Align to Thrive: The High-Stakes Game for Mid-Market Leaders

Starting the conversation:

Unprecedented pace of change and persistent uncertainty are the reality in today’s market. Agility and unified action are no longer optional, but essential for survival and sustainable growth.

Ignoring small problems now is costing you big later. Are you hoping your team’s missteps, inefficiencies, or culture glitches will just “work themselves out”? Hear how the leaders in this episode pinpoint the silent signals of bigger trouble (and what to do when “business as usual” isn’t working) — this panel gets real with practical approaches and hard-learned lessons from their direct experience.

Tune in to hear why ignoring small misalignments hold your team back — even creating a full stop for projects. You will discover how to recognize what you are ignoring, the skills you have to lean in to or build, and how to leverage healthy confrontation that results in better decision-making. When you face up to your true business conditions, backed by data, there is more value than believing hopeful, ungrounded narratives.

Use your voice courageously. Whether you’re a CEO, consultant, or team leader, you’ll come away with actionable insights on embracing hard truths, leading with intention, and creating lasting momentum.

Your Panelists:

• Christy Maxfield, President and CEO at Purpose First Advisors
• Dean Barta, Founder and CEO at Barta Business Group
• Jess Dewell, Managing Partner and Growth Strategist at Red Direction

What You Will Hear:

04:25 The high-stakes game of business today demands real alignment — not just surface agility.

• The market is volatile and simply reacting with agility isn’t enough; we must intentionally unify and take ownership as leaders.
• Facing today’s business challenges takes a deep dive: start with what you’re avoiding, gain skills to stay aligned, and face the necessity of confrontation.
• To win in business, you must boldly step ahead or risk being left behind.

09:45 Uncover hidden roadblocks by surfacing overlapping complaints — these reveal root misalignments.

• Collect and compare team frustrations to identify where priorities or focus are going off track.
• Getting everything out in the open is the only way to gain clarity.
• Even taking just 15 minutes to examine surface issues can transform team understanding. Don’t underestimate the power of a short, honest team session to find solutions.

12:35 In an era of rapid market upheaval, own what you don’t know — that’s the only way to move forward together.

• Without fiercely confronting reality, you risk missing the next big shift in your industry.
• Market shifts can sink or lift your business — awareness is your leverage.
• Stop waiting for perfect answers; gather input, energy, and resources as collective problem-solving is the antidote to uncertainty.

18:20 True alignment isn’t just about self-awareness — it’s built on practical systems and actions.

• Look at how your team communicates — are your systems outdated or ignored, masking essential problems?
• Technology, dashboards, and processes reflect how your business actually stays aligned (or doesn’t).
• Every tool or process reaches its limit — knowing when to evolve is a mark of leadership.

22:15 When narrative and numbers don’t match, it’s a red flag you can’t afford to ignore.

• Hearing a “feel-good” story about business health, but seeing financials that don’t add up, signals a deeper issue.
• Having advisors who only echo your perspective can keep you stuck in an inaccurate view.
• Alignment returns when you and your team get factual about what the numbers mean.

27:30 Success means knowing your limits — and using them to your advantage.

• Resources, technology, and energy are all limited — successful teams plan around these realities. Every business operates under constraints; wise leaders leverage them.
• Your internal jargon or “hype” may be blinding you to important clues for change.
• Innovative teams regularly re-examine their language and parameters to proactively evolve.

32:35 Build momentum from small wins — don’t let team energy fizzle after setbacks.

• When change isn’t working, doubling down on strengths can generate the next breakthrough.
• The team’s energy is a powerful force — move forward on what’s working to stay out of ruts.
• Even shifting strategy momentarily can help avoid total stall-out and reignite progress.

41:10 Courageous leadership insists on open, vulnerable conversations — that’s the path to realignment.

• Addressing root issues isn’t just about the surface problem —deeper fears and feelings must be aired.
• Proactively create “clear the air” moments to prevent grudges and cultivate trust.
• Change impacts identity — leaders must acknowledge how personal the work journey is for everyone.

46:40 The reality: Not everyone comes with you as the business evolves — and that’s healthy.
Main point: “Not everyone will make the journey with you. Right. And it’s OK because they were really important for a specific stage in the development of your business, and they simply may not be well-suited to go the rest of the way with you.”

3 takeaways:

• Christy Maxfield: Do we know what is holding us back? Find it and take action.
• Dean Barta: Take a timeout when sensing lack of alignment — sooner is better.
• Jess Dewell: It is BOLD to use your voice, especially when it is uncomfortable. Be real and truthful about market shifts to design your company’s future with today’s effort.

Resources

• Beyond the Quick Fix: The Long Game of Evolving Growth

Transcript

Jess Dewell 00:00
And I have to tell you, I know people talk about the biggest reason businesses fail is cash flow problems, but let me just be real. I think it’s heart and head problems in ourselves and how they align or don’t align with the partners in our business.

Christy Maxfield 0:15
There has to be literally a verbal commitment. Are we committed to doing X to achieve Y? Yes or no?

And then accountability.

Dean Barta 00:24
If you don’t have an awareness as a business owner of where those areas are, just look at where people are complaining the most about. Whether you or a team member is, or a client is complaining about the items that keep you up at night, those are the areas that need to be addressed.

Jess Dewell 00:41
I’m so glad you’re here. Thanks for stopping by. At The Bold Business Podcast, we are normalizing important conversations.

Yes, there are tips. Yes, there are ways to solve problems. More importantly are going to be, what do you need for yourself to be able to solve those problems and make the most of the education, the training, and the programs that you are already using?

This is a supplement to that. It can sit on top of it, fuel your soul, fuel your mind. And most importantly, regardless of where you’re at on your journey, maybe you’re starting out, maybe you’re ready to scale, maybe you’re going through reinvention. The conversations we are having will help you at each of those stages.

So hang around, see what’s going on, and I look forward to seeing you engaging with our videos.

Announcer 01:33
Welcome to It’s Your Business, brought to you by The Bold Business Podcast. This is your source for navigating today’s ever-evolving business landscape. In this program, Jess, Christy, and Dean share the realities of current business challenges and triumphs. Get ready to lead with depth, understanding, and achievement.

Jess Dewell 01:54
Hello. Welcome to The Bold Business Podcast, hosting It’s Your Business. And we have three consultants of various disciplines that come together on It’s Your Business to talk about what it means to be bold, what it means to be proactive, and what it means to just do the best work we can right now amidst whatever else is or isn’t going on in our life.

This is your source for navigating today’s ever-evolving business landscape. I’m your host, Jess Stuhl, and we are going to get real here with me and the panel with me alongside me. So right now, I’m going to do quick introductions of each of us.

Christy, say hello and who you are.

Christy Maxfield 02:37
Christy Maxfield, Purpose-First Advisors. We work with growth-oriented business owners who want to plan with the end in mind.

Dean Barta 02:44
Dean Barta at Barta Business Group. We’re a group of fractional CFOs that work with small businesses and nonprofits to help them grow and thrive, especially in 2025.

Jess Dewell 02:55
And at Red Direction, I and my team are working with the real reality of doing more with less, and how do we turn that into that positive? How do we remain relevant and create our own future today, right now? And here we go with the three of us.

Get ready. Jump in. We’re going to go deep into understanding what are we actually talking about today?

We’re actually talking about alignment. We’re talking about the importance of what does it mean to actually be aligned? Because the game of business is changing.

Systems can be the same. Processes can be the same. Approaches can be the same.

But the game is changing. Our turbulent market is demanding more from us than agility. We need unified, ownership-driven leadership.

This stark choice that we face today, why you’re here, why you’re listening, is because we want to outmaneuver so we’re not outmaneuvered and left behind. Now here, and we broke this down into three parts. The three parts are, how do we face what we’re avoiding or ignoring?

Number two, the second part of the program will be about the skills necessary to stay aligned during uncertain times. And the third section will be about confrontation. Confrontation is necessary and it can be healthy because in today’s landscape, it is no longer optional.

So I’m really excited. How about you, Dean? How about you, Christy?

Dean Barta 04:22
Let’s get it on.

Jess Dewell 04:25
Part one, we’re going to jump right in and we’re talking about what are we avoiding and what are we ignoring?

Christy Maxfield 04:32
There’s rarely an organization that isn’t ignoring something that’s not working. So you’re not alone. There are always parts of our business that we’d rather not deal with, rather not see.

We really wish the problem was somewhere else. But if you’re consistently not getting the results you want, there’s probably something you’re ignoring or something that you’re trying to avoid, hoping it will resolve itself. You know, that magical time in the future where you’ll have lots of time to devote to whatever it is you’re going to do.

And then in that magical time, all your obstacles will be removed and you can do it. That magical time is no more real than the magical time when the team is going to realize that it’s working at cross-purposes and figure out how to move forward or that one team member who really isn’t a good fit for the team for a variety of reasons is going to suddenly get on board and start making a big impact. So I think what you really need to do is identify what are we probably not dealing with that is creating the impediment to us getting the results we want.

Because we’ve probably already gone through the list of things that we think are keeping us from success, and whatever changes or adjustments we’re making there still aren’t yielding results. How about you guys? What are the telltale signs that somebody’s avoiding something?

Dean Barta 05:56
I look at it as an organization is, if you don’t have an awareness as a business owner of where those areas are, just look at where people are complaining the most about. Whether you or a team member is or a client is complaining about. And that’s the areas of improvement that need to be addressed.

And the items that keep you up at night, those are the areas that need to be addressed. And they don’t get solved magically on their own. There’s certainly a time period to be patient.

But if they’re persistent, you know, it has to be addressed. And but to me, that’s how I identify how, what are the ones that need the most attention to.

Jess Dewell 06:42
I’m thinking about the meetings that I’ve been in over the last few weeks. And one of the things that stands out to me are the meetings with the CEOs and executive leadership team members that sit with me one-on-one. And they say things like, I can’t let it go at night because so and so did such and such.

I can’t let it go. Because I thought we were going to make progress today. And all this other stuff happened.

And it feels like we went backward. That particular conversation, whether it’s regarding a person, whether it’s regarding a thing, whether it’s regarding the schedule, hey, you know, that would be my first clue that there’s something going on to say, what is it? And where is it?

Is it happening at a value level, like the way we do our work here, and our business values, and how they’re defined and show up? Or is it how we’re adding value? Is there something in our value proposition that no longer is working and our clients are starting to make different decisions, but we haven’t been able to articulate it yet?

Or is it we’re just all overwhelmed and have none of us had a break. And so we’re in that place where we’re all just nitpicky with each other. Because it’s like those people that come to your house and stay a couple days too long, you know, when they stay too long, and you’re like, could you please go when that happens in our office space, when that happens with our teams, that just means we’ve been running too high too long.

Christy Maxfield 08:06
I actually thought what you were going to say, Jess, was the meetings where we talk about the same thing over and over again, because I think that’s also one of the signs that we’re either avoiding something or ignoring something, but in particular, that we’re not aligned. That the problem isn’t that we don’t have the right tool. The problem isn’t that we haven’t trained people well, you know, because we’ve probably worked through those.

We’ve tested the process. We’ve tested the message. We’ve tested the capabilities of the team and things like that, and it’s still not working.

So where are we misaligned? And that speaks to one of the both, who’s complaining was Dean’s thing. So who’s continues to be unhappy with what the end result is and why?

And then who’s making decisions that, as the leader of the organization, leave you thinking, what were they thinking? And that, to me, is the signal of we’re not on the same page. We think we’re from the same page.

We might be using the same words, but we’re not actually talking about the same thing. And even when we say we’re on the same page, something happens between being on the same page together in the room and what actually gets executed. And that those things it’s hard to make any headway if we can’t then have frank conversations about where the disconnect is happening.

Like we said, we all agreed we were going to do X, Y, and Z. And then at the end of the week, it wasn’t done. We can have lots of excuses, but more importantly, what is the fundamental disagreement that’s occurring that’s keeping us from doing what we need to do?

Jess Dewell 09:47
I like to write down all of those excuses. Okay, cool. Let’s get them on a board.

Let’s get them on a screen that we can all see. And you know why? Because I’ll bet you there’s some overlap.

And when we see the same thing from more than one person, we’re actually not focused on what we want to be. So why not? And it becomes clearer when all of that can be put out into the open.

Let’s just get all, in this case, excuses, gripes, whatever on a board. And how many are the same? And how many of us are feeling that way?

Christy Maxfield 10:16
I’m struggling with sports analogies. One, because I didn’t play that many team sports and don’t watch that many team sports. But I’m like thinking, one of the things that’s very clear in sports is, who’s the team captain?

Who’s the coach? Who’s calling the shots, right? And in the elite sports arena, you don’t get there unless you’ve demonstrated along the way that whether you like the call that was made on the field or not, you’re willing to execute your part in the plan.

The running back’s not stopping mid-play going, I really didn’t, I didn’t want to go that way. But they know what their part is and they train for that part and they practice for that part. And they’ve had that debate off the playing field about when do we use this kind of play and how do we do it and what does it take to execute it?

But they are not leaving the huddle and going, I know he wants me to run down and deep, but I’m going to run.

Jess Dewell 11:13
There are times that coaches will expect something or the way a play has done and somebody that’s on in the group will just do something totally different and everybody is surprised. And there’s usually a reason for that too, which is another good reason to whatever we want to name it here for our purposes, it’s time to take a quick break and we need to just sync up just to recognize we’re out of sync. Sometimes that’s as little as we need.

Dean Barta 11:38
And that’s called a timeout.

Jess Dewell 11:40
But even in a timeout, it’s get your stuff together, man.

Dean Barta 11:43
Exactly. You take a timeout. You could use the word realign, but remind them that we discussed this play.

This is what you need to do. And if you can’t execute it, I will find someone off the bench who can execute it. It goes back to what we were talking about.

The results are in the actions or the lack of results are in the lack of action. So coming to the time out, that’s where during any professional sport, they’re not going to wait till the third period or fourth quarter. A lot of times you see it’s frustrating, but teams will do it sometimes in the first five minutes of a game.

And because they don’t want to be dealing with those problems later on in the game, when it really is more on the line there, you got to jump in and correct.

Jess Dewell 12:33
Our premise of our conversation is how the world is changing and it’s changing fast. And we have to do more and be more than just agile and be able to flex and adapt. And have we been leveraging every single person’s developing, honed, practiced business instinct, or have we been running in many different directions?

And going back to that cause for the timeout, I’m all about that because if we can’t get true and get to a truth about what the reality is of our market today, what our customers want today, they’re changing expectations right now, miss it all together, and then be behind. It behooves us to claim it on the fact we don’t know and figure out what information we need, figure out what expertise we have, figure out what energy and resources we have, so that we can figure out a unified way forward. I would say market shifts are our biggest opportunity that will either hold us back or give us that leg up.

Christy Maxfield 13:34
And if someone’s ignoring them on your team is choosing to do things aligned with the strategy you’ve discussed and decided upon, because they don’t agree that’s the right response to the shift, the market shift, then that has to be discussed. And I think the thing we tend to avoid is having what we would call a hard discussion or a tough conversation about the fact that someone isn’t doing what they said they would do. Someone has said they’ve committed to doing X, Y, Z, but their actions don’t reflect that.

If we all agree that we need to move fast and break a few things along the way, but fundamentally stay true to four key principles, and someone in that room says yes, but then slow rolls, they’re a part of it because they don’t actually want to move fast and they don’t want to break anything, and they’re afraid to make decisions based on imperfect information, they’re going to sabotage what’s going on because of their own fear. Not because they don’t want the company to be successful, but their fear and uncertainty is influencing their decisions and impacting how the organization is going to move forward.

And when things are volatile and uncertain, anything you’ve overlooked of, oh, Christy takes things in her own time, it takes her a little while to get on board, but when she’s on board, she does a great job. That might be something you’ve been avoiding or ignoring because it didn’t cause too much harm, but now that’s going to impact the top or bottom line. And it’s a waste of resources.

Jess Dewell 15:07
I had a business that fell apart because of that. Actually, myself and another person started a business. We had clients lined up, we had taken money, we had done all of this amazing pre-work, and we were ready to hit the ground running.

And then what happened? Sabotage. And it was out of fear.

And all of these little things of that person’s insecurity showed up in our partnership, and it made me insecure. So my sabotage showed up, and we were just a spiraling hop mess. In the end, it turned out we needed to shelve the whole thing.

Give the money back and tell the clients, I’m sorry, you’re going to have to go find somebody else. It ended very badly. And it wasn’t because we couldn’t see it.

It was because we couldn’t bridge it. And so that was something I wish I had known back then because anybody outside of that partnership could have provided some sort of a guiding light, a place with which we could remember why we came together, where we are aligned, and then figure out how to face our biggest fears that come with starting a company. And I have to tell you, I know people talk about the biggest reason businesses fail is cashflow problems, but let me just be real.

I think it’s heart and head problems in ourselves and how they align or don’t align with the partners in our business.

Dean Barta 16:34
I’ll mention too, and see if this resonates with you all, is before you even recognize is in just, I know I can talk about it from a partnership standpoint, but you can too. You would have done things differently even before getting into the partnership. So you’re backing up the history timeline.

We would have done things differently and it could be in an employee situation. I wish I would have asked this employee this and this because it wasn’t until they were in the job that I found out they’re not capable of doing this particular job, whether it’s a skill set or an attitude about it, or if it’s a position that takes someone who can handle say confrontation, but they’re afraid of confrontation, that’s not a good fit. Guess what, the next time we hire a person, we’re going to ask those other questions or bring up these scenarios or we look at joining a partnership, we’re going to say, okay, we learned this from the other partnership and let’s make sure those questions are answered before we even get into the partnership.

So you don’t even get to that misalignment issue in the first place.

Jess Dewell 17:46
I’m your host, Jess Dewell, and we’re getting down to business on the Bold Business Podcast. This is where we’re tackling the challenges that matter most to you with actionable and achievable advice to get real results that lead to your success.

Announcer 18:03
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Jess Dewell 18:19
We’ve moved into this part one, where are we going? Are we avoiding and ignoring things to get to where we’re going? And we’ve started to move into this second piece, the how do you stay aligned during this, these times of uncertainty, high pressure, fast movement, and what skills and tools do we need?

I appreciate both of these stories because Dean, you’re right, doing it different, we can always do it different the next time, but boy, hindsight really does bring a value set of what do we like? What do we not like? And can we identify those gaps early?

We can talk about ourselves and we can put everything in relationship to self-awareness for ourselves and hoping that the people that we are in partnership with making these strategic decisions that are guiding employees forward and keeping this company relevant over time are doing their inner work also. So I’m going to talk about the way we do our business, like the actual tactical day-to-day stuff for a few minutes. And this is going to be whatever technology we’re using, whatever data we’re getting, whatever dashboards we have going on, this is how we’ve chosen to communicate.

And if we have been ignoring something, or if we have been avoiding something, it means our data has not given us the information we need to face it, which is not good from a strategic perspective. But also let’s just talk about the processes we use, the methodologies that we may have to create a cadence or systems and technologies that we’ve chosen. Are we fully utilizing them?

Are they starting to get obsolete? Do they actually help us set our customer expectations? And if we don’t have the things in place to recognize, hey, it’s time to ask this question, which by the way, I’m a big believer in planning with the end in mind.

I know that’s one of the seven habits of highly successful people’s goal setting. I believe that is very important for implementing a tool. A tool has an end life.

A process has an end life. A methodology that we use in our business will have an end life. It’ll hit a ceiling that we can’t break through unless we change and we change it along with us.

And so when I think about this, and I think about the amount of data we have, how do we tap into that? And that is so important from a gains perspective. It is so important from understanding exactly where we are to choose, because it would be great to choose five things to change all at once.

It doesn’t matter how big or how little you are. Five things is a lot to change all at once. So what’s one thing that can be focused on that improves the most.

And we can only do that if we have data, if we know our numbers, if we understand what’s important to the success of our business and what those indicators are, and can we measure them? Or how might we understand the output of other measurements telling us that something is on track or not? Because everything we’re talking about tactically and practically right now comes from clues that we thought would be in place that we’re looking for.

We planned for that with our hearts and our guts and our heart, gut, brain, right? We also recognize that other things will show up in the world that we can and cannot control that may go, oh, this is actually something we didn’t think of, but the output, the results are enough that we need to take a closer look. Does our data help us answer that problem?

Does our data help us understand how much do we influence this challenge that has shown up, this opportunity that has shown up? And it’s more than discernment. It’s more than everything else.

It is fortitude every single day to go, I know there’s going to be a challenge today. And that’s these strategic, higher-level conversations come in, because that long-term growth is going to happen only with our intention in those small strategic times where we come together and work and solve these bigger problems.

Christy Maxfield 22:18
I have a very recent experience where the data was available, but the story being told about the data wasn’t helpful. When I got the financial statements, I was like, I don’t, your story doesn’t make sense to me based on what I’m seeing, right? Your story is we’re going to be okay.

We’re going to be fine. We’re going to be able to take care of X. And even if nothing else changes, I’ll be okay.

The business will be okay. And I was like, the data is not telling me that story. The data has me concerned.

So where is the story coming from and what data are you using? And it really wasn’t until we looked at the data together and I said, this is what I am seeing. If you only have advisors who reinforce your desired reality and don’t challenge you, the data or the story you’re telling about the data, in this particular case, somebody was able to tell a less than accurate narrative for a very long time and made decisions based on that narrative that they are now feeling some way about.

You know, I have a story about that too, Chris. I mean, somebody was living in a fantasy land where those numbers did things that like the math was not mathing for me. And I was just like, I don’t know how you get this ending to this story when these numbers are telling me this, but I think what’s really turned out is they told a story and their advisors reinforced the story rather than really saying, what if this is actually the narrative that’s being told?

Jess Dewell 23:57
Yep. Normalizing wrong is still wrong. You’re absolutely right, Christy.

Reports every single month, there’s a specific amount off between two different systems running the same reports. And you’d think if it was an error, it would change every month or be variable. It never was.

Finally, I’m like, hello, this is not quite right. We have to figure out why we have two different systems creating this data. And we are off the same amount to the cent to get to the percentage amount off like point whatever cents, not even dollars.

We’re talking about pennies on the dollar here. And lots of time went by and lots of pushing of the systems helped me understand, walk through this. Turns out one of the systems was adjusted.

Turns out there was theft going on. And without that secondary backup system, embezzlement would have never been found. Those two systems would have just been like, they’re just enough different.

This is acceptable. And it could have become normal. Exactly.

This is the point where, and we’re talking about numbers here. So how can we speak up? How can we stick with it?

Because when we know in our gut or a heart or a mind and nobody listens, it doesn’t mean we’re a whistleblower necessarily. It means something’s out of alignment. And if we don’t get it right, there’s going to be other ripples down the road that are our problem.

Dean Barta 25:19
Yeah. And it’s engagement that people have. And yeah, whether I’d been in meetings before where that people just, Oh, that looks good.

And they’re not really engaging with it. And you had a great example, Jess, is that, and you did too. Someone’s got to stand up and say, wait a minute, that’s not, that doesn’t make sense to me.

And those are the people that are engaged. And so I look for the level of engagement and I seek out, if you will, dissent. Hey, have you looked at it from this direction?

Because I’m not quite understanding. Some people just were afraid to ask that question or they, Oh, we’ve already been in a meeting for 45 minutes. Do I want to really make this a longer meeting by asking this question?

But yeah, you do it because that’s the level of engagement that I demand working with people.

Christy Maxfield 26:12
But it goes back to what Jess said earlier is you have to get really true about what is reality, right? So if we’re having a collective psychosis where we’re all buying the story, then there needs to be somebody who’s going to interrupt that. That’s the role an outside advisor can play.

I also think a red flag can be when someone says the system can’t possibly do that. Because I don’t know about you, but I’ve had things where I’m like, I am literally experiencing it doing X and you’re telling me it’s impossible for X to happen, but X has happened and happened. And that thing you’re telling me is impossible is actually occurring.

So whatever we need to do to figure out the how and the why, and then go farther. But I think it’s really easy a lot of times to, especially if we think the number is inconsequential or relatively small in the grand scheme of things. But it’s these moments where the uncertainty is so high, business patterns have changed, the buying patterns have changed so dramatically and what people are willing to invest in or not invest in has changed so radically where the tolerances have to get even tighter and the alignment of everyone around the table on what’s important, what does success look like, how are we measuring it, really has to be airtight.

Jess Dewell 27:30
The way we do our work here comes with we use stuff at Red Direction in our vocabulary that probably other businesses do not use to describe the exact same thing. And I think that intentionally working with those words and understanding where did we create our own jargon and are we buying into something that is true or did we create this and are we somehow overlooking the opportunity to have clues for change. And in fact, in this case, I’m going to say not just to get back in alignment and avoid failure or challenges because we’re going to continue to have those.

I’m saying when we challenge our vocabulary, when we make sure we understand the words we’re using and what they actually mean, we can proactively change as well and innovate and create because we’re able to better understand the limits that we have set. Every mission, it’s a set of limits. Here’s what we do and here’s what we don’t do.

We have boundaries and we have limits everywhere. This is how much money we have. This is how much energy we have.

This is how much capacity our technology can support. Whatever it is, there’s a limit out there. So how do we leverage that in a positive way?

And we can do that by making sure that internally we just don’t have jargon going on.

Christy Maxfield 28:49
Because oftentimes the person who’s least likely to adopt the new process or technology is the owner. And everybody says, we all do this, well except for Tom. And if Tom doesn’t do it, then how is everybody doing it?

And why? I know he’s the owner and I know he doesn’t want to adopt this new thing, but if we’ve decided that this is fundamental to how we run our business and run it well, then Tom doesn’t get a pass. Maybe Tom gets assistance from somebody to do it, but Tom doesn’t get a pass.

There has to be literally a verbal commitment. Are we committed to doing X to achieve Y? Yes or no.

And then accountability. Because if my Tom said the expectation is everyone will use this and he’s committed to using it too and then he doesn’t use it, then it’s very hard for me to make other team members who might be having some feelings about a new process or technology that they don’t particularly want to adopt either. If there’s these exceptions to the rule.

So that commitment piece is really, and I’m finding it showing up in so much of my work of just how important it is to the relationships we commit to, the jargon like you said, what language are we using? What processes are we using? What are we committed to?

Are we committed to each other? Are we committed to the company? Committed to the mission?

Committed to the project? Committed to the client? And each day we’re making a choice whether or not to be committed and our leaders are making choices and their teams are making choices.

So how do we make sure they’re making the right choices to do the right work at the right time?

Jess Dewell 30:25
There’s got to be something that I have done with a company that would be useful here in this conversation to take all this talk and put it into practice. I’m going to stick with that positive. I’m going to stick with we can be more creative when we embrace the reality of the situation.

How do we foster creativity? How do we keep the momentum going? How do we have the energy and the ability to have enough interest to put time and work into something that must change or to stay on top of the things that we are illuminating and looking for?

I would say why not do a past future alignment workshop? And this is all about momentum in a company. This is about the small wins.

So with every single person on a team, in a department, in the company, however you want to structure it, talks about just the last quarter and they spend a little bit of time and they write down what do they consider their wins. What would be really cool are the people in the same department. Do they share the same wins with each other?

If not, opportunity to align closer. If so, great momentum already. This is so important for us to know as the strategic decision makers how we’re going to do it.

What are the adjustments we are going make? Will they stick? Because everything we do, we want to keep the momentum and build it.

So how do we get people to see that together, that they have achieved some similar wins and use that momentum together? I did that. I was part of this win because when we’re looking at those wins, it does allow us to go, hey cool, I’m more excited to try something else.

It’s less scary to do something unknown because I know I’ve done great stuff before and succeeded. So I want to think about that just a little bit because now you can take all that data. It’s outside of the numbers, but it’s important data nonetheless.

We can leverage where the momentum already is and use that to our collective advantage to stay interested, to stay engaged, and to keep moving forward, especially if we don’t know when it’s going to get hard, but we know it will get hard because we have challenges all the time. Maybe just not all the time.

Dean Barta 32:34
I’ll throw another sports analogy in there. It’s a football team that their passing game is being shut down. So what they do is they go to the running game because they know they’re better at that and it’s building, okay, we made the first down and they’re moving down the field and they’re progressing and building off of the, like you said, momentum.

And that’s a way to get past the impasse that we did these three pass plays and it just failed. Football is like sometimes you’ve run it enough, then the defense is now defending against the run. Then the pass play can set up the success for the pass play.

That can happen in business too. Hey, let’s build off the momentum and then we might be able to incorporate that first strategy that was not working before later on. It’s feeling out the energy because what’s worse is when a team just gets discouraged and there’s no success to build upon.

Jess Dewell 33:32
I’m going to do the break right now. Hey everybody, you’re listening to It’s Your Business, hosted by the Bold Business Podcast. And here you go.

This is the important thing to remember and take away today, that we’re getting real about what to do. We’re not only talking about, of course, ourselves, but how do we show up as a team? How do we make these decisions when other people are looking to us to help them remove their obstacles and remind them where we’re going and what we’re doing and have answers we may not actually have.

And this conversation today about what are we avoiding and are we hoping things are miraculously going to happen for us is because today’s market landscape is volatile. There are a lot of things that are influencing our future success that are going to depend on what we’re working with today. So this landscape is more important to be open to change, anticipate that change, and know that what you’re doing today to what we’ve been talking about, about how do we know we’re avoiding it, and what can we do about it, and what are the things we can look at internally to check ourselves, is what we have been talking about.

Christy Maxfield 34:40
Let’s reintroduce ourselves, everybody. Hi, Christy Maxfield with Purpose First Advisors. We work with owners who want to grow their business with the end in mind.

Dean Barta 34:50
Dean Barta at Barta Business Group. We’re a group of fractional CFOs helping out small businesses and nonprofits to grow and thrive.

Jess Dewell 34:58
And I’m Jess Dewell, and I’m excited to be here with you representing Red Direction, where we are working with strategic change that creates lasting results. And those of you who are listening, those of you who are watching, it is time. Wherever you are listening and watching, subscribe so you can see more programs like this just announced to you.

You might know somebody who needs this today. Please send it to them. That is incredibly important because if nothing else, if we can provide a way forward and a light in the tunnel of a place that feels really foggy right now or really dark right now, that is what we want to do.

And that’s why we’re having these conversations, to normalize them, to make sure we recognize it’s more than follow the steps. It’s these are the things that we think about and how we show up.

Christy Maxfield 35:44
We’ve been talking about avoiding reality, like folks are avoiding reality and pretending like things aren’t happening and hoping that magical things will happen. Most of the time that’s because there’s a level of fear about what it means to hold people accountable or what it means to face the fact that people aren’t aligned. I’m curious, Dean and Jess, what have your experience has been with actually surfacing the truth?

Dean Barta 36:12
I view it as someone’s got to have the intestinal fortitude to just bring it up and call it out. And it results, that’s confrontation, which not a lot of people are, either they confront in the wrong way or they don’t confront. I’ve learned different ways of confrontation over the years.

I’m not afraid of confrontation. So I’ve learned actually to back off a little bit because I can be results-driven right now. And I’ve stepped right over the top of people’s heads by doing it.

Now you may have a team that responds that way. Okay. That you come in and you’re like, Hey, did, you know, things have got to change or we’re changing personnel.

You got to really depends on the level of confrontation and the type of confrontation depends on your team. You may have some people that will just basically freeze if they’re confronted like that. So it’s really being in touch with what is the motivating factors and how to effectively.

Because the, the reason for the confrontation is to move you into a better direction, right? Or move us from this stopped point that we’re at. And keeping that in mind is what’s the approach.

And sometimes that’s take a breath or two before moving forward and the desired result.

Christy Maxfield 37:34
If we can start the conversation with, are we in agreement that we all want X, Y, and Z to be true? That shared consensus on what we’re trying to accomplish. And then can we state the facts around that?

Can we keep it as factual as possible? But if we can just agree on the facts of the situation, Christie agreed to do X and Christie didn’t do X. That’s a fact, right?

Why Christie didn’t do that can go into a variety of different ways. And the thing we’re most concerned about is, is she committed to not having the same thing happen again in the future? And then asking better questions.

My job is to learn how to ask better and better questions so that the facts are evident. It’s not about pulling people along as much as it is about asking them questions where they themselves have to answer in a way that makes it clear that things need to change.

Dean Barta 38:35
Anyone asks a why question, that’s actually, a why question is a lot more confrontational than asking a what or a how question. So here’s an example is, why did you not get this done? Is different than what are the aspects that you encountered that you didn’t get this done?

Or how could this situation, how could you have handled this differently to have the outcomes that we wanted? You can see what the different tone of that is. And so it’s like Christie was how you ask the questions and to get to where you desired.

Once again, get to the desired result.

Jess Dewell 39:20
A question I always ask at the end of a facilitated discussion where I’m brought in specifically to have disagreement or put everything out on the table in a safe space where we can avoid taking it personally. And I will tell you that I recognize where there are two things that come up. And the first is that question, which is what has not been said that is really on your heart about this.

And see what happens after whatever debate, after whatever conversation is coming to a close, leave time at the end to ask that question. What else hasn’t been said that you want to say about this? And that leads into the second piece, which is now we have all of the things here.

We can actually take what everybody has said in whatever form. And we can lay that decision-making process over the top of it with our business goals for now and for the future and in place with our mission in place, with our strengths analysis, opportunities and threats analysis. Because we’ve got all the information and all the heads out.

We can layer on what we have tool-wise within our organization. And then a decision can be made. And it’s made from a place of it doesn’t matter whose idea came out on top.

It matters that the right idea came out of placing what was most important to our business’s success and the design that we have put into place for our priorities right now in place to find that next best step. Once you’ve got that confrontation in place and put it to good use, use it as momentum and fuel.

Christy Maxfield 41:06
I really like the idea of asking what is on your heart that hasn’t been said yet, because I think there is actually a space for what I would call clearing the air meetings to actually talk about the feelings that the thing has produced. That there’s the thing we have to talk about. Christy, you’re not adopted.

Or Tom, you’re not using the system, man. That’s the thing that brought us in the room. That’s the problem to be solved.

But there’s lots of feelings that are going on around that. There’s lots of assumptions that are going on around that. And that might be because Tom feels like he can’t adopt that technology as quickly as needed.

And that will somehow sideline him or diminish his ability to be the leader he wants to be or his authority and his capability to lead the team. That’s not a you need to use the tool. That’s a who am I and what is my identity and how is it making this change impact me in this very personal way that I may not even be able to put words to.

But clearing the air to say is there anything that hasn’t been said that needs to be said? Is there anything that if you lead this room you’re going to feel like folks won’t fully understand what it is that you’re asking or needing from them to be successful? It requires an extraordinary level of vulnerability, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t aspire to it.

Jess Dewell 42:25
It also brings up other concerns that can help us understand how some of these pieces seem to fit together on the surface, yet might actually fit together differently than we’ve given credit or designed for. And I think that’s something that we forget sometimes. It makes me think, where can we plan on having confrontation that’s healthy with tools that we can use to manage disagreement because we have to face things we’ve been ignoring, what skills we can lean into or develop to help us get there.

And here are some trends that came up for me in preparation. Let’s talk about how are we automating our businesses using AI. Not Chad GPT is the language learning model because that’s cool and everything, but the next level of that of automation in our organizations of AI in as tools as they become available.

Another one that came up for me, we now have technology to have hyper-personalization at scale. We can be a one-person show and have however many clients we’re going to have and they can each have their own different experience with technology. That’s mind-boggling to me.

That’s actually something that’s scary to me and it’s cool and exciting at the same time. The concept of a tech stack is officially changing. And I’m not sure what it’s going to look like in the next 24 months.

Just to be aware of, we have all these things we can plug in. It’s easier to plug in and plug out. So what can we use and how do we get to our goals to support that personalization at scale, that integration of AI in whatever forms start to come out that help us do what we do best as much as we can?

Do you have other places, other trends that matter that our discussion can help with?

Christy Maxfield 44:08
Well, from where I sit, because I do a lot of secession and exit planning work is that this will exasperate the generational challenges about technology adoption. And it’s going to happen. I have 30-year-olds who aren’t sure how to integrate AI into their business.

There’s a learning curve that I don’t think they would have anticipated at the beginning of their career if you had told them, you’re going to drag your feet on adopting some new tech. And I think the things we have to look for in our future generation and train that generation to do to be able to lead the businesses of the future look different than the skill sets a lot of us have been successful because of. And then there is again the identity piece.

If this thing can now create this output that I used to be able to create without it, then where is my value and where is my role and how am I contributing and what is creating impact and value? So I look at it from the standpoint of what is impeding the ability to adopt these things that make us more agile and nimble? What are the unspoken parts about what it means to me and who I am and the value I bring and where I fit in this organization and how I grow in this organization if these things are changing so rapidly?

And where I might create impediments and be misaligned with the team out of that fear we talked about earlier, the way I show up and what I’m excited about adopting or not adopting.

Dean Barta 45:42
I’ve worked with organizations before where they wouldn’t change an accounting system because they would lose their senior accounting person because she was flat out. If I have to work with a different system, I won’t be here, which is directly in conflict with what I would be doing because if I had an employee like that, I’d be like, you enjoy that time at a different employer because that’s not the attitude we have here. We’re in growth mindset and you’re not going to hold this company hostage because you’re not willing to change.

And even though you’re not willing to grow, that’s my approach. But this organization decided they’re a valuable enough person that they’re going to be held behind because this employee is basically holding them hostage and not something that I approve. Every organization has to make that decision about those kinds of people.

Christy Maxfield 46:40
Being able to keep people who have been very loyal to the company, who have come up with the company, who have grown with the company, even if they personally haven’t changed necessarily how they operate in the company is a very common theme. The question we pose to ourselves is like, how do you realign when you realize you’re out of alignment? And I think one of the things you have to be very cognizant of is that not everyone will make the journey with you.

And it’s okay because they were really important for a specific stage in the development of your business and they simply may not be well suited to go the rest of the way with you. And it really does matter whether they want it, get it, and can do it. And if they can’t do one of those three, then you’re either going to invite them to leave or they’re going to make a choice to go somewhere else.

I think is what should drive a conversation about whether or not it’s time to separate rather than trying to make someone so uncomfortable. But it’s hard. The people piece is hard.

Dean Barta 47:42
The situation of an employee that’s holding, I base it on this is what the mission of the company is. It’s not Dean’s mission. It’s the mission of the company and that we as a management team decided this is where we’re moving forward.

So if you can’t be in alignment with that, then yes, there’s a separation has to happen. And I’ve told not too many employees, but I’d much rather have the employee make that decision to leave than if I have to make it, then it’s difficult for two people. I encourage people, this is the mission of your company.

If you’re not in alignment, then you’re an adult. You can make that decision because it’ll be painful if I have to make it. One way or another, we’ve got to have a complete in alignment team moving forward.

Christy Maxfield 48:33
What’s your biggest takeaway from today? I think something we didn’t actually say explicitly is we actually know what’s holding us back. We know what’s causing the challenges and impacting our ability to be nimble in a time that calls for us to be as flexible and adaptable as possible.

If any of these things resonated with you, if you, and if when we said, what are you avoiding or ignoring, you felt C, this is your action call to examine those things, not turn away from those things and find either the capacity within your organization or through your strategic advisors to actually deal with and face those things you’re avoiding or ignoring.

Dean Barta 49:20
My takeaway is, hey, don’t be afraid to take that time out. If you know that the team or organization is moving in a direction that isn’t productive or aligned with the goals, as a leader or a management team, you got to just say, stop, wait a minute. It’s easier to realign now than if we’re using the sports analogy in the fourth quarter, because we can do more and have more ability to align the team if we’re doing it sooner than not being afraid of the bad confrontation to get the desired results you want.

Jess Dewell 49:56
I think my biggest takeaway was that it’s really important to use your voice. Each of the points that we talked about today, it came down to, do we have the courage to use our own voice to ask the question, to point it out, to seek more information, to bring to the table? Because when we can accept that whether it feels off, sense is off, the data shows it’s off, the truth about market shifts are what are going to allow us to move forward successfully.

Anything that’s out of alignment today will show up when embracing something new that is considered with these other market shifts that are happening. Whatever our priorities are, how do we incorporate AI into that? Whatever our priorities are, how hyper-local can we get and hyper-customize not only for our customers, but also maybe for employee engagement and experience as well?

There are rippling effects that we can bring some of these other trends into our current priorities. Have those discussions. You are listening to It’s Your Business with Dean Barta, Christy Maxfield, and myself, Jess Dewell.

We will see you next time. Every single time I have a conversation, I take away something that I want to share with 25 people. I know when you’re listening to this podcast, you’re also listening for that and will have something that you want to share.

In the comments, I would like for you to engage with us. What is that thing that you want to tell 25 people from this program? Here’s why it’s important.

It’s important because, yeah, there are going to be how-tos. Yes, there are going to be steps. Yes, you’re going to be like, oh, I wish I wrote that down.

I wish I wasn’t doing this and I could actually take action on that right now. But guess what? You’re not.

So engage right now because that one thing you want to share with others will be the thing that you can figure out how to incorporate in your business, in your workflow, in your style tomorrow.

Announcer 51:57
Jess hosts the Bold Business Podcast to provide insights for building a resilient, profitable business by deeply understanding your growth strategy, ensuring market relevance, and your company’s future. It is bold to deeply understand your growth strategy with your host, Jess Dewell. Get more information about how to drive solutions and reset your growth mindset at reddirection.com. Thank you for joining us, and special thanks to our post-production team at The Scott Treatment.