Summary:

In this vibrant episode of the HR impact show, your host, Dr. Jim, engages in a deep dive into the universe of talent strategy with DeJuan Brown, a seasoned sales leader armed with innovative and authentic approaches to leadership. This dialogue traverses the often rigid terrains of corporate culture to uncover the essence of building elite, transparent, and trusting teams. A central theme of the discussion underlines the inadequacy of traditional, spreadsheet-focused leadership styles that overlook the human elements essential to team success.

DeJuan reflects on his beginnings as a bus boy, offering compelling insights into how meticulous attention to customer service has framed his sales philosophy. Anecdotes from his early career paint a picture where proactive service and keen attentiveness set the foundation for exceptional team leadership. This episode not only challenges outdated professional norms but also emphasizes the significance of diverse perspectives and whole-self contribution to the profitability and vibrancy of team culture.

The conversation then evolves into a thoughtful exploration of authenticity in the workplace. DeJuan Brown emphasizes the importance of recognizing individual expressions of passion and commitment. He warns against the pitfalls of enforcing a monolithic standard which may inadvertently restrict or misinterpret the unique contributions of team members. This rich dialogue provides actionable insights on cultivating a deeply inclusive and high-performing sales team environment.

Key Takeaways:

• Service Mindset: Success in leadership and sales comes from a service-oriented approach, being proactive, and anticipating the needs of your team and customers.
• Beyond Spreadsheets: Leading people effectively involves more than adhering to data and processes – it's about understanding and catering to individual team member's needs, motivations, and contributions.
• Diversity Drives Profitability: Embracing diversity and encouraging team members to bring their whole self to work fosters a profitable and thriving team environment.
• Authenticity is Key: Authenticity and allowing individual expressions of core values, such as passion and candor, is crucial to building elite teams. Standardization can hinder authenticity and team performance.
• Self-Reflective Leadership: Leaders should be self-aware and introspective, challenging their biases and conditioning to allow space for authentic team member expression.

Chapters:

0:01:42 DeJuan Brown's background in the service industry and how it shaped his sales philosophy

0:05:58 The outdated ideas of professionalism and leadership that hinder building elite teams

0:08:53 Overcoming gatekeeping and allowing employees to bring their whole selves to work

0:11:05 The importance of leaders questioning their own biases and reactions to foster an inclusive culture

0:14:21 DeJuan Brown highlights the importance of leading people rather than processes or technology.

0:16:38 DeJuan Brown warns against making a monolith out of certain qualities and expecting everyone to conform to a specific standard.

0:20:44 Dr. Jim summarizes the key takeaways from the conversation, including the importance of serving your people and leading with a people-first mindset.

Connect with Dr. Jim: linkedin.com/in/drjimk

Connect with CT: linkedin.com/in/cheetung

Connect with DeJuan Brown: linkedin.com/in/dejuanbrown

Music Credit: winning elevation - Hot_Dope



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Unfortunately, many sales leaders don't lead that way. Instead, their default leadership style is to try to do everything via a spreadsheet, and that's not a pathway to success. That's a complete mistake. According to DeJuan Brown, who is the head of sales at Merit America. Let me give you a little bit of background on DeJuan.

He serves as a sales advisor and consultant to a number of different companies in a variety of industries. He started out waiting tables in the nineties. So I'm pretty sure that's going to inform some of his sales philosophy, he's always had a passion for people in service.

DeJuan Brown: Thank you. I appreciate you having me.

Dr. Jim: So let's get into it. When we were doing the show prep That element of you waiting tables really caught my attention because one of my, I think my first job was being a busboy, so I wasn't even a waiter. I was like below a waiter and that informed a lot of how I showed up later on in my career.

So what I'd like you to do. Is tell us a little bit more about your story so that the listeners can connect with you and your experience and the lens that you bring to this conversation when we're talking about building elite teams.

DeJuan Brown: I'm glad you said that too, because my, if you look at my, about me section of my LinkedIn, there was a restaurant in my city called Spinnaker's and that's what I did. The first thing I ever did in the restaurant context was I was a bus boy. And the story that I tell there is that's where I learned that really like a growth meant like a growing down.

And they made more money and therefore I got tipped out more. So it was just this epiphany, if you will, that where service and selflessness was born in me at that point. And I was young, right? During that time. But that is. What services and so I moved from that to being a server slash bartender is very much the same thing, right?

Like it's really being attentive to the needs of others when I waited tables My goal was you know, none of my tables should ever have to ask me for anything, right? I should be attentive enough to see that the drink is Less than half full. I should be attentive enough to see when they have used their last napkin, right?

Dr. Jim: There's a few things in what you said that caught my attention even in that little bit of a description that you had and the things that stood out about what you said is, what made you successful in the service industry was delivering before the need was even verbalized.

It really points to paying attention. When you look at those principles, delivering before the need and paying attention, how did that serve you when you're working through companies like Intuit and Microsoft, tell us how that prepared you for being successful.

And it wasn't a situation where they were like I didn't even know my water was out. Right now they knew the water was out, but they hadn't had a moment yet to articulate the need. You were just attentive enough to attend to it prior and in sales, it's the same, but it's both internal and external.

So when we think about these complex sales organizations, you mentioned into a dimension, Microsoft even Bloomberg, like when we think about the complexity of the cross functional collaboration that is needed, there are times when you have an opportunity to do the same thing. Like in conversation about.

That's not different again, then seeing someone who needs water, who hasn't had a chance to ask for it yet, but just attending to that and bringing it to them proactively, it's the same sort of thing that brings value in the context of sales, especially in complex sales across an organization.

Dr. Jim: That actually provides a pretty decent bridge. I opened the show By saying some of those ideas that exist out there in the world of work about professionalism and about leadership they're dated and they don't work anymore.

And they're not going to put you in a position to build elite teams. So tie that together. How does that fit in with what you've seen as the secret to success when it comes to building really strong sales teams?

It's a question of value as seen and measure. And other spaces and other, and it's not different with people and individuals, . It's this idea that no you. Your opinion is very valuable, . Your experience in the world, apart from work, is very valuable.

Then people individually flourish. The group and the team flourishes in ways that I think is just transforms the whole culture of the organization, certainly of the team. And that is when and where you see people performing and oh, by the way leading in that.

Like leading in that. Hey, I have a perspective too. I have a POV. I have an experience in and out of work. I have a family of origin, a background, a place of existence prior to being in the corporate space at all. And I want to bring, I want to bring and lead with bringing those things to the table.

And as I bring them to the table, they're on an equal plane. So I don't put mine on a, an elevated side of the table or a portion of the table. We're all putting our chips in on the same table. So that we can grow and teach, learn.

Dr. Jim: You're talking about bringing your whole self to work. And for those folks who are listening to the episode, you have two brown guys that are talking about this stuff. And the reality of it is that and you have two brown guys who are in sales talking about this stuff . I like bring your whole self to work, but the reality of it is that there's a lot of gatekeeping that exists in the world of work and sales in particular that conditions those folks who are not in the U.

S. majority to not show up in authentic ways. So my question to you is. All of that stuff that you talked about, all of that stuff that you just mentioned, what do leaders need to do to be more intentional, to allow that to exist and create space for it to be like an active part of how you build culture.

Leaders need to recognize that teams who are diverse and feel confident in bringing their whole self to work and being free to exist as they are in the space of work, like teams that are made up of that level of diversity are more profitable teams, right? So there's data around that.

And maybe that's what particular leaders need to recognize and believe and get grounded in order to start to think through, like, how do I then become that? Or how do I then implement that on my team? But I think even more. Foundational than that in some ways is like just the belief that you have a story, you have a perspective, you have a family of origin, you have a lot of, you have an experience, you have information, insight, and perspective, all of these things I can first believe that's true.

How do I live this out in the context of the leadership role that I have right now,. And it's nuanced difference. It's like, how do I lead in a way that makes my team believe that they can bring their whole selves to work?

Versus, my team can bring their whole selves to work. How do I make sure that I'm communicating that to them?

Dr. Jim: One of the things that I think about when when you were giving your answer, there's an element where leaders have to be responsible for checking themselves before jumping into the fray and this applies to any number of things like new leaders when they get into any role whenever there's a fire that starts.

Their instinct is to go run and jump into the fire and try to solve things when it should be. Let's hold back, ask the necessary questions and have the people that report into us solve those issues. So in a similar vein, if you're trying to build a culture where you want authenticity in that culture, you want people to bring their whole selves to work, it's got to start.

So if you're a leader that wants to create a culture where showing up authentically is something that you Want to cultivate or foster if you see something that's happening in that your reports are doing and you're immediately reacting to it in a negative way, that's a warning sign that you should pause and ask yourself, why am I

reacting this way to that thing? Is it because there's something that's objectively wrong with what's happening, or is there an issue of bias? That's popping up and how I'm perceiving this information that's causing me to have this negative reaction, and I think there's a lot of lack of discipline when it comes to leadership behavior that prevents us or has conditioned us to not.

DeJuan Brown: No, it's true. We say we want to cultivate in and among our team. It's okay to step back and say, I recognize this is why I want to cultivate that. But I also want to be really clear that I've cultivated that. In myself,. If I want a team of transparent individuals, then I have to pressure test my own transparency, .

DeJuan Brown: So we can have a philosophy of candor without actually being candid, a philosophy of transparency without actually having transparency.

Dr. Jim: I really like what you said right there. A friend of mine who used to use this phrase, everybody wants to rule the world, but nobody's willing to pack their lunch. What you said, reminded me of it, because everybody wants the ideal thing.

Oh, we want to be this sort of culture. We want to accomplish this sort of thing. And when it comes to doing the work, there's an unwillingness to do all of the things that's required for you to get there. And it's interesting and I'm sure you you'll have something to say on it. When we're talking about everybody wants to go to president's club or whatever it is on the sales side of it.

So how is that relevant in the context of sales and leadership where you can't really go about taking things as a paint by numbers approach?

DeJuan Brown: Yeah and nothing against spreadsheets, by the way, I think they're they have a great place to play inside of a sales org and any org. But at the same time, as leaders, I don't think we lead process. I don't think we lead technology.

I don't think we lead spreadsheets. I don't think we lead data. We need people. And so it's not that it's not that you can't lead. With the accompaniment of all of those other things that are named and mentioned, but it can't ever be primary,. It can't ever be primary. And I think that's where that's the play.

It's just like that,. It's just not true, . Because these are individuals, these are people, they have different Proclivities, they have different ways of being motivated things that they like to see as recognition and ways. They like to be recognized opportunities. They want aspirations. They have all of these things play into it, .

And if you're leading to all of the secondary tertiary things that I just named and missing the person, it's not much different than, winning an argument and losing the relationship.

If you're throwing technology and you haven't solved for. What your people actually need to be thriving. You're not really going to solve a whole lot. DeJuan, great conversation so far.

I think we've laid out a pretty decent map of the landscape and things that that that we should be doing that brings me to, to a couple of things one, if somebody is getting started on this. What are the things that they need to watch out for that are red flags or can steer you wrong?

So transparency, like coming as you are,. Speaking your mind being candid and like radical candor, like to take any of these principles, which are awesome principles and then make. And I a way of expressing or a way of living out those principles, the standard actually alienates versus empowers.

And so I've seen that happen where it's just you're not doing this and you're not doing that and you're not doing that. I want you to feel comfortable bringing your whole self to work. It's no. This is me being extremely comfortable bringing myself to work. By the way, this is myself.

Dr. Jim: I really like what you drew out there and what you're talking about is the road to success and the mistake that a lot of leaders make, especially in sales, is that because they experience success or achieve success in this particular way that they experienced, they tried to cookie cutter everybody else into that path. So rather than manage or lead to the outcome.

They're managing to the task, which is a big mistake when you're looking at building an elite team.

DeJuan Brown: That's certainly a part of it too. And then it's even beyond managing to the task. It's like managing to the managing to the attitudinal expectation, . When I first led a team, like one of the big mistakes I made was exactly what we're talking about, .

I'm passionate. I know I'm passionate. I see the passion that I have being expressed like I express it. If I see an expression that's not similar to this or a part of this earlier in my career, I was like, you're not passionate, and that's not true. It doesn't have to be true.

It's different. And yeah. If I say one of the attributes that we really want to, engender and just really a champion on our team is passion, . I could be saying something awesome or I could be saying something extremely detrimental to the team depending on what I believe passion is and whether I believe passion has individual expressions based on the person or whether I believe passion looks like this, my passion,.

Dr. Jim: Great stuff, man. So if people want to continue the conversation with you, what's the best way for them to get in touch with you?

I'm super open to learn want to continue to improve and would love to interact and engage with anybody who's willing.

Dr. Jim: I really appreciate you hanging out with us. And I think this has been a great conversation. So when I think back to all this stuff that we talked about, there's a handful of things that stand out that I want to pull out from this entire conversation. When you were talking about starting out as a server and as a busboy, the big thing that came out of that, that I think is broadly applicable to anybody that is looking to lead, your number one responsibility is to serve your people, so you should be paying attention.

It isn't to lead technology. It isn't to lead spreadsheets. It's to lead your people. That's the job. So if you're not centering what you do. With a people first mindset, you're steering yourself wrong.

Those are important things to call out and highlight for those who have been listening to the conversation. So appreciate you hanging out. For those of you who have listened to the conversation, we appreciate you hanging out. Let us know what you thought of the conversation and leave us a review.

Tune in next time where we will bring in another great leader like DeJuan and they will share with us the game changing realizations that they had that helped them build a high performing team.