Welcome back to the Build A Clear Authentic Brand podcast. I'm your host, Amy Dardis. And today we're continuing our seven-part series on creating alignment with your people. We're in part three of our seven series arc. And in this series, we're exploring the three dimensions of alignment, the three C's: culture, capacity, and contribution. And we're currently breaking down this first dimension of culture. And within culture, that includes values, work style, traits, and non-negotiables. And in our last episode, we talked about aligning values, defining what we believe and how those beliefs shape our decisions. So if you haven't checked that out, I encourage you to look at that one as well. But today we are focusing on work style alignment. Now, this is a popular debate, if not even controversial. And we hear things all the time like remote work versus on-site work, autonomy versus oversight, flexibility versus structure. And people can get very hot about what's right, what's wrong, what should be allowed, what shouldn't. And I'm seeing conversations about this all over platforms like LinkedIn and in business circles, and like what is the right thing to do, and how do people work best? And even this theory of being open to just however people do their best work is is is what we allow here, and we're open to that. And that's great, and I love that. But I also feel like this debate kind of misses the point of what it is that really matters because it's not about which one is better, because there's honestly there's no single right way to work. And despite a business's best efforts and intentions, even a business that's open to all kinds of different work styles, a business will never be able to provide the most ideal working space for everybody. And so the question is really what is right for your business at this place in time? What working style supports the greater good of the company for your goals and objectives? And then work style alignment is about finding people who are naturally wired to thrive within your environment. And so there are two aspects to work style alignment. One is individuals thriving in environments that align with their unique work style. And the second one is teams thriving together when alignment exists. So this theory, this concept of work style alignment is something that took me a long time to realize and to fully understand how and why this came into play. But when it did, it was a huge light bulb moment to realize the magnitude of this concept and how significant it is in alignment. And so I'm gonna break this down a little bit through my own story. So I have had a variety of different jobs, and there's different phases to my career. And so within the first 10 years of my career, I was mainly in admin and finance type jobs and workplaces. And throughout those 10 years, I honestly was never passionate about work. And I would consider myself like a mediocre employee. I was not terrible. I did my job. And there are different reasons for this, a lot of which I've dissected in my own journey of exploring this alignment concept and what that means and why. But within this one phase of my job, I was working in businesses that valued structure. They valued following rules. And it wasn't just that they valued it, that was the style in which work got done. Like that described the environment of the work. So when you show up to work each day, there were certain procedures that needed to be followed. There were controls that were in place to mitigate risk, to mitigate mistakes. And there was a lot of black and white. There wasn't a lot of creativity or freedom or innovation or flexibility because that's not what the business required. Because again, I was working in business and finance businesses, right? So, or sorry, I was working in like finance and admin businesses where you want there to be processes and controls, and you want things to be done a certain way each time. So there was lots of routine, lots of like you show up and you do these things at the beginning of the month, you do these things in the middle of the month, you do these things at the end of the month. Everything needs to balance and check out down to the last penny, and then we're going to repeat for the next month. That was what the business needed, and it made them successful and it served their clients and customers well. The problem for me is that that conflicted with my own unique work style, which at the time I had not developed, I had not fully realized, I didn't understand the concept, nor did I realize that it didn't align much less what my work style actually was. So I learned about my own work style once I was thrown into the world of entrepreneurship when I was my own boss. And I had to figure out how I worked best. And that was a process of trial and error and nobody telling me what to do, and there were no specific guidelines on how I needed to work, only the object of what are the deliverables, what are the results I'm going after, what are the outcomes I'm trying to achieve for my business and for my clients. And then me figuring out how I operated best. And it was in this world of entrepreneurship that I started to realize my work style. And it was freedom, it was flexibility, it was autonomy, it was getting up and working in spurts versus continuous routine blocks. I liked to follow my creativity. I liked to get up and work when the inspiration hit. I liked to be in flow and creative moment and that doesn't, that didn't fall within the lines of an eight to five structure. But I realized that when I was in my flow, when I was hit with inspiration and creativity and momentum, that the results that came out of it were amazing, that I was completely focused. I wasn't distracted, I wasn't, you know, procrastinating. Like I was doing the work I needed to do. And I was 100% focused and productive. And I was like, wow, this is this is really cool. Like I've never felt like this before when I've worked. What is this feeling? And I realized that one, it didn't, for me, it didn't last all day, every day. It wasn't a pattern, but it was a rhythm. And it was something where I'm like, oh wow, these specific certain circumstances or environments promote more of this flow state, being able to sit down and focus without distractions, light music in the background, no phone calls or meetings. But I also learned that on days where I had to do some deep thought work, that I couldn't have anything else on my calendar because that created a distraction. That if I knew I had meetings or only chunks of time, I learned how to like time block my schedule in order to promote the most productive work environment that matched how I worked. Now that's very unique to just me as an individual, whereas like my husband, who's also an entrepreneur, his work style is different. But the beauty of being an entrepreneur is that you can kind of decide what your work style is, and there's there's a lot of freedom and flexibility with that, which I that's what promotes my productivity and creativity. Now, I had never been in a job previously that had ever allowed that. And when I went to work for one of my clients, which was a unique situation, it's not like I applied for a job posting. It was something that came about organically with a client that I had a relationship with and not something either one of us were necessarily pursuing, but an opportunity ended up coming up and I felt like God was leading me to take this job. So when I went to work for him, because I had learned this about myself, one of the things I told him was if you want my best work and my best contribution, I have to be able to work within this work style. I have to have some freedom and autonomy. I want to be able to be hybrid. I will be at the office, I will build relationships, I will be present, but I need time in my schedule. I need freedom and flexibility to be able to have this creative work time. And I ended up going to work for him at the end of 2019. And then COVID hit. So that just helped that cause a little bit more because everybody was then working remotely or hybrid for a I don't know, a decent amount of time. So I wasn't the only one. However, I thrived and contributed in that work style. But what I realized through this process was that my work style didn't match the work style of this company that I had gone to work for. And so it created friction. And it wasn't that my work's this company's work style was like the jobs and the admin and the finance. It wasn't nearly that rigid, it wasn't nearly that process-driven. There was a lot of flexibility, there was a lot of freedom, there was a lot of autonomy, there was a lot of relationship and collaboration that happened. It was a lot of thinking on your feet. And so there were there were things about their work style that that absolutely did match mine. And so it created some alignment. However, at the end of the day, there ended up being enough friction and enough tension that it did create misalignment. And so I realized, wow, this work style is a part of this understanding of culture and alignment and the way that a business operates. Because at the time I was studying EOS and we were implementing EOS into the company, and I understood the right fit or a culture fit being simply sharing core values. And what I have just come to discover is that it's more than that. It is that that's super important. You know, we spent the previous episode talking about values and beliefs and convictions and aligning around them. However, you could share the same values, you could be aligned in that area. But if you don't share the same working style, it's not necessarily a deal breaker, but it does create tension and friction. And if you have enough of that, it can create obstacles and problems within your organization. And so the focus is to minimize that where you can as much as possible and as often as possible. So creating your work style or understanding your work style first starts with understanding like how does the business need to run? Like, what's the environment? What's the pace? What's the communication style? And we'll dive into these elements in a little bit. That makes up how the business does its best work. And then once you have that figured out, one, you can clarify it, then you can communicate it, and then you can align people around it and hold people accountable. So there's that clarity alignment accountability framework, just like that. Boom. So we want to attract people who will naturally thrive within your work style. Because when that's their work style, we're getting this sense of flow, we're getting this maximum contribution, we're getting this value that comes out of them when they're working in a way that really aligns with how they're wired to work. And the other area that I started to notice this in, not only in my own story, but when I worked for this organization as well. During this time, I was like studying people and the hiring process and retention and how all of these elements came into play. And I couldn't put words to it at the time. But what I did know and made sure to do was I understood that the way our business operated at the time, it was fast pace. It was think on your feet. It was 10 things coming at you all the time. And so you had to be able to multitask, you had to be able to pivot, you had to be able to prioritize. And that had to excite you, that had to thrill you, that had to challenge you and motivate you. But what I saw is we would hire some employees who did share our values and who did align in other areas and who were in the right seat for their specific skill set. But the pace at which we operated, the the working style and the environment of the business was overwhelming and it was stressful. And it ended up leading to burnout. And I realized, wow, this is this is some, there's something here. And so I started like bringing that into the hiring process and bringing that into the interview process of really kind of figuring out, like, hey, like, do you like fast-paced things? Do you like some ambiguity? Do you like some gray area? Because if you don't, you won't enjoy working here. You will feel overwhelmed, you will feel stressed out, and you will burn out and you will leave because I had seen it happen. And so it wasn't till afterwards that I was able to really like put terms around the what I was observing through this of like, oh wow, there's an actual style. And every business has their own environment. And it's it just exists. It's not, it's again, it's not something that you create. Like, you don't create your environment, it happens. What we do is we clarify it, we understand what it is so that we can communicate it to people, and so we can let them know and what they're getting themselves into, and we can also make decisions based on is this person going to thrive working in this environment? Is that going to bring about their best work or will it inhibit it? So if you can have great people who believe what you believe, but if the environment doesn't align with how they're wired to work, then they won't thrive. And when you when they don't thrive, when the employee doesn't thrive, the business doesn't thrive because you're not getting this maximum contribution and value that they are capable of delivering. And we'll dive more about that into the contribution dimension of alignment. But work style isn't about who's right and who's wrong, it's understanding that everybody works differently. And when we can create clarity around how the business works, then it helps people find environments where they can flourish. And that's really what we're after, is because when we're in this flow state, in this flourishing environment, based on how we're hardwired, then we can really deliver a higher value, a higher contribution to the business. But then us as individuals, we find more meaning, more engagement in our work. So when we have misalignment in this work style, we're gonna see friction, frustration, burnout, tension because their natural rhythm doesn't match the company's rhythm. And when we have too many different work styles in one business, it just will breed tension. It just will, because you will have some work styles that prefer something that is more structured, more process-oriented, more methodical. And then you will have some work styles that are fast-paced and creative and flexible and gray area. And when you have a bunch of different competing work styles, it's you're going to have tension and friction. And that will keep the team from operating at their highest level, and then it will keep the momentum in your business from really being able to pick up speed. So when it's missing, when this work style alignment is missing, it's confusion and stress, it looks like declining engagement, turnover and burnout, tension and friction, and then those obstacles that are detracting from the overall goal and mission of the brand. But when it's there, so when people are in an environment that matches their work style, they're going to be energized by the pace and the structure. Like they're just going to be like, yes, like this is this is exciting, this is motivating, this inspires me to be more creative. I'm more committed to this work. We're going to have, we're going to see more innovation, more growth. And it's really this like flow state of work where just all the cylinders are going off the way they need to. Everything's working how it should. And we're we're not just moving forward, we're we're creating momentum, like we're doing things, we are growing. And in order to do this, we'd have to know how our business needs to operate, like what makes the most sense for us. And then let's find the people who thrive naturally within that. So when we're looking at our work style, there are a couple different areas to look at. And there's no right or wrong way to define your work style, but there's six different components that I would consider. So the first component is pace, which is the overall speed and urgency of how work gets done. Are you fast moving and high energy, or are you more steady and methodical? The second component is structure. So, how what's the amount of organization, systems, and process control that exists in daily works? Like, is this a business that operates with a lot of defined systems and SOPs? Or is it a business that's more flexible and adaptive to approaches? And you'll find that that right there will create a ton of friction. If you have someone who's like, give me the SOP, give me the process, I will follow it. And then you have people who are like, but rules are made to be broken, you know? And then the third component is collaboration. So what's the level of teamwork and shared decision making that's expected? Is this like a very team-focused and interactive type environment? Or is it more independent and task-driven? The fourth component to look at is autonomy. So, what's the degree of freedom and ownership individuals have and how they work? Is it more self-directed and empowered, or is it more guided and closely supported? The fifth component is communication. So, how is information shared, discussed, and resolved? Is it direct and informal? Is it thoughtful and measured? Like, how do you communicate as a team? Is this uh over-communicate? Is this a we like to email about everything kind of communication? Or is this nothing's written down, everything's informal? We just kind of like mention it as we think about it. Like you have this style, whatever it is, like I said, we're not creating it, we're just understanding it. How do you communicate? And then decision making would be the sixth component. So, how are choices made and and who has authority? So, is this like a very one, is it quick and decisive versus careful and consistent consensus driven? Is this like a chain of command type of environment, or is it a like, hey, you are empowered to make your own decision as long as you can back it up? Like we encourage that, we encourage you to make decisions, or we encourage you to seek permission or do it and then ask for forgiveness later. I mean, you just think about what would describe how your business operates the best. And if you have too many work styles in your business right now, it might be a little confusing to kind of pinpoint that. So take a step back and look at your own work style just as a leader, and then look at the business. Like, what does your business need in order to operate it's at its highest potential, in order to serve your customers to the highest level of excellence, and then work backwards? Like what kind of communication does that require? What kind of structure, pace, autonomy, you know, what does that look like? And so just some quick examples of work style. So you could be fast-paced and high energy, like you're a kind of company that like moves quickly, adapts fast, and you're just like, let's go, let's go, let's go. But on the opposite side of that is you're a business that's like really methodical and detail-oriented, like you plan carefully and you protect quality through precision. And sometimes this is determined even by the industry that you're in or the market that you're in. You could be a company that's really highly collaborative and you want people to come together. Your work style promotes people being together in the office or on Zoom calls, having fun, playing games. It's very relaxed because it values creativity. And so you need that through a lot of collaboration and people working together on things and understanding how to communicate with each other and coming up with new ideas. Or it could be completely opposite of that, and it could be very autonomous and self-driven, where it's like you have your team of people and they very much do their own thing. It's like everybody has a mission, and each day we send them out to accomplish that mission. And it's not a lot of interaction, it's more just like, hey, we're all a part of the same company. We know what the values are and the goals are, but we're very much operating on our own schedule, on our own timeline, and it's based on the results that we're delivering. So very different. You could be flexible and adaptive, being very like open to change and pivoting and learning as you go along. Or again, opposite of that, you could be very process-driven and structured, where it's like you very much rely on clear systems and SOPs for consistency. There are businesses where it's like SOP, SOP, SOP. And then there are businesses where like, what's a SOP? Like, what do you mean? Write it down. Like, what and I'll be like, what's your process for doing this? And they're like, I don't know. We just kind of wing it each time. Like it, they're they're all different, they're all unique, but the the point is just to define what reflects your culture the best. Because the next step is making sure that you're attracting people who who like that, who value that, who work the best within those specific situations. And then you're you're training that and coaching and saying, hey, this is how we do business. Like it's not accidental, maybe it was at one point, but now it's intentional. Now it's intentional because it creates the most value, it creates the most productivity, it creates the best results when we're operating in this way. And so if someone doesn't thrive in your environment, it doesn't make them a bad employee. It doesn't mean that there's something wrong with them. It just means that their natural way of operating and working doesn't align the best with how your your company needs to operate. And this can look like if you have someone who is very process driven and structured and they want to show up to work Monday through Friday, they want to come in at the same time, they want to leave at the same time. They want to follow the SOP. They want to be very conscientious about the details, mitigate risk. This kind of structure and predictability gives them a sense of peace and security. And when they have that peace and the security, it frees them up to do their best work. And they can focus on the details, they can see things that others miss, they can make sure that mistakes aren't being made. And it creates this accountability and consistency. And they love that. Like that makes them feel good at the end of the day. Whereas you could have someone who shows up five, 10, 15 minutes past the time they were supposed to be there. Timelines are fluid, they move, and they don't want to be told how to do something. They just want to know what the goal is and they want to find their own way there. Well, they're not going to feel energized and motivated in this very structured environment. They're going to feel restricted. They're going to feel unmotivated. They're going to feel like they can't break free. And then that's going to, they're just going to focus on that. They're just going to focus on this box that they're in. And I'm speaking about myself here and how I have felt about these things. I was like, when I worked in these businesses where I had to be there at 7 a.m. and I had I had to stay until 4 p.m. My focus became about all these rules and restrictions and how it kind of sucked the life out of me. And that that became what I thought about. Versus once I got rid of those restrictions, once I got rid of those, like you have to start at 7. You can, in my world, I'm like, I can start at whatever time I want. Some days it's seven. Some days it's 10. Some days I'm working at 7 p.m. To me, it doesn't matter because it when I remove those inhibitors, it frees me up to focus on my best work. But for the SOP person, they're like, what do you mean? Like that is that is stressful. That is, how can you, when do you know when to relax? When do you know when to leave work? When do you know when your day is done? How can you know what you're going to do that day? And if you don't have a plan, and if the plan is different every day, how can you focus on on the work that you need to do? Like very different work styles here. And neither one of them are wrong. So just by helping people be in the best work environment for themselves. And there, like I said, there's no right or wrong way to do this. I mean, whether you're hybrid or remote or on site, it there's none of those are wrong. You decide what works the best for your business. I mean, I have seen worked with businesses where they were 100% remote. I've worked with businesses where they were hybrid, where they were on site. It's not about one or the other, but it's making sure you know what it is, and then having the people on your team who are going to flourish in your specific type environment because they are clear on what that is, and they do their best work within that environment. So back to our tale of two brands that we introduced last episode. Remember, we have two companies, two home builders, we have precision builders, and we have vision builders. So last week we introduced them and we talked about their values. Precision builder is very much focused on doing what's right. They're safe, they're consistent, they value accountability and precision and unimpeachable character. And so for them, their work style looks like this structured, steady, and process-driven organization. There's lots of plans, they value procedures, checklist documentation. So they have a documentation for everything, they have an SOP for everything, they have a checklist for everything, like checklist manifesto. This is good in like the airline industry. You definitely want that before you get on that plane. And they're like, oh, thank goodness. Like, did you go over the checklist? And for you know, this building company, this checklist helps them ensure this precision and this safety. Their decisions are thoughtful and risk-aware, and they communicate clearly and they document everything and they expect the same for others. So every change order, every procedure, every process, it is documented. And they like the stability. They don't want the change. Like once a system works, it's protected and refined. So this is very structured, very organized. However, we also have vision builders who are unique in their own way. They're all about innovation and adaptability and creating better ways to build. They value challenging the ordinary. So when they're looking at their work style and how they operate each day, we're looking at a business that is fast moving, flexible, and innovation driven. So lots of creative problem solving versus like the rigid adherence to the process. So this isn't like let's follow the process. It's how can we make this process better? Or hey, I see this situ in this specific situation. If we go around this specific process, we'll get a better outcome. Well, for precision builders, that's like, what? No. And for vision builders, they're like, yeah, because this is what we're all about. Vision builders is very comfortable with ambiguity. So they learn by trying, testing, adjusting. It doesn't have to be so specific down to the very detail. It's more about the idea than it is like there being no risk involved. There's a lot of like open communication, brainstorming. Not everything is documented, or if it is, it's more of like a high-level guide. Like this is kind of how we do it. This is the roadmap, but this is the objective we're after, and how we get there is isn't as important. And so their work style is gonna be an environment where experimentation is celebrated. It's not feared versus precision builders, experimentation would be so stressful. It would be like frowned upon, looked down upon because they celebrate consistency. They celebrate following this tried and tested and proven method that they know gets them consistent results. So two very different types of work styles here. So you want to find the person who is like if you're again looking at this open position for one of these two companies, let's say they're hiring for a project manager and you have these two job listings and they're talking about their values and they're talking about their work style, you as the candidate should be able to self-identify which one is going to be a better fit for you. And then them as the employer, when they're looking at their candidates, when they're going through their interview process, they are clear about the type of person who's going to operate best and thrive the best and be happy working in their environment, who's they're going to find that peace and that security and that comfort, or they're going to value this freedom and this flexibility, or whatever the combination is. And that's the beauty of it is every business is unique. There will never be a business that has the same values, the same work style, the same traits, the same non-negotiables. Like there's there's nuances to all of it, and that's where we get this like clear, authentic brand. You are unique. Your brand is unique. And we want to embrace that. We want to lean into that. We want to clarify it as clearly and as succinctly and tangibly as we can. And then we want to live it out. Like we want to build this brand that really does align with everything that we believe in, that we say, that that's the experience people have. And our customers and our employees are gonna value that, they're gonna honor that, they're going to believe in that because it's so clear and it's so authentic. And we get to have the impact and pursue this calling that we have on our business. So cool. So, just a quick recap you know, this clarity around your work style really does help the right people thrive and protect your culture from unnecessary and avoidable friction. And this is really about owning your authentic identity, like understanding what needs to happen for your people to thrive, and then finding people who specifically want to work in that type of environment. And so, next episode, we're gonna continue this series, we're gonna continue with this tale of our two brands, and we are going to be exploring traits alignment, which is identifying the inherent characteristics of the people who are gonna thrive in your business. So, as always, you can learn more at clearauthenticbrands.com. That's all for this episode. See you next time.