Developing the Leader Within You: Chapter 2
2007
11This week, we’re back again with Brad and Jason talking about Chapter 2 of Developing the Leader Within You. We’ll discuss topics like the 20/80 Principle and what it means to be a leader. Also, Brad can’t seem to hold books and I heard a rumor that there may be a post credit blooper.
Comments
I find the biggest return when I focus on developing the leaders on my team. The more I invest in them the more it is multiplied through all of the people they lead and influence.
My biggest reward comes from seeing ecstatic guests after their games and team members who are genuinely learning and growing from their time at Breakout.
The back and forth between you guys is awesome! I love this chapter because it gave me confidence in my leading style. I tend to see a potential problem and have measures in place to combat the problem if and when it occurs. For example, I noticed that guests with children that arrived early and had to wait for their room in the lobby grew restless after only a few minutes. We decided that some quick table games like Connect 4 and Rock’em Sock’em Robots would be perfect to pass the time and keep the kids happy. It has been a roaring success and I think the adults play it more than the kids! The things that bring me the most return and reward at my job is seeing happy guests and happy team members. I love working somewhere that the team just wants to be at work and love their jobs! I also love when the guests have such a great time that they can’t stop smiling and talking about their experience, those are my favorite. 🙂
I think there are two aspects to the job that I find rewarding, and one is the public side and one is the internal side. On the public side, it’s really great to see when one of my locations gets a really awesome review. It makes me really proud that our games are providing people with something they really enjoy, and that the team we have assembled at our locations is doing a great job and taking those games to the next level to provide a review-worthy experience. On the internal side, I find it really rewarding when I or Breakout gets a “positive review” from a team member – for example, a recent hire in Lexington two weeks into the job told another new hire that he hoped they would like it there because it was the best job he had ever had. I think a lot of us were just walking on clouds after that, like so proud that we had made someone’s part time job such an enjoyable experience. It also reminded a lot of us who had been working there a long time that it’s probably the best job we’ve ever had too, and really brought the mood up among the team. That’s why I focus not only on those 5-star reviews from guests, but trying to make Breakout worthy of a 5-star review from our team members as well. That’s something we can all be proud of.
The great thing about Breakout is that I truly believe in a Breakout experience. We get to put people in a room & have them interact for an hour in a very unusual way. They are off their phones, they are communicating to solve problems, & there is no prior knowledge of the specific puzzles in the rooms. This creates an experience that is unique & grounded in fellowship/community, a true team building aspect, & a high level of fun. It is rewarding for me to be a part of facilitating this experience for groups.
Another aspect that is rewarding with Breakout is the energy that groups bring into Breakout. A Breakout experience is often a highlight of someone’s day, if not their week. They get to be with family, friends, or co-workers where they are stepping away from their work. They bring energy & excitement into Breakout everyday & we get to be invited into that energy & excitement.
Finally it is rewarding to see the team at Breakout buy into the vision & be internally motivated to run games & make sure everything is performing at a high level. This internal buy in coupled with their love for Breakout makes coming to Breakout each day enjoyable.
One of the biggest returns that I find if I am leading well is time.
–If my schedule is full of execution meetings week after week then I would have to ask myself am I being efficient and effective? If my schedule allows time for me to be able to dream, plan, learn, and prepare for where we are going to be leading the team next, then I would say I am setting myself up for the best return.
One of the biggest rewards that I find is relationship.
–If we are executing this well then we get to see the rewards of our hard work. The way I see/feel that reward is through the stories of our guests and our staff. Just recently we had a guest come through who played a room on a Thursday night and they did not get out of the room. Over the weekend their Father passed away and while her friends came around to support her, one of the things she wanted to do to heal in the midst of the pain was to come back and break out of the room they didn’t get out of before. This is telling me she felt the buy-in that our staff has to bring people together and create flourishing environment. She felt cared for by our team. That’s reward.
I think time is a great answer. Most of us aren’t content to sit pat once the work is done and just watch TV. We have dreams and plans to be great partners, parents, leaders within our communities and to do work that makes a difference. If we’re reactionary and fail to plan our interactions, we’re constantly behind, chasing the wind, with no hope of getting time to do other important things in our lives.
I agree with Laura and Adam that the reward is partly seeing guests have a good time, and partly seeing our teams thriving. We know that the relationship between the two is highly correlative.
As someone looking to be a positive leader, it encourages me to see these two things happening. It feeds the belief that I can indeed be that positive, effective leader and that I can approach new situations and challenges from a point of affirmed strength, not reluctant uncertainty.
My biggest reward comes from watching Game Masters develop through experience and sometimes turn out to be like Bo Jackson. In the time I’ve spent at Breakout, I’ve been fortunate enough to witness several Game Masters blossom and flourish their way to Store Manager. What a kickass thing to witness!
I think my greatest reward is working for a company who strives to do good, be better. Anyone who knows me knows that sometimes I can get a bit competitive or anxious or results driven, and when I pause and think about doing good and being better, I can contextualize my personal impact. When I find myself caught up in minutia, I can step back and just say to myself, “do good, be better.” I know that sounds simple, but having a simple mantra works sometimes. We recently did a team building experience, and one of my game leads was explaining to someone how I get pretty stressed if we receive a four star review, and I dig into the situation to see what we could have done differently. I started to say something that would have been excuse-y or explain it away a bit, but another Game Lead answered for me and said, “she gets stressed because there is no excuse for us to not deliver that wow experience each time we lead a game. Each game should be better than a five, it should be like a ten, so a four is awful.” That was rewarding; I was sort of blown away, and super proud. Good is kind of a baseline — we are doing good; that is not in question. How can we strive for better? And then not just strive for better, but BE better — be the ten and not the five. From there, I can experience the returns — having fun. If we continually live to do good and be better, we will have fun — the guests, the team, and me — and that is the return that I appreciate. You can see fun in metrics and in the reviews of staff and guests; and you can feel it when you walk into a building.
The team build was with my staff, so we were eating afterwards. This was not a conversation with guests!
I think my return, along with majority I think, is investing into our team members. I tend to look back at some of my leaders and how they were able to communicate and lead me into a realm where I needed to be. The respect they gave me and the information to realize that what ever I do, big or small, it matters. Applying that with our teams, add value not only to us as managers, but themselves. This enables them wanting to enter the void. Doing this, regardless of outcome, can establish one more step towards their goals/dreams/etc.
Of course this feeling is amazing for us, but its truly remarkable to see in others. We all strive to be better, to prepare ourselves for our own futures. When I see that in our teams, to accomplish something outside their comfort zone, I always encourage them to take that win. Revel in it, because it is a moment worth remembering for the future. Its doesn’t matter how small the win, it matters. I think that is me reward.