In this episode, we sit down with Kiel Bradley, currently making waves as the Regional Director for a rapidly expanding technical service company in the Southeast. Bradley shares an insightful journey of his career progression, highlighting his transformation from seeing himself as a 'player' to evolving into a 'coach' — a shift that has undeniably catalyzed his professional growth.

Bradley was instrumental in the early days of the 1on1's coaching system, a transformative initiative that has been a game-changer in team development. He shares fascinating anecdotes and success stories tied to this system, showcasing the profound impact it had on his team. Bradley's experiences serve as a testament to the efficacy of this unique coaching methodology, providing listeners with valuable takeaways about leadership, team building, and the importance of continuous learning. Tune in to gain a fresh perspective on leadership, and see how Bradley is shaping the future of technical services in the Southeast.

As promised, here is a presale link to LIFT!

https://a.co/d/fxAV8ez

Mentioned in this episode:

1on1 App Information

https://www.thinkmovethrive.com/1on1-app/

Hey everybody.

We're talking to Kyle Bradley today, a good friend of mine and also was one

of the people that was a part of the genesis of the 1on1's coaching system.

Before we get started, I just wanna give a big thank you to lots of people.

Number one, if you've been listening to the last 10%, we just finished our last

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Actually, we're just starting into year two now.

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Been more than blessed on the show.

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Thanks again and back to the show net.

Welcome, welcome, welcome to the last 10%.

I am Dallas Burnett in Thrive Studios.

Sitting beside my 1905 Cook Brothers Barber chair, because today is a special

day, the first episode of our second year, I actually have a guest in studio.

His name is the great Kyle Bradley.

Very excited to have you to the show.

Thanks for being here, Kyle.

An honor to be here and I will say, I had to wait till you're

one year old before I can come here.

I need to make sure you were legit.

I am staring at the 1905 Koch brothers

chair.

exist.

I'm not an expert, but it looks like it could be

a hundred plus years old, but

I'm sitting in

like probably a 21 model,

yes.

You're sitting in much nicer.

very comfortable.

Yes.

good.

I'm very glad to have you in the studio.

Glad we grew up a little bit and, was able to take it to the next level.

So thanks for being here.

I have been looking forward to doing this show for a while because it's

been something we've talked about.

We, we go way back.

We've got history and we've worked together in the past and

just had a lot of fun together.

But one of the things I've really been excited about is unpacking the

story because at Think Mo, thrive.

And even the last 10%, we talk about these 1on1's and the 1on1's

coaching system, 1on1's app.

And a lot of people don't know what that is.

And a lot of people, maybe they hear it on the show, but they don't

really, they don't know how they use it or how people do use it.

And you have a cool story related to that because you're at the genesis of

the whole thing of the 1on1's coaching system and it's really a neat story.

So today's episode is really special to me because we get to go and kind

of unpack some of these things we hadn't talked about in a long time.

And so let's talk about, first off, let's talk about you.

let's turn this back around.

Let's talk about you, tell us, tell the listeners like your story,

like where have you been and and how did you get to where you are?

Wow.

So the year was 1982.

That's when it all began.

no.

just really going back, because I believe where you came from kind of shapes

who you are and the way you think.

Going back, nor I'm the most average Joe Guy that'll be on this podcast.

So I've never climbed a mountain, I've never done

anything, nothing special on me.

But we are able to do special things by our relationships that we have.

for me, very normal life growing up.

so I'll talk about sports because I think what we're gonna talk about

today has a lot to do with sports.

So, played baseball from very early on was pretty good at baseball.

I wasn't the guy picking.

Kicking sand or picking four leaf clovers.

I was actually out there engaged.

did that from early on t-ball up through until we got to high school.

And then around 12 years old started playing basketball.

So now I love playing basketball.

The only problem is I'm terrible at playing basketball.

which is funny.

cuz I have kids that play basketball now.

Yes.

And I'm able to be involved with that.

So

Very good basketball

playing kids.

Very

he, he, is, he works hard at

it, so I'm very proud of that.

but I would say, I had a familiarity on being on a team, being a part of a team.

rushed through that, kind of quit playing sports in high school.

just didn't have an interest in it at the high school level, but began, racing cars.

Oh, wow.

So bigger teams to a smaller team.

But working on cars with my dad, helping a family friend

with his and really fun times.

Like I wouldn't trade that for anything.

And it was really fun up until the point my dad was like, all right, you

got a job, now you can pay for it.

And it was not fun anymore.

So that was the end of that

career.

then, kind of, kind of got a real job, I guess I would say, and

became another part of another team.

Now you, you've got an interesting thing because about your

job, because ultimately when kind of jumped into what you call the real world,

what's interesting is there's so many people now that you know, they say, back

when I was in my twenties, they were saying that the average person would

change careers like seven times and.

You have an interesting story because you've been very

consistent in your career.

You've developed kind of from the start, so what's, how's that been?

Yeah, I'm working on year 23,

Hmm.

which is shocking.

It doesn't seem like it's been that long.

But a kind of industry that's apprentice style learning from the bottom.

I knew nothing of it coming in.

I only had a friend that worked here.

That was my connection to it.

just, there was a path out before us of learning, being technically sound,

being good enough in that field.

then you begin to develop relationships with clients and you begin to.

they recognize you and they ask if you do their work, which adds value.

you do that for a time.

you gain certifications and you become recognized as a technical expert.

And then you get to be so good at that and they're like, Hey, you

should do this many times over.

Managed multiple things at one time.

became a project manager at that point, managing multiple projects,

had the opportunity to become an operations manager, kind of running

your own small business and then now able to, work with operations

managers as a regional director.

So 20, 22 plus years and, it's been a fun ride though.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's awesome.

I just think it's cool because you've developed so much.

And it's not like you've stagnated, you've kind of found the path along

the way and had opportunities open up and you've just capitalized on the

opportunities through your career.

And I don't know about average Joe, cuz you're an engineer.

You have been an operations manager run a whole branch, now you're running

multiple, you're regional director over multiple multiples all over the southeast.

I don't know anything average about that, but.

But, but I would like to, so I would like to pause.

So when we get together and when we first met, I was coming into

the organization and we were making some, cool changes and doing some fun

projects and different things related to it and all these other things.

But one of the things me and you did was we just had a lot of Monday

morning conversations and, they were not necessarily directed, they

were more kind of free flowing, but they, we always came away.

I don't know.

I felt like we always came away with something like we just kind of, we,

We started with no intentions for sure.

the intention was to have a 10 minute

conversation and sometimes we sat there for three to four hours.

At that little round table.

but they would lead to great

things.

Yeah.

yeah.

And so I remember.

I remember it was cool because when you talk about playing sports, and I know

that it's an important part of your story, but it was cool because when we

were first starting all this, with the 1on1's coaching system and I was kind

of mulling it over cuz I felt like you were developing and there was a couple

other people developing in the company and we were, I was really burdened with

how to push out this development through the company cuz you know, I can't,

no one, we couldn't afford to hire a.

an executive coach for every single employee in the whole company.

Just couldn't, can't do that.

But I wanted to push the idea of coaching down because we were seeing such, just

a lot of different, good things happen.

And so I remember you coming in and we had this conversation one day.

I remember you were standing in the door and I said something about,

moving you into this leadership, type position and role and stuff.

And you were like, look, I'm a performer.

I just remember you saying that I'm a performer.

I'm not a coach.

And that was interesting.

That was like a, it's like in a movie where you have

like dramatic foreshadowing.

I am an idiot.

But what was cool though was right after that, you got

involved with like a basketball, right?

so I think that, you are who you are at home and at

work, but in at that time, work and home were paralleling each other.

So I can't believe it, but I'm gonna have a high school senior next year,

which is shocking But you know, when he was, four or five years old, whenever

you can first start playing basketball, because everyone had seen me playing

basketball at the church and that, oh, clearly you were gonna be the

coach cuz your son's gonna be playing.

That just makes a lot of sense.

And then I've told someone, no way, I'm a player.

I am not a coach.

Because at the time I'm still in my, you know, mid to late

twenties and like I was still a

player.

Absolutely.

And by the way, a very good one by the way.

you were crushing it and at that point in time when I knew you were project

manager first, you were project manager crushing it, one of the most successful

project managers in the company.

So you were rocking it out for sure.

yeah.

So I saw myself as a player of meaning in sports, and I saw

myself as a player at work.

so the idea of like, Hey man, I kind, I want you to be a coach.

I was like, all right, I'm being asked at home life to be a coach.

And now I got somebody at work saying, Hey, how about being a coach?

And it was hard for me at the time, which is ridiculous.

Now looking back on it, right?

Of course

I was a coach.

but yeah, it's, you have to mentally shift the way you look at things from

if you're a player or you're a coach,

Hmm.

I think that's interesting too because when we had early conversations, like

you had this practice, like these, like little kids, it was like they were little.

I mean, it was like eight years or 10 years old.

and they had asked you to be the coach and you had said, okay, I'm going to coach.

And so you took on this team and I just remember, you, you went into the practices

and at first it was just kind of figuring out things, but then you came back and

it was after the first, I don't know if it was after the first second practice

or maybe after the first game, but you came back in, you said, You're not gonna

believe this, you said I, I am seeing the same problems with these 10 year olds

and communicating with them as I am with some of the people that I'm working with.

It's the same thing.

It's just like this with kids, and this is with adults, but the same

issues, the same communication things.

Are there.

Thought that was cool.

and I've learned since all that is like, it doesn't matter

what industry you're working in.

The way you talk to people and treat people and motivate people.

It's the same.

It doesn't matter what you do, I think I told you really at the first, after the

first practice, I think we rounded up and I was like, we're not gonna win a game.

That's right.

You did say

that.

just looking to get through the first

You sure did.

You said, this team's so bad.

There's no way we're winning a game.

we are gonna, man, it's gonna be a tough

It is a tough year.

Yeah.

And then I think we won a game.

You did.

You did.

got some more structure to practices.

So like what we leaned into is there is like, and it's hard, like when

you don't have any belief, it's tough to, you think you're not gonna win.

Yeah.

You weren't the only one on the team that came away from that first practice

going, we are not gonna win a game.

It's what you're saying.

There's probably a lot of the players

why would they believe it's a first year?

head coach.

like, why would anybody

year head coach.

Nobody knows what they're doing.

Yeah, sure.

but when you win, oh, now we, now our belief goes up

a little bit and we believe more and believe more, and I think we

actually won a playoff game that year.

Matter of fact, I remember sending you a picture of the score of that game of a

team that beat us like three weeks prior.

That's

That's exactly right.

could almost tell you the

score of that

game.

right.

That's awesome.

That's so cool.

I think that's a good point too, because so often in when we're taking on a

leadership role, especially if it's new, and if you're getting promoted

over a team, And especially if you're coming into a team that's had a toxic

situation, I think it's very easy to want that team to immediately.

Become this new thing because you're over this new.

Even if you have a good attitude and you're a good leader, coach,

you have this desire for them, everything's gonna immediately change.

Cuz I'm gonna lead this differently.

And what you just described is great because you're saying, look, it

took us, we had to get a small win.

Before we could get a big win.

And then we put that small win up and we, that increased our belief.

It increased our belief in ourself, our abilities, what we could achieve.

And then that, that change in belief helped us get another win.

And then that helped.

And so it really is, it's a cycle.

It's a building, it's a process, you know?

And I think that's, I think that's so true.

If you're taking on a leadership role in a company, you have to start where they are.

And it's not like they just flip a switch, It's a process of

belief building, so that's good.

with that.

hey.

And just saying, no, this was years later, but a few years ago, the team goes

undefeated and we win the big trophy.

So

that's a movie man.

Like, it's like, that's totally a movie.

Like, cuz like it's the same team.

You coached these guys from the time they were little and it's

the same and they're growing up

moving up divisions.

We keep moving up together.

Yeah, we've been together for several years.

That's so amazing.

and then ultimately that flows into your sons actually playing for the

high school and doing all that.

So that's really.

Mm-hmm.

really cool that kind of transitioned into his

plan for more, organized ball.

all right, so now we've transitioned, you came into this company,

you've been asked to be a coach.

you've been coaching this team at, rec league basketball.

How did that parallel at work?

Like, what did you start seeing that in that environment?

So I had a misconception on, communication there.

there's a missing component there.

I think most people would say We're gonna communicate if I.

I speak and you listen, we've communicated.

But there's a th component, which is understanding.

Okay.

So that's usually the missing component.

So, you know, being able to try things on these young kids and playing

basketball, trying to teach them basketball, at the end of the day,

they get to go home to their parents.

So I couldn't do too much wrong to 'em.

But some of the things we were doing that we would try to bring to work

and because ultimately we're trying to say, Hey, here's a goal out here.

And Every teammate has a role in there, but we collectively, we gotta

play together to get to the goal.

So just trying to take so much stuff from, church basketball to work every day.

So we, so when we were talking, we had the conversation.

You're like, I'm a performer.

Then you go and start coaching, you come back, you have this kind of

epiphany and you're like, I am a coach.

I'm actually coaching.

and it, I feel like that developed over the course of like, even

deeper, over the course of like two or three years as you're coaching

this team, and then I think you started applying those principles.

To your team at work as well.

And one of the things I love how you talk about communication, is because

that it's not like it was a one and done thing, or like you're just delivering

information and walking away it became more nuanced and the messages that

you were sharing were more nuanced.

How you were sharing, you took more interest in what you were sharing

with people that they understood the values of the company, understood what

you're trying to achieve on the jobs.

All those things I think, really developed.

about that time though, I'm having these thoughts about this coaching

system idea and I'm like, I think we can build this coaching system that

can be integrated into the company to really be a tool for everybody.

And then, And you're going through this coaching process, and then we have one

of these Monday morning conversations.

more, I'll never forget this one.

All right, tell us what

Well, I, you can tell the details cuz you, you were

thinking of this and mulling this over, outside of my knowledge.

But on a Monday morning conversation you had mentioned, like, maybe that morning

or over the weekend something, you took one of your daughters for breakfast.

And I said, oh, you a little 1on1's.

Huh?

And you were like, very interesting.

You would say that.

and then you pulled the curtain back on, on one of ones to me.

And that was, I don't know how long ago that was.

that was a long time ago.

That was several years ago.

yeah, several years ago.

So I take my daughter's, 1on1's on, morning dates, occasionally just to

spend some time with each one of 'em.

I have three.

it was after one of those, times and you said that, and I had been

working out the details kind of secretly planning this, this idea,

but I hadn't shared it with anybody.

And we just took some time that morning.

I just whiteboarded and we just had a really good whiteboarding session

after that and we laid it out.

And I was kind of telling you what I was thinking, and this

was, it hadn't been written down.

It was just like very fluid at that point, but got it out on the board.

I was like, what do you think?

You were very like, all right, yeah, let's try it.

part of that is this isn't week two of me and you knowing each other.

Yeah.

This is years into it.

and I'm more of a person now that will be open to change and doing something

differently.

I trust you enough to be like, Hey, you think it's a good deal.

Let's try it.

Let's try

of what I was

Yeah, no, that was really great.

And your, I think your confidence kind of, kind of increased my, willingness

to go out on a limb because it would, it was a different concept for the company.

It was just a very different way than they had been operating in the past.

And so I was unsure if it would be adopted or accepted or if it would be completely

rejected and like, this is not gonna work.

So we ended up moving forward, we created this coaching system on paper.

And I wanted to demo it.

I don't know, it was really a lot longer than it is now.

It's the more streamline now, but it was like several pages of like different

questions and different things and they would have this other conversation.

It was just all this stuff.

Anyway, we,

I'll

interrupt you though before we even get to paper.

Me and you sit in a conference room with a guy

with just the idea of

this thing, So you laid it out to him?

I was in the room.

he, we would work together for quite a while too, so I was

the trust component in that.

Yes.

That circle.

but,

I remember I was walking to the, like the little

break room area to get a drink or something, I don't know what it was.

And you're like, Hey, come in here.

I'm meeting with these two guys.

These project managers come in here and show 'em what a 1on1's is.

Show 'em.

Show 'em.

This is what's coming.

Cuz we knew it was coming out.

You and I had talked about it.

We kind of got the schedule when we're gonna roll this thing out.

We were gonna demo it, but this was like pre-demo and so you

were like, come in and, show 'em.

So I came in and I just sat down and just gave just, questions of the 1on1's that

we knew were gonna be in the first couple.

So this one gentleman, he, I think he had remarked it like,

Hey, I'd actually kind of listen to a podcast on something about this.

And, based on me listening to that and what you're telling me, he's like, . We

didn't ask him to commit anything.

No, that's right.

said, this is the idea of what we wanna do.

What do you think about this?

And he's like, I've been listening to this going on.

Y'all talking to me about this right now?

Man, you know what, man?

I've been smoking and like it's taking, it takes so much money for me

to smoke and it's backed my health.

And I got these young girls, Hey man, I'm quitting smoking like now.

I

I remember because that was like we did, I'll never

forget this cause it was so funny.

Your reaction to this was incredible.

It was like we had that on Thursday afternoon.

We sat down, I do the 1on1's and I just remember, I remember talking to us, there

was two guys in the room and you and in a conference room and you had been

meeting with 'em about something else.

This project managers, you'd been meeting with 'em.

At this point in time, you're an ops manager and so you're meeting with these

two guys and I do the 1on1's and then.

I get, I don't even feel like I get any, like they're just stone cold.

Like just I look at 'em, Hey, what do you guys think?

Totally the different reaction than when I share it with you.

They're just like, yeah, okay.

And I, so I was like, oh, okay, this is what we're gonna do.

And then I'm out and I go get my drink and go back to the office and I'm thinking,

man, I don't know if this is gonna work.

I just don't know because this is hard.

This is gonna be so hard.

And then I just remember on the that mon, the following Monday morning, you

come in the door and you're like, You are not gonna believe what just happened.

And I was like, what?

You're like, I just talked to this guy that was in that room and he said,

he left the me and started thinking about the questions on the way home

and thought about this all weekend.

he was smoking and then he was thinking about his daughter and how much money

he was spent on this Daddy wanna take his family on vacation, all his stuff.

And it was just like quit smoking and it was just like un.

And you were like, man, this is so crazy.

I just remember you said, we're getting in people's heads and turning riches.

Man, I just laughed and we just thought that was the best.

Super high.

Super high.

that's, that was the like informal, like

that wasn't even, follow the

script, sit down, this guy's quitting smoking, which, that's amazing.

Cuz

I think that's, I don't have a problem with it, but I'm sure that's a bad habit.

Right.

So,

And he's still, he's still clean.

oh, to my knowledge,

to my knowledge, he's still, and that was,

that was years ago that he.

Many years ago, he's been, and he went cold Turkey that weekend.

Cold Turkey, no Nick patch or nothing.

He just woke up and was like, I am no longer a smoker.

And that was it.

That was incredible.

So I think that is one story I love sharing when we talk about the 1on1's,

because it's so powerful, but it also speaks, I want to always, I always

clarify with people, this is not this, I'm not Tony Robbins, and this is not,

this is not magic in a, in an app.

He was in a position that he was, it was, like you said, he

had been listened to a podcast

was open, to whatever.

he was a powder keg, looking for a match, and the

questions that we asked him on that Thursday just was the match.

That just kind of, that spark that just went boom and just was unbelievable

change, with coaching though.

We've had other people we've met with and coached, and I've had people I've

met with and coached that you start on, at the beginning there are not a powder

cake and it's a day at a time and it's a, and it's a long period of time before

you get a big change, and it might be many little changes, so you just don't

know what you're getting involved when you engage in a coaching relationship.

You just don't know, like you just don't know if you're walking in on

the powder keg or you're walking in on something that's gonna be

just a little bit here or there.

talk about coaching cuz that's what we're into now,

right?

So just how, what is your definition of a coach?

That's a great question.

I think, and we talk about this a

and there's many

definitions of,

No, I'm not saying anybody else's definition is wrong.

I believe that coaches, there's two main things that coaches do.

Two, two big things in terms of their perspective, and the way I define coaches

are people who engage in closing gaps.

And people who battle for belief.

And so let me, let me unpack that for a second.

So, I think a coach has a, just a real ability or desire.

even if you don't, even if you're not a visionary, it's not saying you're

a visionary, it's just being able to look at a situation or a person and see

where those gaps are and then engage with that person or that organization

in how to close those gaps and.

And so whether it's personality conflict or self-awareness problem

or whether it's a skills gap, you just don't have the knowledge or the

training or the expertise or experience.

You just can identify those gaps and then you engage with that person and

you don't necessarily fix it for 'em.

They've gotta do the work, but you engage with them in a way where

you can help them close that gap.

And I think one of the things that coaches do, and you spoke to it early on, is.

Is that you're in a battle for belief, right?

When you took over that little league basketball team, it was like, Hey, we

gotta begin to believe that we can win.

And so you are, as a coach, as a leader, coach, whether you're leading,

a small team or a large organization or yourself, you're constantly in a battle

for the belief because the belief.

Is something that shapes so much about who we are.

It shapes our perspective, it shapes our emotions.

It's, it shapes and all those things shape our actions.

And so if I want you to behave differently, I like starting

at the level of belief.

If I can get you to believe something differently, then I can

get you to behave differently.

And so I think coaches, if the great coaches engage at that level, at

that thought and belief level and so yeah, that's how I would define it.

So I'll say, speaking of some of that, that you just spoke,

I have, I've had the privilege and the opportunity to be alongside of

a high school coach coaching my son.

I've been on the bench, been at the practices.

so for me it, it became even, I've heard you say that before, like I've

heard that definition and my definition would've been, a coach is someone who.

It takes you from where you are to where you wanna go.

Yes,

Which is a thing that they do.

but you know, the component, like the coach, especially when you're trying

to learn something new, they need self-awareness because those young guys

out there, it's a young group of guys

and they're playing guys that are three or four years older.

Older

than them.

if I'm 25 and you're 28, it's not a big deal.

But I'm 15 and you're 18.

It's a big deal.

but so we need them to do what the coaches asked 'em to do.

And so if we had, the self-awareness turned so far up that those

guys were self-aware, they knew exactly what we were doing.

We wouldn't need a coach, we just need a teacher.

We would just come teach 'em new stuff.

Right.

We'd be good.

Yes.

Cause we wouldn't make mistakes.

Cause we would be, where do we need to be?

Every time

it would be a problem.

So like, I've seen that come to life just from sitting on a bench.

I like that.

That's really good.

And I think that's, whether it's a sports, whether it's high school

sports or kids sports or whether it's organization, it's being, it's that

identifying that those areas and as a coach we have to realize, I think our own.

Strengths and weaknesses because they're gonna play into that.

So I may be really good at identifying, organizational gaps, so then that's great.

I may be really good at identifying process.

and or system gaps or strategy gaps or marketing gaps or sales gaps?

Based on my experience, based on my history and or just on my capability,

when it gets down to the personal level, I may be really good at identifying

awareness gaps or maybe personal skill gaps, but there's gonna be some things

that I have to be aware of as well.

As a coach, you have to have that self-awareness, cuz if.

If I know that I'm really good in one area, but I'm not in another, then that's

why coaches have assistant coaches, that's why they have specialists.

That's why they bring in other people.

Same in organizations.

Like if I'm really good at one, aspect of business or of coaching or of, relating

with individuals, it doesn't, I can improve other areas, but it doesn't

necessarily mean that I don't need help.

And so as a coach, I'm here to close gaps, but that doesn't mean I have

to be all things to all people.

So as a coach, that's one of the cool things.

coach you have some gaps too.

We all have

gaps, Yeah.

right?

So I need a coach just as, as much as anybody else does.

all right.

so let's talk about the 1on1's system.

So we've now, we've kind of gone through the beginning of kind of the genesis

of the thought and we've rolled it out.

We've began to roll it out in the company.

We've gone through it.

We demoed it for like three or four months and then we decided this is

definitely something we're going to do.

The scores were really good compared to what we were doing

with performance reviews.

So we said, okay, we're gonna roll this thing out company wide,

and we start rolling it out.

I think there was like a third of the people that were like, yes, we are ready.

I think a third of the people were like, take it or leave it.

I don't know.

It's just some other program, whatever.

And then I think a third of people were like, No way.

Not gonna happen.

Don't wanna do this.

And was really pushing back.

Tell me some of, like, I, I think of your, when you've been doing

the 1on1's, you've actually, funny enough, I think you've actually been

doing the 1on1's longer than anybody.

There's, because you were part of the demo, so you were literally a

part of the first demo, the 1on1's.

So there's nobody that's been doing one oh ones longer than you.

I'm a technical expert in one.

You are definitely a tailor.

So tell me some of the things like you have, you've kind of

used it for different things.

Tell me some of the ways that you've used the 1on1's coaching system.

so much you talked about earlier, we talked about

the one conversation that was like mind blowing, but you also spoke

of, Hey, let's just do this thing.

Let's consistently routinely do this thing together.

And so I was able to, over a course of many months, work with the guy

to, to eventually be able to take my position as operations manager.

So the way that started out was, hey man, are they making you do this?

Or like, are you wanting to do, why are you, what's going on?

Cause are you wanting to do this?

I'm like, yeah, and here's why.

So he was saying, he was

are you

unsure, like he's saying, are you wanting to do these 1on1's or

is this something they're making you do?

Because he's testing you to say, do you believe this?

Because, I don't know, I'm not sure.

I had enough experience in it that, I was able to say why we would

do this, why would we wanna do this?

those commitments early on were, they were personal type commitments, which are fine

because my goal in a 1on1's is to help you move.

I don't care if it's professionally or if it's at home because at

the end of the day, I got you.

I got the whole you.

And if I got a good you at home, I'm gonna have a good you at work.

If I gotta stress you at home, you're coming to work

stressed.

Yeah.

And you're making me stress

Yeah,

but over time that conversation went from do

you believe in it basically is what he's asking, like you said

to, then he started looking more towards the future of like,

okay, now I see what's coming.

there's always two ways.

There's, it's always about the approach on when you wanna do something.

he had identified something that is, I would like this to change inside

of our, in our, small company.

I could just go tell them directly, like, Hey, make sure your stuff is up to par

because it's substandard right now.

Or I could give them a means to make sure their stuff is up to standard

and explain to 'em how important it is to me for it to be up standard and,

So you're saying that he, so he had an idea, like,

so he had an idea for this new.

So let's drop back before that.

Y'all had an interesting

That is true.

I skipped past

Yeah.

and I blew my mind

no.

Yeah.

So let's ju so tell us like, so you're meeting with this guy, and he is

kind of being, you're kind of, you've made it known to him that he's kind

of, on this path that will end up, potentially in, taking over this.

This role of operations manager.

So in the meantime though, you're having these 1on1's every month and

then one, 1on1's comes up and it's like,

Yeah,

I would say so.

The first one was, do you believe, and then we had a few more just routine

conversations in like four or five, six, somewhere in there, six months we're

doing this.

And it like, Hey man, what's the most important thing

that we can talk about today?

And he goes, I'd like to talk about our relationship.

Now is.

two guys sitting in a

room.

This is

not, y this is not like I can't paint the picture of how,

not this unexpected this would be.

I.

You never know what might, when you ask that question, you don't know what

might be said.

I didn't think we were gonna talk about our relationship that day,

But just for,

because to be clear, we had never done

that before.

That's just not something that you expect to hear, to.

Guys that's, just coming to work.

They're just doing their

like, Hey man, should we hold hands or something?

Or like,

But he says that and you're like, oh, okay,

What about it?

Let's go.

And so what

there was something that was on his mind that was bothering him that

he felt like, maybe what I said wasn't, I wasn't fulfilling what I had said

maybe.

Yeah.

And the man, when he said what was on his mind, it was so trivial and

it didn't have, I started laughing.

I'm like, oh, let me explain to you why that happened.

so there was something that had happened that he, people like you've told me is

people fill in the blank with negative

And he had negative thoughts in his head about his path and his journey.

so we took a timeout, we corrected his issue and like, just like that.

We're good, man.

It was just like that.

at the table, he, you could already feel the tension to his,

like, cuz you addressed the issue.

And it was his lack of, he just, he didn't have all the information and then

he filled in the gap of the negative.

And then in, in hearing that you right there in the 1on1's

are able to just immediately address that, lack of information.

Say, oh, let me, let me open it up to you.

And so you can see the whole thing when you did that.

He's like, oh, I see.

And then it's easy and it's just

like,

went from, are you sure?

To now let's talk about the way we interact with each other.

the other story we told was, working on corrective action for a team,

So he's saying now after that, he comes back and he's saying, I

need to get the team to move in this new

direction.

a realization like, Hey, this might be my responsibility,

so I wanna start working on that

So he's automatically taking ownership and he's starting

to do that by saying I want to be a positive impact on the team, and I'm

seeing some issues that bother me.

And obviously I wanna make 'em better.

How do I do that?

And y'all are having these conversations inside of the 1on1's.

Because that was the most important thing we could talk

about that

is the most important thing you can talk about.

Yeah.

in case you haven't gone to the 1on1's, one of the questions is, what's the

most important thing we can talk about?

And it is a loaded question and it comes up every month.

And so that is one of those questions that you just never know.

You never know where that's going.

And you never know what's gonna come back.

It could be something personal, professional, and like you said,

one, one week, it's, are you sure that this is what you wanna do?

The next week gets, wanna talk about our relationship?

And then the next week is, I've got this idea, right.

He came up, he ultimately came up with an idea to solve that team's

problem that was, duplicated throughout the entire organization.

Right.

Oh, the organization loved it when that

was revealed to 'em, like, wow,

how did you do that?

I would like that.

Wow.

So it was really well received and it's almost like he had to go

through that process cuz that idea he had been sitting on for a while.

He may have, he may or may not have shared it.

He may have shared it later.

He may have shared it, because he was kind of frustrated.

He may have never

shared

have never shared it, So I think that's really cool.

that's a great story.

Yeah, that's a really good story.

So I think that also 1on1's you've been using them

different with different people.

So that is one example.

you've, you were kind of using a 1on1's and I think that's what we would like

to, convey always to our, any clients that we have, is that a 1on1's coaching

system is a tool and a platform.

So it's a communication tool that helps people.

Grow and build trust with their team members and their, employees

at the same time getting to know those team members and employees.

But also holding those team members and employees accountable to commitments

that they make, that they wanna keep.

And then as a coach, your job and role is that, like we said,

looking and finding those gaps.

So you're encouraging that.

And so while we don't, judge, if somebody's, made a personal commitment

to lose five pounds, they lost three.

I'm celebrating the fact that, hey, you're three pounds lighter this

month than you were last month.

But hey, where did

our goal in that was some movement, and we got some movement,

We didn't hit the goal.

We didn't hit the target, but we have movement towards it.

So that's a win.

It's a win.

It's a win.

But as a coach, I'm gonna sit there and I'm just gonna lean in just a little bit

more to the person and not judge them.

But I'm gonna say, so let's talk about how, where did the process break down

to that we didn't make it to five, and now I'm focusing on the process.

I'm not focusing on the person, I'm not making it personal.

And saying, you are a failure because you didn't get, five pounds.

I'm saying, what is it about the process?

did you have too many cheat days on the diet?

Is that what broke down?

Okay, all right, at least we know.

Do we want to try this again and go for five again or do we wanna have

a different commitment this month?

So I'll, I, typically I'll let people to, to go on and if I'm

doing a 1on1's, I'll give them that.

Like, if they're gonna make that, commitment on the beginning,

I'll be like, okay, you can make that for the first few times.

Then I'm gonna start pushing 'em a little bit.

I'm like, eh, or if I have a point, like I have somewhere I'm wanting to

take them, then it's gonna be like you said, we're gonna start guiding that

I would say that in my experience in doing it, the first ones are

gonna be kind of like things like that.

Mine was like, mine to you was I'm just gonna drink water for 30 days.

I thought that was super simple.

That's right.

Go ahead and get up and have breakfast and drink some water.

See how that, the 30th day, I think we had to go have some Dr.

Pepper.

We did.

Okay.

So those are easy.

And you like, so the hardest part, like people just don't

want don't instantly open up to

you, right?

That's right.

So they don't wanna be vulnerable in that way.

So they think this is easy and it's low hanging fruit and that's okay.

Do you know for the first time?

What I've noticed though, over time, they'll tend to turn and

they'll focus on the things that they really, what matters to them.

Yes.

If they won't tell you that straight up, this is really important to

me, you'll start looking at their pattern and you'll start honing

in on what's important to them.

you'll see what's important to them.

I think too, it's a very, it's almost like a trust barometer.

If I'm giving a 1on1's to somebody, then I should expect, unless I've

got deep trust with them, we've worked together for a long time and

we have really good relationship.

I would expect them to be more like, I'm just gonna give you a light

answer because I haven't put, I haven't laid the foundation of trust.

But after you go through this and you spend six months listening to people

reflect on things on their mind that they haven't maybe thought about a lot,

or you listen and care about what's most important to them, and then you move

and help them move and help them close gaps, you cannot help but build trust.

And when you start building that trust, then all of a sudden those answers.

To become more, more vulnerable and more real.

And I think that's what people appreciate is that when you get to that level of

authenticity, you can have those real conversations and really make progress.

like whether it's work or home.

we talk about in 1on1's that we're not there to solve people's problems.

We had, I remember, one of the in, in another, Place.

We had a, a coach that had a team member that approached them and

said they were struggling with their marriage on that question.

that's not a work question per se, but if you think that person is not bringing

that stress from their home life to work, you are, just, you're not, I don't

know what planet you're living on, but

are unaware

Yeah, exactly.

Or you

if everybody else knows it and you don't.

It's called a blind spot.

Yeah.

And that's the blind spot that, and I would say that's right.

So what that coach did, what was fantastic was, and we coach on this when we are

doing implementation of the 1on1's and training coaches on how to do it.

Cause it's a very easy system.

But there's a few things like this that we like to go over and that is that he

directed the person in the 1on1's to go get help and said, would you hear, let's

look up a number, somebody you could call.

And, that.

Particular, organization I think had a chaplain program or an employee

assistance program or something like that to where they he said, let's

get the number, got the number.

Would you commit to calling this and talking to somebody about it?

And I think that's really great because, he, contacted me after just,

I don't think I did really well with this cuz I'm not a counselor and this

That was one of those you weren't

expecting.

coach.

Yeah.

He was like, oh my gosh.

Did not know.

But I was like, you did great.

What'd you do?

I just listened.

It was great.

And he said, I made the commitment, where he would call and get help.

I said, that's perfect.

You're not his counselor, but you're helping him close his

gaps and and you're more aware.

So as a leader you're more aware.

And if he comes in on Monday morning and he's, had a rough weekend at home,

then you can be sensitive to that and maybe not put him in a really

stressful environment on Monday morning.

just cuz if you don't know, then he's just getting on the schedule and it's.

To where the chips fall, So I think it's really good for being proactive.

And I know I've talked about personal examples like weight and, working out

and now, relationship issues and marital issues, but you've used it as well for

work and making commitments for that and in helping a guy get into, increase their

position or even coaching skills, right?

So what I've found after doing it for quite a while now is.

What makes it easy are helping people.

So people are gonna struggle with making a commitment.

It's gonna be a struggle for

them because why do I believe it is?

Because it's like, man, he's gonna ask me about it.

So I, there is some accountability there.

I don't wanna let this person down.

So I feel some stress on that, but I don't wanna push it so far.

Like I don't want to stretch myself out too far.

So I want, I've had many ones I do over and over where that we do

like really simple to get goals.

Okay.

That's fine for a while, but then we wanna stretch some more.

But, yeah, I would say, what, oh, what's helpful in that is it's

helpful to have a really big goal

that's way out there.

And then we can use month after month to work on a piece of it.

A piece of it, a piece of it.

And over time you'll be shocked.

Kind of like when I am, when I look back on what the, my, my journey,

it's like, wow, we've came a long way,

but it didn't feel like a big journey to get

yeah.

Just let, just little steps.

I think that's a great point.

I think that's one of the things that we really focus on when we are

training on the 1on1's is that we're not looking for, we call it 1% advantage.

We are not looking for.

We're not looking for these huge, massive increases.

And I think sometimes in, in performance reviews, maybe we'll do

a podcast on performance reviews.

Sometimes I have a lot to say about performance reviews.

Not much is

they are

No,

about the politicking,

the

gonna do, yeah.

So bad.

to the right number.

We

we don't have, we don't even have enough time

in today to get in all that mess.

wanna have that

oh my gosh.

That's why we're here today.

Yeah, that's right.

Exactly.

however, I feel like one of the things in performance reviews that people get caught

up on is this massive corrective action.

Like, I've gotta do this to get a raise, or, you've been doing this bad

and we haven't really said anything.

Sometimes that works out.

It's like they don't even say anything about it cuz it's not bad enough.

But then all of a sudden you're gonna get this, you're not really

doing this up to the, par, so we're

I really consider your performance, it's quite

terrible, but I haven't thought about it until this, these 12 months have

passed.

hasn't been bad enough for me to fire you, so I've just let you

get away with it for the last 12 months.

Now I'm gonna tell you about it and really, smash your hopes and dreams

right here on the performance.

And then I'm gonna send you out and you're supposed to be able to correct

this and I'm not gonna really give you any resources cuz I haven't

told you about it in a year anyway.

And yeah, I mean there's just a lot there.

I love that about the 1on1's though because it gives us a tool whether you

do performance reviews or not, it gives you a tool that you can go after this.

Small incremental change so you can get that 1% advantage, and I'm making a

commitment that's gonna get 1% better.

I had somebody, on one of their 1on1's and said, look, I'm really

okay with Microsoft teams, but I don't really know it really well.

I'd like to watch three YouTube videos on Microsoft Teams.

Now that may sound like ridiculous, like who makes that commitment?

I loved it.

I thought that was fantastic because this person.

Was slow on Microsoft teams and couldn't use it to its full capability.

And that's one of the things that we use a lot in platform.

And so it's like, Hey, if you do that, then all of a sudden, if I say if I

take those, if it's just 10 minutes this month, but that 10 minutes returns

investment on every time you get on Microsoft Teams, it saves you 10 minutes.

Then over the course of a year, if we get on team every single

day, and for some form or fashion.

I've just saved days.

that person is gaining time, but

also all your teammates are doing it too,

so a small corrective action can lead to a huge result.

Yeah.

I like that.

I like that.

What's some of the most, and as you think about the 1on1's, and I liked

how you said when you first started giving 'em, what's for you and for

people that in your organization you kind of are around, what's some of the

most challenging things about a 1on1's?

Cuz it's still something you have to be intentional about.

Yeah.

So for me personally, making sure you do 'em is, that sounds really weird.

we talked about all the great things that come from 'em, be like, oh, we

should be willing to do these every day.

we would be, but you know, you can get busy and you can set that to the

side because you get busy on the work.

So we have to value those and make sure we do 'em.

So like my, a thing that I struggle with is making sure like, hey, like

at the turn of the year, boom, that was my, my commitment for 2023.

Let's make sure these folks get these things monthly.

Just for the person, getting them at the most important thing we can talk

about and the commitment, which I would say though that the, be prepared

in it that more times than not, I've heard had this happen several times.

what do you think I could work on?

Oh, wow.

that's an invitation.

So you wanna have something for them

at that point.

that's where you gotta be careful on the judgemental side or, you

don't wanna beat anybody down.

But, So I've noticed that though, you gotta be ready for what?

What do you think I could improve on?

Yeah, that's great.

I think that's, I think that's true, and I do think that the commitment

piece is difficult for people and.

And I think that we've, we actually did a training video and it's in the

app that just talks about all these different example commitments that

team members and coaches can look at.

Because sometimes it's hard, if you, especially if you don't have a very

clear goal, we have a place in the app where you can put those goals.

But, and actually we're looking at even revamping that and making

it more robust to where we could partner with coaches to help.

The, help them walk through the goal setting process and break it down a

little bit so that they actually can have more of that inside the app.

And so we've got some things coming on that we'll talk about now.

All right.

So I'm gonna break some, I'm gonna drop some more information here.

Uh oh.

All right.

So this is really good

Inside

Yeah.

This is inside fastball.

Here we go.

So we've been talking about this book, this, it's coming out.

Sense, like, I don't know, forever and we're excited about it and

we're getting close, but we had, we were, we thought we were gonna

launch right after the first year.

We were ex really excited about launching.

We actually ne, we actually said the name, it's called Lyft.

We actually said the name in December.

We're like, because it's coming.

And then we got after the first year and we're almost, we were almost that.

And we were like, Nope.

we gotta be better.

We gotta be better.

And so we're working with the publisher.

We went back to the drawing board and we're redoing it to make it even better.

And we're getting really close.

And I love it.

I think it's gonna be great.

It's really gonna be good.

And it has a lot to do with the levers that you pull to change the culture.

But what I would say is also, as it relates to this conversation, see

you're in the genesis of so many things.

Tell you what are we gonna

do next?

totally, you're totally at the genesis.

So not only were you at the genesis of the 1on1's, but like our times together

on those Monday mornings spawned some of the concepts that are in this

Oh boy.

And s and a lot of what we did in your organization

is laid the foundation of a lot of what's in this book.

And this book's all about culture and how you intentionally cultivate.

and strengthen cultures of a team and cultures of an organization.

And it's written as a business fable, so it's easy to read, but

we've just dropped some just great tools in there that are really good.

So you actually have seen some iterations of it and, and know some of the lingo.

yeah.

So we're excited to have that come out.

So now we're hoping to have an end of the summer.

Launch we're hoping.

And, we were feeling really good about it.

In fact, we had this special, I was speaking at an event, I was speaking

at an event two weeks ago and actually opened up a little pre-sale opportunity,

so they got a little pre-sale.

We're not advertising that.

since this is the one year anniversary and the present

they can offer up is a review,

maybe they could actually bring presents for the book won't.

Oh, ah,

Oh,

that's funny.

Okay, this was unplanned, this was unrehearsed.

I

Which is, we do our best work in that environment.

that is totally true.

we're totally, yeah.

Just spontaneous.

today, spontaneously, we are going to, we're gonna put in, I'm gonna put in.

I'll put in the note show notes.

So if you're listening to this and you've made it to this, into this episode,

I'll put in the show notes a link to Amazon for the pre-sale of the book,

and right now, Just, while, you're listening to this episode right now.

The price is as low as we can make it on Amazon.

We literally put it down as low as possible on Amazon.

So if you go on Amazon and buy the pre-sale, the book will be out.

I'm not even sure the cover is already gonna, has already changed since the

cover that we loaded on the pre-sale.

So it's gonna be kind of closed, but it's not even the same cover.

But if you go on Amazon, look at the pre-show.

If you go on the notes and you look at the pre-sale, the book, you can buy

it and it's at the lowest price you'll ever be able to get it for as an e-book.

And then when the hard copy comes out, we'll make that available as well.

But, all this will be out, towards the end of the summer

and we're really pumped about it.

So is there anything else you wanna talk about On 1on1's?

Man, thank you for being here

today.

You

it's been fun.

Yeah.

I feel like we've really went through it.

Yeah.

All right.

I would say one thing.

Mm

I find it much easier.

I like using it to get to know someone.

I find that much easier to do

Really?

So you like, you feel like it's almost harder to do it with somebody that you

really feel like you already know Cause you've worked with 'em a long time.

Whereas if you don't know somebody, this is like, oh, this is great

this

is what we use to get to know.

that's good.

That's good.

Then other thing I would say is after you've done it for some

time, you, you use it right to get those questions out there, but it really

turns into a conversation at that point.

It's not structured and rigid.

it's just like, Hey, we're, we know this is coming up and we know we gotta do it.

I'm gonna plan some time for this, and then we're just gonna go into

it and it becomes way more natural.

It's gonna feel awkward at first if if you've never done it.

Yes.

You gotta get through that.

But then it becomes so it, it becomes of just, Hey, this is who you are.

This is what we do.

I love that.

I love that you have to get over the hump and it's like you have

to get past the first three.

And I tell this to everybody that starts Look, just assume that

you're just gonna feel weird the first three times you do a 1on1's.

It is what it is, and you're building a new habit.

And it's really important habit, but it's worth it.

And after you get past the first three, it's like, oh

yeah, and you know what's funny?

And this is what.

This is what I've seen.

and you may have seen the same thing after you do about three.

That's when I, after the third, I don't know why three is the one, but like

after the third one, you start getting people, I'll start getting people come

up and they'll be like, I knew you was gonna ask me, you know this, question.

of course you did.

We ask it every month.

But after the third time, for some reason it's like that kicks in their brain and

they're like, and so I've been thinking since last week about my commitment.

And I'm like, oh really?

Let's hear it.

And I'm like, let's go.

This is gonna be good.

Or I've been thinking since last week, what's the most important thing We talked

and I'm just sitting there amazed because that small habit and intentionality

of us getting together once a month and just sitting down and having that

conversation breeds amazing thought for like over a week on how to get better.

Like, what.

Company owner.

What leader in a company or manager in a company?

What?

What person doesn't want their team members thinking every week about

how they're gonna get better and grow to be better for the team?

who doesn't want that?

I mean, that's.

That's incredible.

I would love that.

And that's when you start seeing high performing teams and teams

that, that take it to the next level that want that growth.

And yet, like we just don't, we, it's simple habits and routines that we just

don't do, that, that keep us from it.

So I think that's right.

you just gotta sit through those first three.

You gotta get it done, you gotta get through it.

And then, And you get over the hump and you're good to go.

So that's really good.

That's really good.

All right.

all right.

We ask every guest at the end of the last 10%, if there's anybody that

they would like to hear on the show.

much what's the most important thing we talk about today

and what do you wanna commit to?

I know this is coming because I'm a regular listener to the show.

Oh.

hey, I put a little thought

to

I'm excited.

And, so you and I are very aligned.

We're nearly the same age.

You have three kids.

I have three kids.

The only difference we have is like, you're a big time Clemson Tiger fan.

I am,

and I'm, I'm a game cop.

So the greatest coach that I'm aware of in Gamecock football

that I've been watching it.

It's Steve Sprayer.

So man, hey, we need to get you

Wow,

sprayer up in here.

you get Steve Spurrier.

All right.

So I need to get some Steve Spur.

I'm gonna call Steve or his agent,

beat button or a mute?

Like,

yo boop.

Hey dude, Dabo and Steve sprayer together.

Oh wow.

that would be an interesting conversation, I think.

Yeah.

yeah, Sky's the limit.

I'm gonna reach out to Steve Sprayer.

I'm gonna say, look, Kyle Bradley says you gotta be on the last 10%.

Steve.

I don't see any reason why he would turn us

What are you doing and you're not doing anything.

Come on.

You got extra free time, man.

Come on.

Be on the show.

All right.

All right.

that's good.

hey, thanks again for being on the last 10%.

Appreciate you, appreciate all you do, appreciate your.

wealth of knowledge that you just dropped on everybody about the

1on1's coaching system and how you've been doing it, and it's been great.

I just appreciate looking at this beautiful 100 year old chair.

Oh

man.

All right.