening. So before we wind everything down, I want you to give us a framework or a paint by numbers version of what we're talking about.

Brandon Robbins: I think number one, conflict isn't a four letter word embrace conflict. It doesn't have to be a bad thing. As long as the situations are approached professionally you can make it through just about anything. The second thing as you're trying to build a team. And you're, especially from the ground up, speak plainly, keep it simple.

A lot of people tend to talk a lot and maybe not say a lot. So be direct and keep it simple. And the third thing, again, just stay humble. Don't be scared of anything. Don't be, everybody's going to make mistakes. You as a manager, your personal Noah will stay humble. Stay unselfish and you'll get your team where

you need to go.

Dr. Jim: Awesome stuff, Brandon. Where can people find you?

Brandon Robbins: LinkedIn is probably the biggest one that I'm on. So look for me there.

Number one, before you try to start helping anybody, you need to take inventory of yourself and recognize where your gaps are. Thank you. And get help to shore up those gaps before you try to fix somebody else then. Once you've done the work on yourself, it's important to build a playbook that you can actually get in front of every new person that comes into the organization and get them up to speed on how it is that you operate, what's the expectation, what does good look like?

I think that was an aspect of the conversation that I thought was really useful. And then you highlighted it in the conversation where it's critical for leaders to be unselfish. It's critical for leaders to be. Humble. And really, when you're looking at building a high performance organization, it's critical for leaders to hire from the perspective of people that can step into your role.

I think the listeners are in for a lot of learning, a lot of actionable steps that that they'll get. For those of you who have listened to the episode, let us know what you think of it and leave us a review and tune in next time where we'll have another great leader joining us from the HR space, that's going to give us the keys to the kingdom on how to build a high performing team.